[trdleblue]

Trigger warning - brief mention about some negative copping skills.

What does it mean to be in crisis? Yesterday my t told me that I was in crisis, and I don't entirely understand. Is there a difference in being in crisis to just having a difficult time? I will say, and my t does know, that some of my behaviors have been escalating. I have been drinking more (sometimes a lot more), purging more, and the amount that I si is quite a bit more. My t said he wants to see me twice a week for then next month, and yesterday that started. He did say that after meeting with me again he was less concerned about me then he was earlier in the week. Could this mean that the crisis stage has passed? Should I ask to go back to weekly appointments?

[Perna]

Being in crisis is when you are not able to cope well by yourself and need additional support from others. If your negative behaviors have been escalating, you're going the "wrong" way and need help blocking that move and moving back the other way to a more secure/usual way of being.

If you cannot currently judge whether you need more/less help, then I would let your T decide when your T wants to move the appointments back to weekly, since it was your T that decided to make the change to twice a week in the first place.

[unaluna]

It sounds to me like he felt something in you was responding to the suggestion of extra sessions, even if the results weren't showing up in fewer bottles yet or whatever. So I feel that's the missing link that needs to be talked about.

[trdleblue]

Originally Posted by hankster

It sounds to me like he felt something in you was responding to the suggestion of extra sessions, even if the results weren't showing up in fewer bottles yet or whatever. So I feel that's the missing link that needs to be talked about.

Hankster, I am daft and I don't know if I quite follow what you are saying. Are you saying that I am doing better because my t suggested appointments twice a week? Right now I don't know if that is true. To me my mood has not changed much. It is only my coping skills, and how I present myself in t that have changed. I really don't know why that is, and I really don't know what is wrong with me right now. I also think that I showed a lot more pain earlier in the week then I did of Friday, but he seems to think differently. He says I released a lot more in the second session this week, which is why he was a bit less concerned about me. Could I be this far off in what I present to him? Why do I feel differently?

[trdleblue]

Originally Posted by Perna

Being in crisis is when you are not able to cope well by yourself and need additional support from others. If your negative behaviors have been escalating, you're going the "wrong" way and need help blocking that move and moving back the other way to a more secure/usual way of being.

If you cannot currently judge whether you need more/less help, then I would let your T decide when your T wants to move the appointments back to weekly, since it was your T that decided to make the change to twice a week in the first place.

Thank you for your answer. I do think that I will let him decide, at least for the next month, how often I meet with him per week.

[unaluna]

Wow. You answered it precisely correctly, yet you are asking me?! it's like you didn't hear what you just said. Or maybe I interpreted it differently than you did.

Your t opened up a safe place in the room by expanding the time to twice a week, and you stepped into that safe bubble, and are doing good work there. It's palpable to him; that's what he said, and you explained it clearly to us.

My t often says I explain things clearly to him - this feels like the first time I heard a clear explanation, the way he talks about it. If that makes sense!

[archipelago]

If acting out and other behavior is really producing a problem for you then seeing your therapist more often can help contain that a bit. But it all really depends on so many factors. I've had therapist who don't consider anything a true crisis unless hospitalization is necessary. Others have been quite the opposite, accepting that if I'm simply preoccupied and not feeling as healthy as I want to be, they have responded as if a kind of crisis and gave me extra time to work it out.

But then I like therapy in general and find it meaningful rather than a "treatment" for "symptoms." I just have a different approach to it right now; it's much more exploration and a time I take for myself, even if within that process I still have times when I feel like reaching out.

[stopdog]

If you don't want to go twice a week, then I don't see that the therapist can make you. If it helping you and you don't mind it, then I think it could be possible to relax and see how it works without worrying about the crisis idea.