Psychologists

What do you try to get worked on with your psychologist? Sometimes I feel as the sessions are a waste of time. Other times I feel as it's something I should of been doing all along. The main items that have stuck from my year and half in therapy is creating a planner and following through, joined meetup to expose myself to more social situations, gotten over some mom issues, spoke about some dad issues (I blame that as$8ole for a lot of things) and got a second job which helped with my financial trigger.

My first impression was that they would hypnotize you and have you do funky stuff. I have not gone through this at all.

What I would love to get accomplished is dating and getting a girlfriend (being addressed by being social), feel confident in myself and accepting myself, and motivating myself to want more The last one I feel hasn't been touched yet.

What is your experience with talk therapy? Anything I should be doing differently or asking?

Good job on the progress you've made so far! I haven't been to therapy in a long time. I know, that's bad... Especially if you've read a few of my lasts posts lol. But one thing I always did was I would go in telling myself all these things I need to say and work on, only to completely freeze up once I got in the room. Then I would leave so mad at myself. That's probably why I haven't been in a hurry to go back really. Maybe I just haven't found the T for me. Between periods of crappy insurance, or no insurance I just haven't had much of a choice.

Or it goes the other way and I DO open up and I end up a crying mess by the time I leave. That's what happened at my last T. I freak out when someone actually does get through my wall. So again good job though with your effort and keep up the good work!

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I found it has helped me with compliance of my medication (very important!) starting to delve deeper into what I actually want to do career-wise, and made me realise my parents are trying to control and manipulate me. Its a bit harder for me because my previous therapist moved away so I had to start all over again.

Compliance with meds is very important. I haven't got serious or maybe didn't want to admit to myself until recently that I need my meds. Every day. I used to feel better and just quit them. Such a bad thing to do. But after hitting rock bottom with my BP I will never go a day without my meds now. And yea, coming to that realization had a lot to admitting that my family had a big part in messing me up when I was younger. But for some reason I still break down whenever a T asks me to talk about my childhood. It hurts to even think about let alone speak about. So I understand the hard work and dedication you've put in!

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It took me a long, long time to trust the mental health system. So therapy had a big part in that. It helped with complaints of meds, and getting me on the right meds. Now we're finally at the point that we can start learning reality checking.

I'm here in CR for 6 months. Have Meds. But no Pdoc or T here.

Perfect thread. I'm about to go to one.I love the hypnotism and the funky stuff. Thanks for that. I've had a good laugh. I was crying 5 minutes ago(must be rapid cycling) It would be great if they could hypnotise. There are so many things I'd want them to make me do that I don't, like clean my house, be funky and more confident also. Except for when I am manic and then I'm a bit too confident. So they help you to organise? This is a big problem for me. And boogiesmash you'll get a girlfriend just don't buy drinks for girls in night clubs. It's a waste of money.

What has your T thought about your progress and the goals for your future? You mention that you would like to be more social and confident and get a gf. If these are your concerns, this is where you could be focused in your sessions. Maybe the reasons for these concerns can be discussed so that you can overcome the obstacles and reach the goal.\
Also, I think you should be able to ask anything you want. Afterall, you're paying them. And that feeling of comfort with your T is important to be able to do so. Good luck!

We work on the most pressing stuff. That keeps changing. And I'm satisfied with the process.

But, the therapist before this was a psychoanalyst, my big discovery after all those years was I'm just like my Dad, and the best thing I did was to terminate therapy after 5 years. If you think you are wasting your time, you may be.

My Therapy is a very goal orientated... My T and I address issue X and we work towards a goal, A way for me to manage whatever it is that I am currently struggling with. I deal with a lot of "feeling a burden and self worth" that will be a life long struggle, But I have a huge tool box of coping skills that I use.

I have no desire to have a T that I just go in and chat for an hour. I do know when my T retires ( he's 68) I will probably drop out of T at that point.. He has taught me amazing skills.

I just started seeing a psychologist for CBT and so far so good. She lets me go on and on and it looks like she's simply trying to learn more about me so she can set up a treatment plan that works. I've had a few "homework" assignments that are keeping me vigilant. Right now, I think she's getting me to change my view of the world and steer me away from seeing a lot of things from a negative viewpoint.

My psychiatrist oversees the wider treatment - he's more of a "check in" to see if the medication is working and if I'm keeping up with the overall treatment plan. He asks about my family, my job, and my overall health. I talk to him about how I think I'm improving and he compares notes from the last time we met. He specializes in workplace BP issues so I drew an ace there.

It appears to be a good combo so far.