[SoupDragon]

Is anyone ever able to get rid of that horrible ambivalence of wanting to / not wanting to quit therapy? It drives me insane and exhausts me and sometimes makes me want to quit just to escape the ambivalence.

Any strategies / techniques that can help?

[wheeler]

Well you probably already now that quitting probably won't stop the ambivalence, or what I like to call the push-pull. Have you tried the old standby of talking to your t about this?

I quit often go thru the moth-to-a-flame feelings, the what I want most will also kill me, and I hate to admit it, but talking with my t has helped.

I also know deep down I really want to go.

Hello, SoupDragon. After reading some of your posts, I think you and your therapist need to formulate a treatment plan. It is very important your therapist knows about what is bothering you. Being forthright is an imperative. These articles may help:

Treatment Plans and their importance with a link to more articles should you miss it: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/therap...t-plan-series/

here

http://helpguide.org/mental/psychoth...counseling.htm

“Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” - Fitzhugh Dodson
“First you write down your goal; your second job is to break down your goal into a series of steps, beginning with steps which are absurdly easy.” - Fitzhugh Dodson

[stopdog]

I have not found a way to stop the ambivalence after a year. It is still as strong as ever. Talking to the t i just quit was useless. I don't know about the current one but I suspect the same. Good luck with it. I hope someone gives good advice here because I would also like to know.

[Nelliecat]

Soup, I have these urges to quit frequently too. Then 5 minutes later I'm feeling pulled back towards it again. It is exhausting, I would say talk to T about it too. Let us know whether you discover any techniques and tips.

Nellie

[REEG]

Yup, talking with T about not wanting to go or address difficult topics can be very helpful. Two specific things that have made a difference for me:

1. I talked about my strong desire to avoid difficult topics, and frustration about spending time and money to just talk 'fluff' I asked T to help me talk about 'difficult things' for at least five minutes each session. This really helped- More often than not, I'd then be able to push myself enough to talk MUCH more than 5 minutes. And what was really interesting was that b sometimes, when I felt that I hadn't talked about anything particularily important, T would say "wow, that was worth at least 5 minutes, maybe ten!" I'd ask why, and we would talk about that. It really helped with focusing in on things I wouldn't have otherwise.
when I was really avoiding stuff, T would say, "okay, how about our five minutes?"

2. I had been going through a rough patch being highly ambivalent- a number of sessions where I felt all I could do was talk about wanting to talk/ not wanting to be there. Someone on PC talked about 'quitting therapy between sessions' (I wish I remember who) some weeks I walked out of there thinking to myself- "well, I'm NOT doing this again until next week" Seems kind of silly, but it was helpful.

[SoupDragon]

Originally Posted by TheByzantine

Hello, SoupDragon. After reading some of your posts, I think you and your therapist need to formulate a treatment plan. It is very important your therapist knows about what is bothering you. Being forthright is an imperative. These articles may help:

Treatment Plans and their importance with a link to more articles should you miss it: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/therap...t-plan-series/

here

http://helpguide.org/mental/psychoth...counseling.htm

Thank-you for these links - I am intrigued by what you see, I shall spend time looking at my posts also. I'm not sure if my T works on the basis of treatment plans. Soup