Print out your posts....

Well today was a learning day for me with my psychiatrist. Taking in my posts on PC has helped me big time. I am not very good at getting my words out of my mouth but I seem to be able to get them into print here at PC. I thank all members of PC for this as you all make me feel comfortable enough so that I can open my mind.

Now on PC I see many members come in behind someones post and say you took the words right out of my mouth, you feel how I feel, I could not have said it better myself or you see a bunch of hugs. If you are a person that is unable to get your feeling down on paper, barrow someone else's post by jotting down how you feel when you read these feelings, take it to your doctor, psychiatrist, therapist or whoever else is helping you. I think it is very important to let the professionals know how you feel. Good luck, hugs for your day.

Very good advice Alaskan . If it helped you out alot, then I'm sure
others can benefit from it too . The only problem is , I don't have
a printer . But I can certainly right it down .
Thanks my friend
Sending you Hugs

thanks for the suggestion, I will try it tomorrow with my T, see how it goes because usually when I get there we talk always about how I feel at the moment and what I will do with my life....I will take my threads to her tomorrow

Thanks so much for this suggestion

I won't be in therapy for a few weeks but maybe I should try something like that! I normally have a lot of trouble talking to a T...

My real problem is remembering how I have felt between visits. Some days I am up and others down. If I am having a better day when I go in to see my therapist they don't see me as I am most of the time -on the down side. This is one of the reasons I am taking my posts in. It just seems to help if he reads them before we even get started. Good luck to you. hugs for your day.

Good luck, I hope that it will help you as it has helped me. Hugs for your day.

I do this too. I took in 2 posts and some hand written notes so that I would not forget anything I wanted to say. She even asked me If I got everything off my list that I wanted to say. I see my psychiatrist over a TV set with cameras so we can talk. Hugs for your day.

Can you cut and paste into an email so you don't have to write it out? I know that would be my preference.

Good idea, just get your therapist e-mail address and zip them and e-mail before you go in. Or e-mail the post to your own e-mail address and you can open it up when you go in. Thanks, Hugs for your day.

I'm glad you found a method that worked for you and that helped you with your T

Thanks for this idea! I've been thinking about printing out my journal entries and bringing them.. I usually don't remember what I've written, and when I read them back, I think *woah!* If they only knew...

Exactly my point the (woah! if they only knew). I feel if the professionals that are trying to help us don't know our true feelings they can't really and fully help. By sharing what we write our professionals can see how we feel, how we live, what makes us happy or sad and so on. I believe they need to know these things. Thanks and Good luck, hugs for your day.

This is a fabulous idea, Alaskan. When I had a therapist, whom I really liked, I used to try to be entertaining. I mean, perish that I should be a depressed old bore. And sometimes I am so isolate that just seeing a therapist and being able to talk to someone is a boost. Bringing in anything printed -- a journal, posts here -- would have been a good way to present a more authentic me than the persona I adopt to be socially acceptable.

Yep!, that is it (more authentic me than the persona I adopt to be socially acceptable). The more authentic we can be the better our therapist can help us. I know that this can be hard as we will have to share how we feel with another human face to face. Hugs for your day.

Diaries...Journaling...always a good idea.

Forum posts are great, yes and beneficial. But, a daily journal may be beneficial too. You can buy blank journals at a book store, or a simple school spiral notebook is also great and cheaper. Or just open a Word document on your computer and save to a folder. The advantage of the latter is that you can copy/paste to a forum post!

I have begun to journal in a blog, but it is VERY new, with very little in it at this point.

PsychCentral News, The Health Benefits of Journaling, December 12, 2006
Give it a read, it is good reading.

Good ideas. Anything that will get out how we truly feel will help our therapist's understand us and what we are going through. I believe this is the only way we can beat our illness. Hugs for your day.