Discussing the origin of psychiatry, diagnosis and mental illness.
Dr Bill Young is a Consultant Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatrist working across independent, not-for-profit and academic sectors. His special interests include mindfulness-based interventions, school wellbeing, clinical addictions in adolescence, and child refugee mental health.
I was lucky enough to get to know Dr Bill during my training as he lectured us for a term, teaching us the medical stance on mental illness, diagnosis’s and treatment. In my experience anyone trying to grapple with mental health can benefit from gaining a sense of what Psychiatry is, how it works and when to use it. I have often found that there are a lot of preconceptions when thinking of psychiatry. I personally used to find it hard not to think of a doctor in a white coat, asylums and the hard history that often illustrated in films. The hope here, is that we can all gain an alternative understanding, a human, tangible and relatable sense of this invaluable specialty.
In this episode Dr Bill helps us see how psychiatry is unique and unlike any other specialty to medicine. Psychiatry is looking to treat and diagnose something that is not always physical, it is interpreting a subjective experience into symptoms that inform a treatment plan. The aim is to consider those who are suffering, those who are ill. However illness also means that you can fall out of illness and become better.