[ImMentallyILL]

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you?

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you?

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain?

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis?

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves?

[pbutton]

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you? I consider everything he says to see if it "fits" or not. He's usually pretty on track, even when I don't like to admit it. ESPECIALLY when I don't like to admit it.

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you? Yes. We decided upon CBT therapy and no meds. Perfecto. It certainly was not a unilateral decision.

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain? I believe I need better coping skills & to change the way that I react to certain situations.

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis? Yes.

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves? I wouldn't be able to stop thinking for myself even if I wanted to. I am a thinker. It's what I do.

[CantExplain]

I trust that my T knows her business and is doing her best.

That doesn't mean she is always right, and she doesn't claim to be perfect.

[CantExplain]

Nothing personal, just a cynical observation based on past experience:

The phrase "think for yourself" is often used by people who want you to think like them.

[ImMentallyILL]

Originally Posted by CantExplain

The phrase "think for yourself" is often used by people who want you to think like them.

You might be right but I'm trying to figure out what others think

[BlessedRhiannon]

Originally Posted by ImMentallyILL

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you?

I am willing to consider everything my T says about me, but I weigh it with my own self knowledge. Sometimes she's correct, sometimes she's not. Often, she will qualify her statements by saying that it's her perception or experience of me and that may be different than how others perceive or experience me.

Originally Posted by ImMentallyILL

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you?

Not always, and we discuss that. If I have a valid reason for not wanting something, my T will accept my wishes. She will tell me what she thinks is best, but it's up to me to decide if it's something I'm willing to do.

Originally Posted by ImMentallyILL

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain?

Ummm - probably a little bit of both, as well as just some screwed up core beliefs based on a screwed up childhood.

Originally Posted by ImMentallyILL

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis?

I think she is more knowledgeable about psychological issues in general...it is her profession and she's devoted years of study to it. Right now, yes, she probably has more insight in to my specific issues than I do. Sometimes, though, I come up with things she's not considered.

Originally Posted by ImMentallyILL

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves?

Ummm...I don't think therapy can actually work if you ignore thinking for yourself. You have to think to make positive changes. So, no. I'm always thinking for myself. I can't imagine how I could possibly proceed in therapy if I didn't think for myself.

[quote=ImMentallyILL;2373264]Do you believe everything your therapist says about you? Pretty much. I think that I am pretty well informed in regard to the literature ... perhaps more than my therapist, but I now that she can "view" things with a more jaundice eye than me. So I'm willing to give her that control when it comes to my progress.

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you? I've tried medication and I've come to the realization that it isn't able to do much for me . . . other than decrease my anxiety or improve my sleep.. . sooo, I've gone without because I think both of those symptoms are related to my personality structure more than my brain structure. I am of the mind that if I can improve my overall personality structure (read coping skills/attachment issues) than I won't need to rely on medication. Just my take on things.

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain? I have pretty much come to the conclusion that I was born with a pre disposition to emotional dysregulation/mental illness. I have a family history of suicide, mood dysregulation and overall familial dysfunction. Is that a chemical imbalance? Perhaps. Depression and suicide runs in my family. But it isn't controlled or stopped by medication. It is addressed by an ability to gain understanding and control of the emotional dysregulation. .. in my opinion, anyway.

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis? Nope! We work as a team. I know more than she does about how my family functioned and funtions now. She listens to me. She values what I say. She never says that she know more then me. .. how could she, I know the literature at a greater depth than she does! Even she has to admit that.

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves? Absolutely not! As I stated above, my current therapist truly sees me as a partner in my treatment. She consults and talks with me each and every session. I had a pdoc who met with me several times during an inpatient treatment about eight years ago. He had his assessment and evalutation. He had no interest in listening to me or my thoughts. It was a disaster. I got out as soon as I could and moved on to other treatment. The man was out of touch and blind to his clients. Very sad because I know that many pdocs are similar in their treatment.

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you? Most of it. He's pretty perceptive. But not everything. I have no problem challenging him if I think he's off base.

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you? My therapist does not handle my medications; that is my pdoc's job. I am pretty satisfied with my medication management at the moment. Unfortunately, if history repeats itself, something will eventually stop working and I'll be in for another adjustment. That's not the pdoc's fault; it is just the way I tend to respond over time. As far as treatment goes, I have no problem with my T's approach to working with me.

