 Lady Gaga was recently on Oprah Winfrey's show and she kind of had a bad take on the current state of mental health care and While she did make a good point this conversation is a little bit more nuanced and we need to have a discussion about it So we can hopefully have some reform in the United States and that way you can get the mental health care that you need What is up everybody this is Chris from the rewired soul where we talk about the problem But focus on the solution and if you're new to my channel my channel is all about mental health So if you're into that stuff make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell And if you're not yet follow me over on Instagram and Twitter at the rewired soul. All right, so I was I was informed about this subject from the video from YouTube's resident doctor Dr. Mike. All right, and Lady Gaga was recently on Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Mike made a video about this because Lady Gaga said By the way, if your primary care doctor is prescribing you an antidepressant, this should not be happening Primary care doctors should be introducing you to a psychiatrist an expert in brain medication All right, so I will link Dr. Mike's video down below He makes some excellent points and I highly highly recommend that you go check it out All right, so I'm gonna be discussing, you know, some of my own personal experience Both, you know, just from my life and my struggles with mental health and getting prescribed mental health medications But also working at a drug and alcohol rehab where I had to help Clients kind of navigate the mental health care system after leaving treatment. All right So the first thing we need to talk about when it comes to Lady Gaga when it comes to celebrities when it comes to YouTubers, it's something called appearance bias. All right, so appearance bias is this bias we have where if somebody is You know attractive or wealthy like they're rich and they're famous. We're like, hmm This person must know what they're talking about, right? This is one of the reasons why people have an issue with like celebrities endorsing candidates and everything like that, right? We need to just be mindful of this just because somebody has a lot of money or a lot of you know Success in their realm. It doesn't necessarily mean they know about the topic that they're discussing So just always be skeptical of that stuff. Hell even me even my videos be skeptical Do your own research fact check it double check it. Whatever you got to do. All right So let's talk about this like I will start out by saying that I absolutely Agree with part of what Lady Gaga is saying Like we have a massive problem in the United States with Over-prescribing and over diagnosing people like it isn't uncommon For you to go see a primary care doctor and they're like, oh you have problems with your attention. Here's some Adderall Oh, you get anxious take some Xanax. Oh, you have a little ache and pain. Here's a prescription opioid You know what I mean? So that is something that we have to be mindful of and I think Dr. Mike is Really good about talking about, you know, turning to medications, especially mental health medications as a last resort Rather than a first resort. So as a side note, not every patient with anxiety and depression needs anti-depressants And in fact, that's the beauty of family medicine We understand that cognitive behavioral therapy DBT all these options work very well for our patients and because we have Existing relationships with these patients because where they're primary care providers, we treat them for years We know what works. We know what medications they do well with they have direct access to us And it only makes sense that we continue this line of treatment until it passes that complexity line where we do need To get a specialist like a psychiatrist involved like Dr. Mike seems like the type of doctor Where if you saw him and you were going through a difficult time and he wanted depressants He would try to guide you on the path of, you know, building some resilience You know what I mean, but we do have to be mindful of it when it comes to You know, primary care doctors or even psychiatrists over prescribing medications. I am very passionate about that subject because I am a recovering Prescription drug addict. I used to go around in Dr. Shop and easily get medications to fuel my addiction You know what I mean? So it's something that I Think about a lot So one book that I highly recommend is the book called saving normal. All right It's written by the guy who was actually the head of the DSM for and he really does a great job discussing how we're over prescribing a lot of medications and we're over diagnosing people right and how the DSM isn't always the best tool to use to Diagnose somebody, you know what I mean? For example, we talked about depression something that was eliminated from the DSM Was if if you just experienced the loss of a loved one, right? That is now not a factor in the DSM when it comes to diagnosing depression, right? So if you lose, you know, someone close to you, right? A parent a significant other a child Basically, it says if you've been depressed for over two weeks, you have clinical depression, but it's like How long are you allowed to be depressed about the loss of a loved one? Okay, so let's talk about Psychiatry. Okay. So by the way, if you are confused about the difference between like psychiatrist Psychologists therapists counselors and all that. This is actually Katie Morton's book So Katie Morton is like the therapist of YouTube. She does an excellent job in her book Discussing the differences between those so Psychiatrists are medical doctors and they are there to prescribe medications But here's the thing. They're not magicians. All right Like they are trained in psychiatric medications And if you have the resources to go to a psychiatrist go ahead and do it But like I was reading somewhere that the average Visit with a psychiatrist is like 15 minutes 15 minutes. Like how much can you really get done in? 15 minutes like sometimes it takes us longer than 15 minutes to figure out what we're gonna order off the menu at a restaurant So it typically takes longer than that to diagnose somebody. So with what Lady Gaga is saying like Sometimes, you know, it's not too much different than what primary care doctors are doing. So real quick based on my experience So my My primary care doctor she prescribes my medications, but but she's a very very good primary care doctor Like she will not even attempt to prescribe me certain medications She's like listen if this doesn't work, we need to get you to a psychiatrist Right like she is very humble about what she knows about and what she doesn't know about You know what I mean, and I appreciate that about her But here's one of the issues when it comes to psychiatry and I'll just give you a quick little anecdote here Working at the drug and alcohol treatment center part of what I did was I would follow up with clients after they left and we would always send them off with a refill of their prescriptions and an aftercare plan and all that stuff, right and sometimes The person wouldn't refill their prescriptions or they wouldn't follow up with the aftercare plan Like we have case managers who would set them an appointment with a psychiatrist You know what I mean, and the person would