[shame]

My pdoc told me that i needed a deeper form of therapy ..
after she told me my diagnosis ....or added a new diagnosis..
what is this and what does this entail? can anyone help?

[deliquesce]

it is difficult to know what she meant, but i guess a lot of pdoc's only prescribe medication, and if that is the case with your pdoc then maybe she would like you to get psychotherapy also from someone who is more skilled in the area than she is.

my pdoc referred me to a psychologist after i was seeing my him for 2 years. it has been very helpful to have someone who can work with me to help me recognise how i get into some of the situations i do get into (e.g., now i can recognise when a depression is coming up, and take steps to try and prevent it). i still see my pdoc on a regular basis, but he isn't trained as much as a psychotherapist, and i have been able to appreciate the different skills they bring to be able to help me in their own ways.

[fallenangel337]

Are you in psychotherapy? If not, I would assume that's what he's referring to. There is only so much power that meds hold...it's usually most helpful to take the meds in addition to psychotherapy. So maybe that's what he meant.

[shame]

Well thats just it .. I am treatment resistant to antidpressants and other drugs .. i have been in therapy for a few years .. and not getting better .
just dont know what deeper therapy is .. i thought i have been thru deep stuff .. has me stumped..hoping it is not ect

[thinker22]

My depression has been treatment resistant too. If you feel like telling us, what diagnoses did he give you? I just got diagnosed with bipolar depression, so they're hoping an atypical mood stabilizer will help, but I just started it. Traditional antidepressants (SSRIs, SSNRIs) didn't help me at all. Made me feel tired and more sad and some even anxious.

I'll never do ECT. I don't care what the benefits might be. It causes long term memory loss and just because you can't remember what you lost doesn't make it okay in my opinion. But it's up to each individual to weigh the pros and cons w/their dr.

Besides, they now have a metal wire implant to stimulate the parts of the brain that involve feelings of calm, happiness, etc. for treatment resistant depression. I'd go that route first if all other meds had failed. And there are so many out there, I doubt I'll exhaust them for years. Are you at the end of trying meds or is it just your mental health professional telling you something deeper needs to be done?

[DoggyBonz]

Can you call your Pdoc and find out what he is talking about? What he means by deeper therapy? Has he tried to explain it to you or better yet write it down; exactly what he thinks that you need.

For me when I was seeing a psychiatrist and it was not helping. He thought that I needed something more, a deeper/different kind of therapy to help me get through an issue.

I was so scared but it was the perfect thing. I needed something more and he saw that and had a feeling that it would help.

Whatever it is you can chose if you think that is the right thing for you. If not maybe get another opinion.

[shame]

Thanks for your reply~
My diagnosis 's is major depression, anxiety, ptsd, dissociative disorders..
my pdoc said i needed deeper therapy .. because i do not respond to meds and it is all getting worse.. i have been on a plethora of meds only made depression soar or should say i completely sink when i have them ..
i am on klonopin as well and it does nothing but make me sleep ..doesnt stop anything in my mind.
ECT is not an option for me i will kick and scream if that comes up ..no way!

[thinker22]

Until just a week ago, my diagnoses were major depression, anxiety, & PTSD. I mean, I'd figured it out with the therapist that it was bipolar depression, but that's when I finally saw the p-doc.

I'm just saying I relate. Seems like nothing will fix my depression. Crossing my fingers, but the process seems endless.

Hope you find something that helps you better. Sleeping all the time stinks.

Sometimes I think the most kind and genuine people in the world are the ones who have the most bad things happen to them. If it's not one thing (like events in the present), it's another (like chemical imbalance and/or childhood trauma). But I guess the flip side is we understand each other. And you can't know profound happiness if you've not experienced profound adversity. Still doesn't make it seem better or okay when you're depressed.

Hope you figure out soon the next steps to take to getting well.

[ECHOES]

Here is one link of many that I found when I googled 'depth psychotherapy'.
http://www.existential-therapy.com/D...chotherapy.htm

And a Wikipedia link for 'depth psychology' with many links to more information. Very interesting stuff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_psychology

I assume that your pdoc knows what kind of therapy you are currently engaged in and that another kind of therapy might be more helpful to you. Very nice that he has shared this with you.

[sittingatwatersedge]

Originally Posted by thinker22

[...] Sometimes I think the most kind and genuine people in the world are the ones who have the most bad things happen to them. If it's not one thing (like events in the present), it's another (like chemical imbalance and/or childhood trauma). But I guess the flip side is we understand each other. And you can't know profound happiness if you've not experienced profound adversity.

Thinker - thank you. This is the most beautiful thing I have read in a whlie. And it's beautiful because it is true.

[peaches100]

My diagnosis is also clinical depression, anxiety (GAD), PTSD, and some dissociative symptoms. I think we're a challenge to therapists and pdocs because we have a complex mix of issues. I consider my therapist really experienced (20 years of clinical work), yet she has questioned 2 or 3 times throughout our work together whether she really has enough skills to help me or if I need a t with more experience. So it could be that your pdoc and t are thinking that you need a different ype of therapy or a more experienced therapist, or both. Why don't you ask them what they mean by "a deeper kind of therapy?" Getting an answer might set you more at ease, rather than having to keep stressing and wondering.

[sunrise]

shame, there are some kinds of therapy that are very "surface." The therapist tries to do practical things to alleviate your symptoms and get you functional again, like encouraging you to build your support network, eat right, sleep more, not get down on yourself, fill your head with positive thoughts to "cover" the pain or stuckness or whatever is contributing to your depression. There are other, deeper forms of therapy that try to identify the root cause of the depression and work on solving this core problem. If this can be resolved, then you have a chance the depression could go away. If you don't resolve the core issue(s), the depression might become more manageable but will never really go away. So that is what I think your pdoc may have meant--he thinks you could benefit from working on the causes of your depression rather than managing its symptoms.