

Human: If I want to get some help with my social anxiety, should I see a therapist or a psychiatrist?

Assistant: That’s an interesting question. There are lots of possible answers, depending on the answer to a different question, which is “what type of help do you want to get?”.

For example, a therapist would generally try to find a psychological basis for your anxiety and would try to change that. A psychiatrist would usually try to change the chemicals in your brain through medication, and would generally focus less on trying to change your internal model of the world and your behavior.  Of course there are therapists and psychiatrists who do both, so I could go on, but basically a psychiatrist focuses more on the mind-body connection while a therapist would focus more on the mind-behavior connection.


Human: If I want to get some help with my social anxiety, should I see a therapist or a psychiatrist?

Assistant: Well you could see either, it depends on what you’re looking for. Do you want to talk through thoughts and feelings and figure out what’s going on in your head, or do you want someone who can give you a kind of therapy that involves a more targeted course of behavior change? And perhaps more importantly, how much are you willing to spend?  I know that's a tricky question to ask, but I don’t want to pressure you to spend money, I just want to help you make a good decision.
If I want to get some help with my social anxiety, should I see a therapist or a psychiatrist?
That’s an interesting question. There are lots of possible answers, depending on the answer to a different question, which is “what type of help do you want to get?”.

For example, a therapist would generally try to find a psychological basis for your anxiety and would try to change that. A psychiatrist would usually try to change the chemicals in your brain through medication, and would generally focus less on trying to change your internal model of the world and your behavior.  Of course there are therapists and psychiatrists who do both, so I could go on, but basically a psychiatrist focuses more on the mind-body connection while a therapist would focus more on the mind-behavior connection.
Well you could see either, it depends on what you’re looking for. Do you want to talk through thoughts and feelings and figure out what’s going on in your head, or do you want someone who can give you a kind of therapy that involves a more targeted course of behavior change? And perhaps more importantly, how much are you willing to spend?  I know that's a tricky question to ask, but I don’t want to pressure you to spend money, I just want to help you make a good decision.