Posted by fallsfall on January 12, 2005, at 8:28:52
In reply to pdocs who do therapy, posted by CareBear04 on January 12, 2005, at 4:02:32
I have always seen a PhD for therapy and a pdoc for meds.
I used to be on a lot of meds (I think 9 different prescriptions), but now I'm down to 2 (Prozac and Synthroid - and the Synthroid isn't really depression related).
A year and a half ago I changed therapists, and my new therapist wasn't thrilled with me being on so many meds. It took me most of the year and a half to get off what I was on - trying to find a "stable" time and changing only one thing at a time was logistically very hard. The combination I was taking made sense to me - each new med had been added after a lot of thought, and I knew why I was taking each one.
I am feeling better now. I'm not sure it is because I'm off the meds. During this time my therapist (who does work with a couch for some patients) has been working intensely (3X week) through transference issues with me (including where I *need* to please those in authority, so do I please him or my pdoc??). I think I credit the therapy more than the lack of meds.
I like having a different person prescribing meds for me. He used to schedule 2 patients/hour so we did have time to talk and over the 10 years I've been seeing him he knows me pretty well now. He schedules 3 patients/hour now, so the appointments are shorter - I'm glad that I had the benefit of getting to know him with the longer appointments first. It is helpful because if I have a real issue with one of them, I can talk to the other. They have talked together once or twice, and that was valuable. It also means that when one goes on vacation the other is usually still around so I don't feel like my safety net has completely disappeared.
For me, meds are necessary (sometimes they have kept me alive), but therapy is what is going to make the difference in my life.
poster:fallsfall
thread:441031
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050111/msgs/441086.html