Posted by akc on September 8, 2001, at 20:29:20
In reply to Re: talk therapy - beg to differ » adamie, posted by Cam W. on September 8, 2001, at 19:14:46
> Adamie - Talk therapy, depending on the kind, can definitely help medical conditions. Cognitive therapy can help people learn to cope with their disorder, thus improving their quality of life. It can also help to change a person from a victim of a disease, and empower tham to take control of the disorder, rather than the disorder controling them.
>
> - CamI have to jump in here and add my support to what Cam says. I can only speak from my experience. But medication alone would not solve my disease. I had developed years of poor coping mechanisms (from alcoholism to isolating myself from others to black and white thinking and so on and so on) in an attempt to control/treat my disease. Adding a medicine, even the right medicine, didn't take these poor coping skills away. I've needed help in identifying and relearning these skills.
And I will add, because it has been a battle these past two years to find the "right" medicine (or combination of medicines), I have needed the help of talk therapy in learning how to accept that I have a chronic, even possibly deadly, illness. As Cam said -- to do that without taking the role of a victim -- I couldn't have done that without the help of a very good therapist. I think this acceptance has helped me as I have worked with my pdoc in trying to find the right combination of meds.
akc
poster:akc
thread:78191
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