Here's how I experienced psychiatrists.

Lisa has been fully assessed by a psychiatrist once in her lifetime, when she was 17 by the child services, and this was in relation to self-harm and not anything else. At 18, she had a spell in hospital. Whilst she was in hospital, nobody actually asked Lisa why she was suicidal - not without exclaiming "You're here for being suicidal? But you're young, you have your whole life ahead of you, what do you have to be suicidal about?!!". In her hospital 'assessment' (other than observation) she was given a checklist of questions, one of which was "have you ever been abused?" to which she replied "sort of, um, I think so". The nurse looked up, then down at the clipboard and wrote something. The rest of her stay, she didn't have any conversations with any of the staff about why she was there. There was a psychologist who worked on the ward, but there was only one patient he was treating on that ward, whom he was giving ECT.

Lisa never really wanted psychiatric drugs. Her (forced) experience of them in hospital led to her standing at the train station days after she was discharged. She couldn't feel a thing. Zilch. So Lisa stood with her toes to the edge of the platform... to get a reaction out of herself. Any reaction. That day, Lisa came off that drug (Sertraline).

2 years after her hospital stay, she is about to walk into the same conversation that she has had every 3 months since her discharge...

It's a different psychiatrist (again). He speaks with a very strong accent and doesn't have good english.

"So... you have been having nightmares, depression, anxiety, and you still self-harm, yes?"
"Yes"
"Do you have thoughts to kill yourself?"
"Not in a few weeks, no"
"Are you still depressed? Feel sad lots?"
"Yes"
"Would you like some medication?"
"no, thank you"
"Okay. You still have anxiety, yes? Worry lots?"
"yes"
"I can give you an anti-anxiety medication to treat that?"
"No"
"Nightmares... I have a medication that may help this..."
"I'd actually like to be discharged, seeing as I don't want any psychiatric treatment... "
"No, because you still self-harm and you still have nightmares so we won't discharge you yet."
"But you're not treating me with anything, because I don't want drugs!"
"Even still we must oversee your care"
"So you won't discharge me?"
"No, I will book you an appointment in another 3 months time".

In 10 minutes, the appointment was over. And still

That was my last psychiatric appointment. I got out of the psychiatric system 3 months later, when I moved to university. In my 2nd year, I got myself a counsellor from the university services.

We actually have conversations about what goes on in my mind. Miracle!

Unfortunately, you have to really search for a psychiatrist that is actually interested in more than handing out prescriptions. And when you find a decent one...in the NHS community mental health services... you may never see that psychiatrist again. You get a different one every time. The waiting lists for any other sort of treatment are usually months long, sometimes years - and they are usually time-limited to 6 sessions of CBT.

I did try psychiatric drugs again last year - citalopram. But the side effects were too extreme, and there was no other real effect other than that. I tried beta blockers too, but they gave me breathing problems. I decided in the end, I'd rather go without psychiatric drugs... I'd rather know how I actually am, rather than being confused if it's actual trauma resolution or the drug effects. I'd also rather know if I'm actually sick, rather than just having side effects. It made things more confusing for me. But... personal choice. For some it seems to work better. One thing is for sure though... it's no long-term answer on it's own.