Hey there fellow, thank you for the heads-up and at the same time a word of caution. Perhaps my words were a bit misconstrued. I didn't go to a psychiatrist because of my addiction to P and M, or rather, not specifically for that goal. The shrink saw the P and M as one of the many symptoms of my anxiety disorder. Nor do I advocate for meds outright. A psychiatrist, where I live (not in the US), is both a therapist and a certified physician. So he is 100% able to diagnose you and he might even say no, you don't need meds, you can do therapy x, y, z etc. But he might as well give you meds, or both meds and therapy. Every psychiatrist, as far as I'm concerned, is not interested in giving you drugs forever. There is such a thing as an intent to "wean you off". But some conditions are chronic and of course, the choice is all yours not to take any meds. But I say I grossly underestimated the impact my condition had on me. The psychiatrist pointed out a lot of things I was overlooking, besides P and M, that were symptoms of an anxiety disorder. I say go to a psychiatrist. It doesn't mean you'll qualify for meds. You need an assessment. You need to tell him your life story, how do you feel on a day to day basis. Do you have trouble sleeping?etc etc. Only then he will be able to tell you what to do. He is the only one who can tell you, if you could benefit from meds or if your case could be solved by therapy alone. The side effects could arguably be less than that of an over the counter pain-killer and depending on your case, greatly improve your quality of life in general.
