Posted by noa on April 28, 2003, at 16:20:18
In reply to Re: Forever therapy » mair, posted by Dinah on April 27, 2003, at 13:58:52
Chiming in to this interesting thread....
Thank you Dinah, for seeing me as grounded. I think that I do owe whatever groundedness I have to all the therapy I've had, and (shall I also say?), to the work I have done in therapy.
I have had waves of depressive illness of varying severity, but my "baseline" before I ever started therapy also was problematic--I was a basket case of anxiety and lack of self esteem, and probably what is now termed "social phobia". OK, these are still "issues" but nowhere near what they were before therapy.
I do believe it helps but I also have at times felt like it was hard to see progress or that the progress was too slow, and feeling really frustrated with myself. But usually, those feelings were during depressed times. Or, when I was not quite ready to deal with some stuff that I was afraid would overwhelm me. Going to twice a week helped because it is easier to open up hard issues knowing that I don't have to close up for a whole week again. Overall, I most definitely see progress and how much therapy has helped me.
However, I think a good "fit" with a therapist is key. I think not only can progress not happen with a therapist who is a bad "fit", but it can make things worse. I saw this with a good friend of mine who got more and more depressed over time. What she had told me and another friend about her therapist had always kind of disturbed us, and when we saw her going way down hill fast, we just urged her as strongly as we could to get out of the therapy and find someone else. She did get out, and it has been taking a while to heal from that experience, but it was pretty clear that she was better off without therapy than with that particular therapist. She is just starting to look for a new therapist after taking a year and a half off from therapy.
poster:noa
thread:220332
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030407/msgs/222952.html