Good afternoon! While I’m immersed in the topic of the relationship between identity and psychological trauma (I’m working on my dissertation), I began to notice that people confuse seemingly related concepts. Mental and psychological... And in some sources, in general, they are used interchangeably. It seems that there is a psyche present in both. But why does an ordinary person need to know about all these nuances? Let me show you an example. This is not the first time I have heard a woman or a man in a difficult period (unemployment, divorce, illness of a loved one, etc.) being told: “You need a good psychiatrist! He’s a doctor and will definitely help!” Or a teenager who, suddenly, unexpectedly began to rebel and his parents cannot cope with him. Sound familiar?) And again, most often, the poor fellow is taken to a neurologist or psychiatrist. In both cases, the feelings are completely justified and the desire to help is understandable. A little theory in simple language: Psychological trauma consists of negative emotional consequences that can arise when a person is faced with any dangerous, physically or mentally traumatic event, or a threat to life. Here we include the loss of a loved one, divorce, bullying, accidents, participation in hostilities, etc. 2. Mental trauma is associated with a physical impairment of a person’s mental functions. This is thinking, perception, memory. Example: consequences of a stroke, trauma in a child at birth. Mental trauma can also be the result of an accident, physical harm, if the consequences were a violation of mental functions. In the first case, it is important to understand whether the psychological trauma caused any disorder. This is confirmed not by the patient’s assumptions, but by psychodiagnostics. If there is no disorder, then there is no need to see a psychiatrist. It is good if he has additional training in psychological methods. But more often than not, psychiatrists are not interested in this; they have a lot of work to do in the clinical and medical spectrum. They can just prescribe medications for certain disorders. The only key is to understand whether a person is able to cope without medication. How can you help a rebellious teenager or a person going through a divorce? To do this, first of all, it is necessary to understand what caused such an emotional state, the REASON (divorce is only an event, it always has a semantic and emotional coloring) and what consequences it brings. It often happens that a person going through a divorce takes a course of antidepressants, and it becomes easier. However, when a former partner appears or interacts with him on any issues, it hits again. It’s the same story with a teenager, when he seems to become calm and obedient, but after a while everything repeats itself. Why? In both cases, they did not work with the reason that caused such a reaction. And working with reasons is, as a rule, working with rethinking or emotional correction. The most common way to work with both psychological and mental trauma today is the pair work of a psychiatrist and a psychologist. Everyone is responsible for their own area within the framework of one common goal - to help a person cope with the consequences of psychological trauma. I understand where in our mentality there are such distortions in understanding the differences between a psychiatrist and a psychologist. And more often than not, distrust of psychologists in general. Because in our culture there is no experience of interacting with a psychologist. Each of us has visited a psychiatrist at least once in our lives, because it is part of a mandatory medical examination. What about a psychologist?) To summarize: A psychiatrist treats the head and all its components. A psychologist treats the soul and all its components. If mental experiences are so traumatic that they harm mental functions, then a psychiatrist + psychologist is best. Be healthy) Telegram channel - https://t.me/NatalyStovbun YouTube channel - https://youtube.com/@Nataly_Stovbun?si=fti7kkzMY-N8DDVT