Posted by Emme on October 31, 2003, at 6:51:31
In reply to Re: Psychotherapy Nonsense » Emme, posted by glenn on October 31, 2003, at 4:06:37
I hear ya! When my depression is at it's worst I just can't be reached and it's pretty tough to correct overly negative thoughts. And you're right. They're queued up for you. At that point my therapist swtiches to 'life suport' mode: doing her best to make sure I'm safe by having me check in with her, making sure my pdoc is fully informed (not to say I don't also call my pdoc myself), helping me with finding ways to minimize my work loads and stress levels when I can't function, making sure I don't feel alone in the abyss. Very valuable for me.
When the medication is working it brings me to the point where we actually get something done. Nothing involving repressed memories or anything like that. Just looking at what's going on in the here and now and how to deal with it better, plus however much CBT seems to be needed. Not to mention dealing with the debris *caused* by the mood disorder - such as career setbacks, disruption of relationships, and other prepercussions. Are you a practicing therapist? Has this been your experience?
I didn't know therapy made things worse people with PTSD. Maybe because it encourages further rehashing of horrifying incidents? Do you know if that is specific to PTSD as my understanding was that it's been shown that the combination of medication and therapy tends to yield the best results for depression and anxiety. How to predict who will benefit the most from one or the other or both....well, good question. Consider both and if you find you don't need one then drop it...?
I bet this thread gets sent to psychological babble soon. Maybe I'll mention something about medicine. How about.....clonazepam is great...I can't take SSRIs but they are lifesavers for some...neurontin was great for raw nerves... There. That ought to do it. :) Jeez I'm getting long winded.
Emme
> I atually went to a very good therapist and was so impressed I trained to be one for 3 years, I have to say however that it did not help at all when I became severely ill and cbt was like standing on the side of a motorway trying to stop cars by putting out my hand ( ie stopping "ants")automatic negative thoughts as they call them, if I ever managed to stop one there was a whole load more coming through.
> Medications are not perfect but at least they cannot tell you that you are denying, repressing,or not wanting to get better, and charge you plenty of money for the priveledge.
> The probem seems to be that there is very little to indicate who, or what conditions might benefit from one as opposed to the other ( or both!)
> It does appear this may be changing as ptsd seems to be made worse by therapy so at least some progress has been made.
> My own view is that a good relationship with a good therapist is great for interpersonal relationship difficulties but is maybe not such a good idea for sreious depression/ anxiety.
>
> Glenn
poster:Emme
thread:274678
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031030/msgs/275178.html