Psychiatrists get paid for what they do because they're good at it. They're not sociopaths, and many psychiatrists have actual emotional connections to their clients. It'd be really hard not to develop one when you sit down and talk to them intimately on a regular basis.
They're not there to pry into your life or force you to do anything you don't want to do. They're there for whatever you want to tell them and no reputable psychiatrist wants to make you feel forced to admit more than you're willing to. That's interrogation, not therapy.
Frankly, self medicating never helps in the long run for one major reason. People who self medicate do it to escape from their problems rather than help them handle their problems. What ends up forming is a really negative coping mechanism that frequently leads to alcoholism or drug addiction. I'm sure we're all guilty of self medicating to some extent, I know personally when the pressures on there's nothing that'll help as much as a cigarette to myself to clear my head, and when I'm feeling really stuffty I'll reach for a bottle. But when that temporary escape becomes your go-to method of coping with difficulties in life, it might be time to consider other options.
P.S. This is still the BL forum and all but as a general rule of thumb people in this thread are more accepting and less likely to stuff on you for your emotional problems. It's a cool community in here.
