psychologist & Psychiatrists differnce?

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Actually, they both can prescribe medicine. The idea that psychologists cannot or are not allowed, by their very definition, is a misconception. I asked my psychology teacher about that at college last quarter. He is a fully qualified and practicing psychologist

The true difference is how they diagnose and treat you.
Psychologists believe that its mental
psychiatrists believe that its all electro-chemical

psychologists will have you work through your problems intellectually. Psychiatrists will try to chemically fix you.

That is why our modern mental health care system is mainly psychiatrists nowadays. People go to psychiatrists with the false belief they are more qualified, not knowing that they are just differently trained. And that is why no one ever gets fixed... they just accumulated more and more medicines in their cabinet but their problems persist.

Psychologists fix you... or rather, they help you to fix yourself. They point out the nature of your problem and show you how to deal with and fix it.
Psychiatrists, on the other hand, only mask the symptoms with drugs that mess with your emotions and thought patterns. They turn a person with severe issues into someone that can live normally, and thats it, minus the drugs side-effects.

Psychiatrists prescribe intense psycho-drugs in order to change how you think and feel. (and your done, routine checkups)
Psychologists can still prescribe lesser-intense drugs to give you the emotional and intellectual ability to deal with your issues. (but you still need regular sessions)
Its the difference between giving you heroine and giving you Advil for your headache.

Psychiatrists are able to prescibe intense psycho-drugs... and that is why they have to be MDs. Being an MD isnt what makes the difference between psychiatrist and psychologist, because its a different study altogether.

---------In response to other people

Whether or not a psychologist can prescribe anything might depend on local laws... but that has nothing to with how psychologist and psychiatrists compare or differ.

Psychiatrists have to be MDs in order to prescribe drugs that intense, because their effects are so drastic and effect the body in a physical way (the brain). But the need for those drugs are based entirely in how they treat the patient, which is based on what they deem to be the problem (chemical imbalances).

A psychologist goes about things completely differently

A lot of psychologists (spiritual or atheist) believe in the mind (soul). Psychiatrists, on the other hand, have reduced all of human existence down to a set of chemical reactions.

Most psychiatrists start out as psychologist, but they are discontent with the fact that people (minds) are too complex to predict or treat. Its easier studying a human brain than it is a human soul, dont you think? Individuality and the influences of lifes experiences (personality) get in the way of a single set of logic applicable to all people. But all brains work the same.

psychiatrists can prescribe medication

they are m.d.'s

psychiatrists get paid more.. plus their jobs more exciting!!!

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psychologist & Psychiatrists differnce?

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