Dr. Muhammad Al-Hamid, Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of the Psychologists Center in Jeddah, addressed a number of concepts that stand in the way for the patient to go to the psychiatrist, explaining that there are four concepts, the first of which is misconceptions related to psychiatric drugs, as some believe that drugs cause addiction and thus continue This is not true at all, as it is a matter of getting used to a group of drugs, and therefore the fears about medicines are completely unjustified. There is another concept that mental illnesses can be treated through opinion and advice or chatting with a friend and disclosing to him, and this is a second error and incorrect, as such matters require a specialized psychiatrist to be treatment in a behavioral and cognitive manner and take the necessary specialist treatment for such cases.
He continued: The third concept relates to linking mental illness with lack of faith, because it is like any other organic disease that needs diagnosis and treatment, and whoever speaks this way has not yet experienced the bitterness of depression and the state of panic that afflicts patients. The fourth concept relates to stressing that reliance on folk remedies should not be relied upon, as it has been proven that no folk remedy cures mental illnesses, but it can be soothing. Al-Hamed considered that fear of the stigma of mental illness is one of the most important factors that make some patients hesitate to visit the doctor in order not to be stigmatized insane, indicating that society today has become more aware.