miss that appointment and Here's something that we need to take into consideration is For your first psychiatrist visit like sometimes it can take like a month to get in there This is from dealing with thousands of clients who told me that Chris I ran out of my medications I called the psychiatrist because I missed my appointment and it's gonna take a month to get in there So this is where we need to lean on primary care doctors and just pray to the gods that they are accepting what they don't know about mental health meds and Also, while we're trusting what they do know, you know what I mean um Like but I always recommend that you do your own research on mental health meds like I'm iffy about like You know asking others like what was your experience with this medication? All of us are different We can all react differently to different mental health medications for example for most of you know the last Six years seven years or so. I was on Lexa Pro But I know so many people who had a really bad side effect from Lexa Pro You know what I mean? So if you asked me about my experience with Lexa Pro, it was awesome If you asked somebody else, it was terrible. So just be mindful when you're asking about other people's experience So the main thing I want to talk about here is the current state of mental health care in the United States So again when we see celebrities talking about this stuff, we need to be cautious All right, because there are tens of millions of uninsured Americans in the United States for most of the last year I Was uninsured right and this is something that millions and millions and millions of Americans are struggling with and a Psychiatrist visit is far more expensive than a primary care doctor. So when I see Lady Gaga talk about this stuff I'm like, yeah, but everybody's not a millionaire not everybody can get into a psychiatrist Immediately not everybody can afford a psychiatrist Sometimes you can't even afford a primary care doctor visit. You know what I mean? So It's important to know what you're working with and then see who you can see So I highly recommend if you have no insurance at all and you're broke like check out your state All right, you can call I believe you can call 411 and ask them like hey, are there any you know government-funded clinics here, right? So there are a lot of government-funded mental health clinics where you can go in there You can talk to a therapist sometimes they have psychiatrists there sometimes they have doctors who you can talk to right? And then like if you have Medicaid or something like that, they can prescribe you these medications So like I said when I started this video, it's much more nuanced than just saying don't let your primary care doctor Prescribe you medications because sometimes that is your best option So one thing I want to talk about before I let you go is in Dr. Mike's video he discussed the dangers of self-diagnosis and absolutely Please for the love of God never diagnose yourself, right? And I think Dr. Mike was just on a roll when he was talking like I get into when I talk And he mentioned self-help books, right? So like I said never diagnose yourself, but again with so many people who are Without insurance for so many people who are broke Sometimes books are your best option to start working on your mental health. For example Katie Morton licensed therapists wrote a book. Okay, this book by the way is more helping you understand therapy than Methods that you can use to help yourself, but man books are cheap, right? You can go to your library there are many websites where they sell thrift books and Some of the top psychologists in the world are putting all of their knowledge into books You know what I mean? So like me I am very fortunate to have a full-time job and have health insurance and everything like that Like I you know I get my prescriptions refilled. I actually got to go refill them today I have a therapist, you know, but I still read a ton of books I'm constantly learning about new coping skills and everything like that. So I do think that self-help books are extremely extremely beneficial to people who Don't have the financial means to go see doctors psychiatrists and all that stuff like once you get on your feet Do it, but never use a self-help book to diagnose yourself But from what I've seen Like and I've read so many books like in the last year I'm almost had about a hundred books most of them on psychology and mental health and everything I can't think of any of them that I've read that's like, hey This is how you know that you have clinical depression. None of them say that most of them are just like hey depressed people This helps them anxious people this helps them You can find the people who are like the the leading researchers in Things like trauma and borderline personality disorder and all sorts of other disorders and they have tools in there. So What we need to understand about therapy is I highly recommend You get therapy if you can afford therapy because therapists are there to help you open up Get down to the root of your issue We always need somebody that we can talk to about these things and Therapists are also there to keep you on the right path Like it when you're on the road to your mental health recovery It is easy to just start veering off the road. All right and following up with a therapist Can help you get back on track and stay on track, right? Because a lot of us we don't want to put in the work like Looking at yourself Self-reflection going into your past these are things we don't want to do so it's easy to just Take off. So a therapist keeps you on track, but but if you can't afford a therapist You have to have some personal accountability and just recognize that there are so so so many tools out there That can help you. All right, so I Want to end with this. I do think Lady Gaga's heart is in the right place. She has been very open About her traumas that she's been through. She is an advocate for mental health and everything But I just think we always need to remember that some of these celebrities and I don't think she has bad intentions in any way shape or form But some of these celebrities They lose touch of what it used to be like when Lady Gaga was like that starving Artists like playing the piano at small New York clubs like she needs to recognize like a majority of people are In that Financial status, you know what I mean? So when making these statements, we always need to take those people into consideration You know, I have worked with far too many people who don't have insurance or lose their insurance And we need to be aware of the resources that are out there. All right But anyways down in the description below, please as soon as you're done with this video, go check out the doctor Mike video It is Phenomenal. All right, but that's all I got for this video If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up if you're new make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell And I want to send out a huge huge. Thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on patreon as well as everybody who Buys my mental health books over at the rewired soul calm that helps support the channel as well As well as everybody who gets your hand on some mental health Merch from the rewired souls store. All right, you're all awesome. Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time