"the right time for therapy"

[COLOR="Black"][B]Hello Everybody, I would like to wish you all a Happy Easter. This question is really for all the forums. Saturday I seen my pdoc and I asked her about some therapy. Im still very emotional. I can cry at the drop of a hat She said that if I was a bit more stable therapy.I was angry at her first but she has a point. It would be a waste of time going for therapy when I Wwould spend all my time crying "on the couch". I dont want to have a defeatist attitude bu I cant see myself ready for a long time. I feel like Im running out of time. Thanks for listening./COLOR]

There is very little I remember from my talk therapy when going through all the med changes and trying to grasp the dx of bipolar .I cried a lot and didn't feel I was stable enough to really get it. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't be different for you , you may have a T who can better access how to help you through this. I think the only real thing I got from first T t experience was it was recommended to go to a domestic violence group meeting . I was there shown my emotional abuse from spouse & back through my childhood. But she wasn't the right T for me . I was given meds for depression from my pc doc and a referral to a psychiatrist that sent papers for me to fill out , I did and sent them back . It took 2 months before I heard from his office, I was in no shape to refer back to my pc doc about the issue . She just kept upping the antidepressant until she couldn't up them without changing them and I said stop . I wanted a more specialized doc. I think on a deeper level we know what may be best for us . Best of luck

It's not that it would be a waste of time - it would be dangerous to start if you're not stable enough to cope with it. Therapy brings out a lot of painful feelings and can be very hard. It makes you feel worse before you feel better.

But maybe you are open to that? The question is whether you can handle the getting worse before it gets better part.

pdoc you mean by psychiatrist ?

yes penguinsing.

I suffered my way through a year of therapy with a guy who was a lousy fit. The only really helpful thing he did for me was to refer me to my current therapist. The difference was like night and day.

I remember in one of our first sessions, the current t described what we needed to do first by telling a story. At the time he was having an addition, a playroom, built onto his house, that involved enclosing a porch. The porch didn't have a foundation under it, so it was a big project to put up a bunch of support beams. Those beams held up the porch so they could put in a foundation. Then the real work of building the room could begin.

I wonder if maybe your psychiatrist is thinking along those lines.....Maybe as your medications kick in and get more stable, it will be like a support around you. Then if you could get into a good fitting therapy relationship, there would be more support. You could have more stability around you to start to safely work on stuff.

When big feelings erupt, strong support is a must.

For me, finding the right therapist, who knew how to build that support first before going digging into the hard stuff, was a lifesaver.