Therapy making it worse...

I started therapy a month or so ago and I don't think it's helping at all. Having my parents, my T, and a handful of others always talking to me about how I feel... It just makes me feel worse, I feel so buried in all of it. Especially my parents. And it makes me not want to go back to see my T. Has anyone else felt this way???

I am about 2 1/2 months into thearpy... and believe emotionally I am feeling the most raw I have felt ever. I think it is normal to feel this way in the beginning. The key is learning stradegies to deal with the emotions that are being dug up and dealing with them in the right ways. I would even bring this up with your T and see if he/she has suggested on how to deal with it all. Hang in there.. I hope you get what you need out of thearpy!

Maybe I will talk to her about it. Thanks.

Mylife, it gets worse before it gets better in my experience. You just have to weather it to get to the other side. Not that I'm there yet or anything.

So did they put you on meds or anything? Or was that contraindicated because of your age or something? Did the T ever say, here's a plan to overcome your depression, or what your main problem was, is she having you get more sleep or exercise? Does she talk to your parents too?

I'm sorry you're having such a rough time of it, MLID. There's a reason we've all found ways to avoid or otherwise defend ourselves against the feelings that bring us into therapy -- they're painful, overwhelming, and seem impossible to deal with directly.

When I think of the mental and emotional pain that comes from uncovering a lot of this stuff at once, two physical analogies come to mind. The first is resetting a bone that has healed improperly. You have to go through the pain of breaking it and re-setting it and letting it heal all over again, but in the end you may be giving your body a better shot at staying healthy by ensuring that everything is structurally sound.

Another is treating a chronic infection for the first time, after it's gotten to the point where it's too much to bear and you finally get some antibiotics. This happened when I had a sinus infection -- I took the antibiotics and immediately felt WORSE. That's because when all the little bugs died, they released the nasty toxins they'd been making while settling into my sinus cavity. But I had to deal with all the junk that came with the infection before I could benefit from the death of all those bacteria.

Try to keep at it. It CAN get better when you find out what works for you. Of course, keep checking in with your T and with yourself about it, because you do want to experience some gain eventually... if it's all pain, there may be a problem. That brings to mind another physical analogy... if you're training for a race, you have to deal with a lot of discomfort to get your body into the shape it needs to be in, and you won't get there if you stop at the first sign of discomfort or don't push your limits. But there is such a thing as pushing too hard, or not taking enough breaks, or using the wrong equipment such that you end up getting hurt.

You CAN do it though. I have definitely felt overwhelmed at times, sometimes extremely overwhelmed, but sticking through it has made me feel stronger and more in tune with myself -- it gives me the ability to be honest with myself about my thoughts and feelings, and that is worth a LOT.

Maybe your T can get your parents to back off a bit? It can feel exposing when Everyone is on your case. Your parents should trust that your T is handling this--their role should be "do no harm"--as parents can be part of the original problem!! Are you in family therapy? Is your T the family therapist too?

Are you in therapy with your parents?
Otherwise I don't see why you are talking to them about it. I've learned it's better to keep my parents separated from my therapy. They love me and I love them but they just don't/can't help me and it's worse if they try to.

Also therapy can make you feel a bit more exposed to your feelings (feeling more raw) but in the long run it should be helpful. However, one month is quite a short time to be feeling worse.