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain? I do believe I have a mental illness -- bipolar disorder. It is managed pretty well through medications, although it all has to be tweaked from time to time. They haven't isolated the specific causes of bipolar disorder. Probably a good portion of the issue is genetic, and from what I understand they are getting closer to isolating that issue. I suspect we'll know in time.

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis? He is pretty knowledgeable. He has some understandings that I don't get, but he doesn't understand how to "live" it. I guess between us we are pretty knowledgeable as a team.

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves? Heck no. I suppose there are people who do this? I'm not one of them though. Totally out of my character.

[sconnie892]

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you? I believe my t provides me with her perspective of me. That might not always be the same way I see myself, but I always consider what she says. If I find myself resisting what she says, I consider it even more.

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you? I agree with t because she takes my wishes into consideration. It is a team effort. I do not want meds and while we have discussed meds, she has not pushed the issue. I know they are available if I change my mind. We have never discussed using a specific type of treatment - whatever we are using is working, so I don't get too concerned with exactly what it is called.

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain? I believe I have dysthymia and anxiety issues. That is what t and I have discussed. I am beginning to believe some of this is genetic as I know others in the family have had undiagnosed mental illnesses.

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis? In terms of clinical information about my Dx, yes. In terms of how I live with my issues, I think she only gets a narrow view that I tell her 50 min every other week.

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves? No. T often says what she gives me are suggestions. It is up to me to decide if I want to take the suggestions and do something with them or not. I do quite a bit of thinking on my own and on occasion have surprised t with what I've thought through (at least I think t was somewhat surprised.)

[stopdog]

I rarely agree with anything the woman says. I have no formal diagnosis and do not take drugs. I would hope with her degrees and years in practice she would have some idea of what she is doing. I do think for myself.

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you?
Nope. I have been living in my head longer than he has known me. Therefore, I trust that I know me better. However, I also know that my thoughts and beliefs were distorted by some seriously messed up parenting. Therefore, I am willing to listen when he suggests that my thoughts are not reality.

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you?
Generally we discuss these things together and I respect his opinions. However, when I wanted to stop trying antidepressants (had been on over 10 different meds and the Pdoc was starting to try combinations of drugs, all with no relief), and my T was opposed, I went ahead and stopped anyway and just asked him to support my decision. He agreed to be supportive but wanted me to agree that I would listen and consider his opinion if he thought I was crashing and needed to restart medication. I agreed to that.

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain?
I think I had one of the more f'ed up mothers around and my dad was also abusive. I think there may be some genetic element in that there is a history of depression, addiction and extreme violence throughout my family.

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis?
Nope. When I first started, I researched to find out what the code he was using in the "diagnosis" box of the form that he uses for billing meant. When I felt I had improved dramatically, I asked him to change it. He agreed and eliminated the "diagnosis" altogether.

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves?
I don't believe that is how therapy works. My therapist's position is that he cannot do the work for me. He takes no credit for how much better I am. I do the thinking and the work at trying to change my thought patterns and behavior.

[sunrise]

Originally Posted by ImMentallyILL

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you?

I consider everything he says. He has told me before that if he gets something wrong, I need to tell him. In this way, he comes to know me better.

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you?

Therapy has been successful. He also wouldn't force me to do something I didn't want to do. He is not a prescriber so we don't talk about meds much.

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain?

Neither. I go to therapy to achieve healing and greater joy and functionality in life. I am not mentally ill. For the most part, my brain is fine, and I am grateful.

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis?

My therapist has never given me a diagnosis. We work on problems in my life, such as building better relationships, dealing with the death of family members, managing stress, learning to express emotions, etc.

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves?

I let my therapist help me. I think for myself.

[shipping]

Once my T told me to "lighten up". I said, "no".

[crazycanbegood]

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you? Not a session goes by that I do not disagree with her.

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you? For the most part. She's a blind follower of pdocs I fear, and I am question them on everything.

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain? I don't know. I just know I am messed up, cursed, damaged goods.

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis? Yes

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves? Isn't this redundant?

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you?
no, but i am slowly beginning too. and that is a good thing

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you?
type of treatment, yes; medications, not so much. he is wanting me to talk with pcp and try another one, he makes it clear it's my decision but he does keep reminding me. i'm against more meds

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain?
yes, i believe i have depression and ptsd in remission. my words not t's. we really don't discuss dx much at all, i am not really that interested. not sure what he tells the ins co. i also believe that there is a chemical imbalance and a genetic component as well.

