[jbug]

My T left for a 2 1/2 week vacation today. I know in my heart he's coming back but my brain is saying he's not coming back he abandoned you. Yea he says he's going to Disneyland but he's really out looking for another job and he's just not going to come back. I'm scared. 2 years ago he went to Florida to Disneyworld and I got the same feelings and finally worked myself into a state that ended up being hospitalized. I saw my pdoc today and she gave me some Ativan to help with the anxiety I am feeling due to him being gone. I hope it works and that I don't end up being hospitalized. I am just so scared.

Jbug

Hi Janiebug -

LL my therapist is heading into a vacation too.

I see you are here in the USA - Therapy agencys in the USA have to have an on call service or professional to cover the caseload during their vacations. basically how that works is the person calls the normal office hours number and the phones calls are automatically "forwarded" to the professional on call or the service (other therapy agency that is covering the phones).

So you are not completely alone. I know it feels that way but in actuality someone (the on call person ) who most likely has already been "briefed" on the clients your theraipst wants to make sure will be ok if a call comes in from that client is just a phone call away.

Also one of the things I do when in therapy is that I choose a "back up person".

A back up person is someone with in the same therapy agency where I see my therapist, that stays in the loop of what my therapist and I are doing.

That way should I need someone and my therapist is unavailable (vacation, workload, illness you name it) I have someone I can call that already knows the basics about me and my disorder and some problem areas and so on.

Having a back up person makes these every three - six month vacation times that therapists take to keep themselves from burning out easier for me because I know exactly who I will be taking with and if needed seeing should a problem come up while LL is not available. while LL is not available all I have to do is call the main office number and tell who ever picks up the phone - "Hi. I'm so and so LL is unavailable so I need to speak to my back up E like right now." and I will within a few minutes be talking to my backup.

By t he way All USA therapy agencys now have "conference" calling on their phones so I don't have to hang up and wait for the therapist to call me back. I stay on the line and The on call person puts me on hold, dials the therapist pager, home phone whatever and then pushes a button and forwards my phone call on to the phone where my therapist (or back up person) is and the two of us are talking on the phone together.

Hang in there

[jbug]

My clinic does have a 24 hour hotline if I should need it. One of the on call therapists at night knows me well and I know that if I should need her on Tuesdays or Thursday nights she's there for me. Wednesday night therapist is a children's therapist and talks in this tone of voice that annoys me. Monday night therapist always seems like I took her out of sex or something because she seems annoyed when I have to call. I don't call just to call either its always an emergency. During the day I know I can talk with Hilda she and I go way back so I know that I am covered I just can't seem to shake the feeling that I have been abandoned even though I know I haven't.

Jbug

[(JD)]

My T just returned from 2 week vacation, and now another long weekend off.. I, too, have strong reactions to his absence.

Please do call your contact, even just to say you're just checking in. I didn't make contact with the office while T was gone, and it may be why I'm still reacting, even though he's back... I'm not. ??? I guess I should have made an appointment or two with his partner. sigh. Please, you do.

oh boy do I know those baby talk types. Its like they think if they talk like they would to a child you are not going to go off the wall during their time. Especially when they know I have DID. "Yes hello my dear and how are you tonight?" and "how old are you my dear?" I get this sometimes when I call a local hot line (vollunteers mainly answer the phones) and this one person answers who also helped out of that agencys support group one night when one of the regular facilitators was out. That woman needs to get a life OUTSIDE the realm of therapy because if she ever makes it to graduating and doing an actual internship with a therapy agency she better hope it isn't at my therapy office. The annoyed ones yup had a few of them too. One person actually told me to hurry it up and tell her what I needed because it was 3am. I told her I didn't care what time it was if she didn't have the patients to write out a phone number on her "call log in" paper and call the person I was asking to talk to then she was in the wrong business and I would be reporting her attitude to the supervisor. She apologized and put my call through to my counselor at that time and I let the counselor know what had happened because the counselor who I was with was also the one that did the crisis center training seminars. I don't mess around with people like that. I have learned to not give the person who picks up the after hours phone calls a chance to patrinize or be rude to me they say hello and I flat out say Im so and so, phone number, I need to speak to so and so and no its none of your business why just call this person and ask them if they will take my call or if I should call my back up named so and so also with this agency. I usually don't get a run around, a rude one or anyone patronizing me with this agency I am with.

I am glad that you have "Hilda". and yes sometimes it does feel like being abandoned. Hang in there. your therapist will be back soon.