Crawling back to my therapist with my tail between my legs

[amarine]

I agree with rembrandt. It's kind of weird to expect a "cure" from a therapist. They aren't brain surgeons are they? All you can do is talk to them and they may give you advice, but that advice you could find for free on the net or in the library also. And what more can be told after 11 years?

It does sound like you're too dependant of this therapist. If she were really good, she would have come up with some other suggestions instead of keep making you come back to her. It obviously isn't working and leaves you with the impression you're a failure.

I think with these deeprooted anxieties, you need some bodywork and a way to change the subconscious mind.

Things like hypnosis (doesn't have to be expensive, I posted a thread with a link to free hypnosis sessions to overcome SA), EFT, energy healing, ...

Just like it would be fairly impossible to run the marathon with broken legs, it is impossible to function properly in life when your energetic body is 'broken' as we all have an energetic body which has to do with emotions. I don't believe you can overcome this purely by willpower as if that is almost what you seem to believe. You have already tried to push yourself, but that doesn't work 'well enough), you need something else along with that.

Your therapist may not necessarily have bad intentions, she just doesn't seem capable enough to help you in more effective ways. Don't be afraid to change course.

There are other ways to tackle this. Talking to someone who is psychic can also be of better help, because these people can understand you on a much deeper level than regular therapists.

 

[ohheybbyitscorixx]

Does anyone ever get "cured" by therapy? It seems to me that they don't. I never hear anyone saying that they saw a therapist and then stopped going because they were cured. It always seems to be an ongoing thing, which further feeds my strong suspicion that the whole area of psychiatry is nothing but psychobabble and snake oil which milks vulnerable people of money. A lot of money.

Sorry. Rant over.

A lot of psychiatry is not science based at all. The medicines that are given do most people no good (unless its a placebo effect). No one knows WHAT causes a lot of mental illnesses, and they just give you crap to change your brain chemistry. But actual talk therapy can be good, if you realize it's not a cure. I think of my therapist as a tool to help figure myself out, and to just rant if I need it. For those people who don't have any one else to talk to, it can be an amazing help. I think a lot of people should be in therapy for the rest of their life, even if it's only once a month. Talking to a person who is there to not judge you can be amazing. But yeah, the actual psychiatrist part, total bullcrap :x And this is coming from someone who used to believe so much in that....






I think you should do with whatever you feel comfortable with. If you feel like you NEED a therapist, you might want to keep her. But don't feel obligated. Therapists are there to help the emotional side of you, much like a doctor is there to treat the physical part. The only bad thing is a lot of emotional problems are ongoing for the rest of your life, vs curing a physical infection that can take a few weeks. Think of your therapist like a tool for your emotional side...a band aid for those times when your wounds are too exposed. He/she should be there as a support, but not for a cure. Of course you know your therapist can't cure you, but a lot of times the person who is suffering can't cure themselves, either. I find it better to ACCEPT that you go through anxiety, and thus you will be less worried about being not messed up. If you were on a diet, and you kept telling yourself "I can't have pizza, I can't have pizza.." wouldn't you think of pizza even MORE and end up caving in? It's the same with emotional disorders. If you keep telling yourself "I need to be cured, I need to not have anxiety", you are putting pressure on yourself to be "normal" (whatever that is) and you will end up making yourself worse. I actually want to try this type of therapy called acceptance therapy. It's where instead of just someone telling you how sick you are, you acknowledge you have anxiety, depression, so on and realize that's OK. You accept this as an emotion, and thus can cope with it. Maybe that type of therapy would be good for you, too. The best advice I could ever tell you is stop looking for a cure, and start accepting yourself and coping. It's possible your anxiety is a part of who you are, and might not go away fully. So why not just accept that as a trait, and not an illness? The best of luck to you!

 

[theslowesthand]

Does anyone ever get "cured" by therapy? It seems to me that they don't. I never hear anyone saying that they saw a therapist and then stopped going because they were cured. It always seems to be an ongoing thing, which further feeds my strong suspicion that the whole area of psychiatry is nothing but psychobabble and snake oil which milks vulnerable people of money

&

percentage

=
Therapy is certainly not a "magic cure-all pill", but it can help. One needs to do many different things to get rid of their problems (imho)

Here's a very approximate chart of what's worked for me & by how much...
• Therapy - 0.1%
• Phone crisis hotline calls - 1%
• Eliminating toxins in the home - 5%
• Analysing, thinking about, mulling over problems - 3%
• Creating my own systems for dealing with problems - 2%
• SocialPhobiaWorld - 2%
• Reading books & web pages - 1%
• Misc - 0.9%
(total = 15%; ie I have resolved ~15% of my life's problems)

Of course, this may vary greatly from person to person.