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis?
yes, he surprises me all the time

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves?
no, never. i need his expertise and his knowledge and his little black bag of tools. some things he suggests are not for me, so then another tool must come out of the bag, but it is me that has to put it into practice and let t know if it worked

[elliemay]

I used to think for myself, but that all changed when I went into therapy.

My therapist has never said anything about me regarding dx and has never prescribed any medication. I guess she believes in self empowerment. But then she isn't tied up with any clinical setting either.

[Crescent Moon]

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you?

Often, no. She sees me in a much more positive light than I do. She thinks she sees me more accurately than I see myself.

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you?

My therapist is a psychologist, and therefore cannot prescribe. As for her treatment decisions, she's done an incredible job. I could have never seen myself recovering to the extent that I have recovered.

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain?

Studies have proven that long-term trauma changes the brain. I suffered from PTSD and depression. My limbic system had been overactivated so frequently, that it was stuck. I could not get it unstuck. My therapist, over a long period of time, was able to help me get unstuck. I think my brain is still different than it was before all the trauma, but it's much better now.

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis?

Yes. My therapist has been educated and trained, and specifically has a lot of experience working with depression and attachment problems. That said, she places great emphasis on her reliance on me to 'lead' her. It's a joint effort.

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves?

My therapist would never allow that.

[WikidPissah]

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you? Ha! NO....thank God.

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you? Not 100%....we meet in the middle somewhere.

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain? No

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis? yes...he has studied it longer and works with a lot of trauma.

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves? I let him do his job and help me, but I also think for myself.

[OneRedRose]

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you?
yes and no, sometimes they are right sometimes I inform them that they got me pegged wrong.

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you?
sometimes...they tried to put me on anti pyschotics, I werent happy with that, and never took them

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain?
Yes

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis?
No, because Like I tell them all at the beginning "I will play my games, and I can act exactly how I want you to believe I am, until you earn my information" but im like that with friends too, people have to earn information from me, but Ill make them believe what they already know is everything, ill paint whatever picture they want. my T commented on the fact that im scarily good at it, and if it werent for my opening speech she would never know.

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves?
I think for myself, but I go to T for advice, so ill take the advice if I feel its useful, or will atleast trial it to see how it goes, otherwise whats the point in going at all? you're just wasting theres and your own time.

[SpiritRunner]

Good questions, IMI!

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you?

I have had 2 Ts and no, I didn't believe everything they said. I never believe everything anyone says! I always thought that even though my Ts were better educated and more trained to observe things in me and my patterns that I might miss, I still was the one living in my heart and mind and I also was every bit as intelligent as either one of them - which they agreed with. I challenged them on things. Sometimes they were wrong and admitted it. Sometimes they were right and they saw what I had not and I had to think about it a while before I saw it and accepted it, too.

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you?

No, I didn't always agree, especially about meds. I was willing to be as compliant as possible but I also asked lots of questions and took some initiative. I feel like I was working too hard to be compliant at first when I was misdiagnosed as bipolar and put on Abilify (which started a round of absolute hell for me), but I still stood up for myself enough that I got T and the PA doofus to accept what it was doing to me!

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain?

Hmmm. I tend not to think of myself as mentally ill, just mentally/emotionally different. I don't think I am mentally ill. But I do think I have some things in my brain that do function different than the average so-called normal person, whether that's a chemical thing or the way my brain is structured/designed or whether it's all interrelated with the cause/effect of the emotional environment in which I grew up, which could have brought out inherent tendencies or created patterns in my thinking ....

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis?

I think my Ts had more education/training than I on them. But I have learned a great plenty.

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves?

My Ts encouraged me to do the work and the thinking for myself!
Though there was a time, well, it was in the middle of hell and I had withdrawn from T really, and she said, Let people help you!
Anyway, it was teamwork ... although sometimes I was too independent about it all and needed them to remind me it was OK to stop doing ALL the work by myself, alone!

[stopdog]

I don't believe everything I say and I trust me a whole lot more than I do any therapist.

