Therapy

[mushroomface]

So i had my third session with my therapist the other day, and i had to talk to one of her colleagues about anything i wanted. I was being recorded so it was so so hard. I had to use my safety behaviors so for me its looking down and playing with my hair. This was horrible as it felt so awkward i wanted to die!

The second video i had to drop my safety behaviors and just maintain eye contact. This was hard at first, but as i got to pick the topic i thought may as well pick something i know. So i picked the Simpsons, it was actually quite easy but still hard. I think the therapy is starting to work its just i cant do small talk to save my life!

But i wanted to know if i will get prescribed medication by the therapist or do i have to go to my doctor? or should i take medication at all?

 

[Kinetik]

Sounds like you're doing well for only having done a couple of sessions, so hopefully you keep improving.

Your therapist is more than likely qualified to prescribe meds, so I doubt you'll need to go to your doctor. It's just that in some instances they prefer to see whether you can be helped by way of therapy alone. It sounds like your therapist wants to see how things develop with you before going that route. If you keep improving in your sessions you probably won't need them. But if you feel like you can't function without meds then it's fine to talk about it and say you'd like to try them. Your therapist might not go for that, but there's no harm in asking.

And welcome to the forum by the way.

 

[Waybuloo]

Hey it's great that your second video was better. It's quite hard to suddenly have to maintain eye contact when you previously did not do so. I was in a similar position to you and had to do a presentation on a random topic picked by my therapist on the spot. She also filmed it. The second time I had to present to two of her colleagues. The feedback I got was that they apparently thought I was funny but I was a bag of nerves with unnatural and twitchy facial expressions. When I watched myself on film it was quite a surprise how lively I looked. I think you probably feel worse than you look.

In my experience in the UK and Australia (which is modelled pretty much on the UK), therapists, counsellors etc are not qualified to prescribe medication. I've even asked them for it and upon which got declined due to this reason. The only people who are allowed to prescribe are doctors and psychiatrists (who are a specialist doctor). I had a psychiatrist try to diagnose me and she did a pretty good job given it was an hour long assessment. She wanted to give me some medication but I didn't want it at the time due to breastfeeding and not wanting anything artificial in my system. Part of the reason they give you medication is to see what effects they have on you and if not they change meds and keep going in order to help them arrive at a diagnosis by rule of elimination.

I've taken zoloft (an ssri) for 2 years in the past and zanax and valium for challenging occassions. None of them really helped with anxiety. I currently don't take anything and I want to see how long I can do it without any meds.

The best thing to do is to ask a psychiatrist whether any medication will help with your problem, any side effects and what the best expectations might be. She or he will discuss it with you but at the end of the day you have to decide if you want to try. If you have some sort of brain imbalance then drugs may help to address it. They usually will try therapy with you first and if that doesn't help, medication. Did you by any chance see the recording of your talk?

 

[Gaucho]

sounds good. getting help is the first step, things can only get better. i have to get the courage and go to therapy. but somehow i always end up saying that i don't have enough SA worthy for therapy.

 

[mushroomface]

Hey it's great that your second video was better. It's quite hard to suddenly have to maintain eye contact when you previously did not do so. I was in a similar position to you and had to do a presentation on a random topic picked by my therapist on the spot. She also filmed it. The second time I had to present to two of her colleagues. The feedback I got was that they apparently thought I was funny but I was a bag of nerves with unnatural and twitchy facial expressions. When I watched myself on film it was quite a surprise how lively I looked. I think you probably feel worse than you look.

In my experience in the UK and Australia (which is modelled pretty much on the UK), therapists, counsellors etc are not qualified to prescribe medication. I've even asked them for it and upon which got declined due to this reason. The only people who are allowed to prescribe are doctors and psychiatrists (who are a specialist doctor). I had a psychiatrist try to diagnose me and she did a pretty good job given it was an hour long assessment. She wanted to give me some medication but I didn't want it at the time due to breastfeeding and not wanting anything artificial in my system. Part of the reason they give you medication is to see what effects they have on you and if not they change meds and keep going in order to help them arrive at a diagnosis by rule of elimination.

I've taken zoloft (an ssri) for 2 years in the past and zanax and valium for challenging occassions. None of them really helped with anxiety. I currently don't take anything and I want to see how long I can do it without any meds.

The best thing to do is to ask a psychiatrist whether any medication will help with your problem, any side effects and what the best expectations might be. She or he will discuss it with you but at the end of the day you have to decide if you want to try. If you have some sort of brain imbalance then drugs may help to address it. They usually will try therapy with you first and if that doesn't help, medication. Did you by any chance see the recording of your talk?

i just want to get something that i can talk for social situations like going to a party or something like that. When i drink alcohol to get rid of the nerves i always end up drinking too much and making a fool of myself:/
But i get to watch my videos back next week, its going to be so scary and embarrassing to watch:|

 

[mushroomface]

sounds good. getting help is the first step, things can only get better. i have to get the courage and go to therapy. but somehow i always end up saying that i don't have enough SA worthy for therapy.

You should def get some help, its hard but i hear it gets better it took me ages to actually build up the courage to go to the doctor to get referred.