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what are some questions i should ask myself? what are some personality traits that i should be looking at if i think that i have some kind of personality disorder? because i'm pretty sure that's what's going on with me.
i just want to be prepared. i don't want to waste my hour, you know. that's what i end up doing. wasting my time with people who could be helping if i didn't ramble.
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You know, I would probably just go in and tell your new T the above. That would start a conversation that would let her know your concerns and how you feel about therapy. It's good that you want to be prepared, and it's good that you don't want to waste time, but trying to present a specific picture of yourself to your T could actually hinder your treatment. The best bet is to just be honest and have a conversation with your T about your concerns and about how you are feeling. You can certainly prepare, if you feel you need to, but I wouldn't do more than maybe a bullet point list of things that you feel you need to bring up - feelings, behaviors, events that you find concerning or that are particularly important to you in some way.
Also - be totally honest and forthcoming on the intake forms. I found that going through those with T did generate some good conversation. You won't get to everything in your first hour. You might not get to much of anything that first hour...it's a "get to know you" and "decide if we can work together" appointment. So, don't be disappointed if you don't come out of that first appointment without a diagnosis. Heck, some T's never give a diagnosis. Mine has only ever given me a single diagnosis, and that's one I was fully aware of already, and we only formalized it after I took a psychological assessment and she referred me to a psychiatrist for medication.