psychologist

When I meet someone new I am almost invariably asked, “So what do you do for a living?” Technically I am a psychiatrist, child and adolescent psychiatrist as well as a forensic psychiatrist. However, this is a really long answer to a short question so I usually just say “I’m a psychiatrist”. If a person wants to know more specifics about my career then I elaborate from there. Either way, almost every single person responds with some variation of, “Oh – you’re a psychologist. Interesting.”

It is the first day of 2014 and I have been seeing patients in my office for most of it. I did take a break to go out and buy a new music system for the office and I am cranking (as in walls shaking) out some serious 90's music as I, ahem, also crank out this little blog. BTW the pic associated with this blog is my first attempt at a "selfie." If a picture is worth a thousand words then this one speaks volumes about this doctor's frustrations with the current state of our country's mental health system.

Ask anyone about what they think about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, and you are likely to elicit a variety of opinions. In my office, I have heard everything from “ADHD is a scam” to “but doctor, my son MUST have ADHD – the saliva test I sent to Dr so-and-so in Arizona proves it!”

A “kook” is my term for someone who seeks to advance a treatment that has either been disproved or is on the fringe of mainstream medicine.  The kook’s primary motive is to help people, not to scam them.  Remember the story of Chicken Little?