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5 Things You Must Know About Psychiatry

is the medical science dedicated to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include many affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities. It seems to be a vast and confusing subject to understand at first, but going through the basic concepts and facts make its study quite interesting and easier. Following are the 5 things you must know about , to have a deeper insight on the topic-

1. Real disease Vs Mental disease- disorders are not medical diseases as there are no lab tests, x-rays, MRIs, biological tests, neurological markers, brain scanning and imaging, or chemical imbalance tests which can daignose the mental disorder. repackaged all these behaviours and emotions as "disease" to sell drugs. There are no boilogical tests to acertain the presence or absence of any mental disorder, as there is for most of the physical diseases. There is no genetic proof of mental illness. The fact that mental disorders derive from a chemical imbalance in brain is an unproven fact. As psychiatry has no medical tests or genetic markers, experts admit it has no cures.

2. is not just about therapy- While therapy is a part of , it is not the only thing psychologists do. In fact, psychology also encompasses areas like teaching, consultation and research. is not just an academic subject, that is limited to a classroom or research lab, its principles are seen anywhere and everywhere. The television advertisments, internet commercials and print ads all rely on psychology to develop marketing strategies to attract and influence people to purchase their products.

3. has many subsets- encompasses various fields like cognitive psychology, personality psychology, clinical psychology, developmental psychology, social psychology, anthropology, industrial- organisational psychology, forsenic psychology and biopsychology. can be divided into two main streams- research and practice. Because touches many fields of science, and many colleges and universities offer courses and research programs in these fields.

4. studies both normal and abnormal behaviours- There is a common belief in people that psychiatry is the science of abnormal behaviours. On the contrary, psychology studies normal behaviour also. Abnormal psychology is focussed on the identification, treatment and understanding of abnormal behaviour and psychopathology, covering a broad range of disorders from depression to obsession and sexual deviation and many more. seeks to describe, explain, predict, modify and improve behaviours, to better the lives of individuals and the society on the whole.

5. deals with scientific methods- It is a common myth that pcychology is all about common sense. deals with scientific methods to investigate and arrive at conclusions. Psychology utilizes a wide range of techniques to study human mind and its behavioural attributes, including observation, case-studies, experiments and questionnaires. There are three types of researches, namely- causal, descriptive and relational research. These researches are based on theory and hypothesis. provides a variety of career oppurtunities to choose from. Different job options depend largely upon the educational qualifications and work experience. Career counselors can help in making career decisions through personal assessment, interest inventories and other evaluation techniques.