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you?
She often shows a lot of insight, and understands me well. She hasn't really been off base with anything she's said about me so far (to my face, anyway ). Sometimes she'll see something in me that might surprise me at first, one such example being that I'm 'emotionally distant' - I had to concede she was correct, it just wasn't how I'd seen myself, I guess it was a blind spot - but so obvious when I actually thought about it.

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you?
My therapist doesn't decide my medications, my doctor does. I saw a number of doctors before I found one I'm confident has the correct approach to my treatment.. I looked up different medications etc, as my depression seemed to be treatment resistant, and I'd been put on several different SSRIs etc with no effect. I had a good talk with my current doctor and he decided to treat me with the older tricyclics, which have proven more effective. He also encourages me to keep on with my therapy, as he believes it is the therapy that will make the real difference in my case. My therapist has various approaches - not all of which I have been on board with from the beginning.. (I was tres cynical).. but as I have come to understand things a little better, done my own research, etc, I have come around more to her way of thinking - and, it's working for me.

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain?
I believe my limbic system got ****ed up! Depression and anxiety for me have manifested as much as - if not more acutely as - physical symptoms than as mental ones. And, for me, I believe the depression and anxiety are symptomatic of bigger problems... deeper rooted issues from childhood, something of a personality disorder.. dissociating and disconnecting from my emotions and from the 'true self'...etc... It seems to be a matter of rewiring... or something...

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis?
I've done a lot of reading, but ultimately this is her area of expertise, not mine. Although.. knowing more than me about a 'diagnosis' doesn't mean she knows more about me than me - so I do my best to explain to her everything that's going on for me so that she knows me better and best knows how to take us forward in therapy.

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves?
I believe my therapist wants me to think for myself. We did discuss something along these lines, as she's aware I do a lot of reading and try to understand things, be better informed.. I email her and ask all kinds of questions about psychology and the 'process' and 'is this what's happening to me?' etc.. I was concerned she might think I was intellectualising too much, and that it might be a sort of avoidance.. She wasn't worried though, and said that she'd probably do the same thing. Therapy feels kind of like a collaboration, with T guiding me and keeping me on track. Therapy also isn't just the time in session, the process, the 'work', keeps happening outside as well.. so, in conclusion, I don't just show up every week like 'how much? Okay then, fix it for me' like I'm dropping off my car at a garage or going for a haircut ...

[healed84]

Originally Posted by ImMentallyILL

Do you believe everything your therapist says about you?

Do you agree with the type of treatment and medications your therapist wants for you?

Do you believe you have a mental illness or a chemical imbalance in your brain?

Do you think your therapist knows more than you about your diagnosis?

Do you just let your therapist do their job by helping you and ignore thinking for yourselves?

1) No, I don't believe everything my T says about me.. We are working on it though. In general he tries to point out that I am not a bad mom, not destined to end up like the rest of my family, whatever.. We have gone back on forth on wanting to label me as a perfectionist.. I say, no I just want to be better than I am now- he says that my standards are too and in order for me to be really happy I would have to perfect. I can't stand that I have flaws and that I could be a better person, but I am not right now.

2)I do agree with my treatment and meds. He does not rx meds, but he was the one who highly recommend that I go and talk to somebody about the meds. At first he said it was up to me, then when I was having panic attacks daily more than once, he said that for right now, meds and therapy are what was probably going to work best for me.. And what do you know. He was right, lol. As far as the kind of therapy.. Right now we really just talk, he has given me ways of getting past anxiety attacks, helped me see some of my distored thinking. We however not offical started any like cbt, yet.. However, that is where we are working towards.

3) I believe I have both a mental illness and a chemical imbalnce.

4)I looked at this question differently at first- Do I think my T knows more about my dx that me? Yes, as in.. I think he knows more than he tells me. I have never had any kind of offical diagnosis from him other than him stating that I was dealing with a server panic disorder. However, over course he knows more about my dx in general than I do.. He went to school for many years to study this stuff. I can read books, look up stuff online, but I think he will always have a better understanding than myself.

5) I think you are asking two different questions.. Do I let my T does his job? Sometimes, meaning I will take his advice, read something he suggests, practicer relaxation, etc.. Do I think for myself? Of course.. I think we all need to think for ourselves. I can see in situations when our cognitive distortions really mess with what we believe about ourselves aned sometimes we have to just give into the real truth instead of what we see, but I think that is a bit different than not thinking for ourselves.