Posted by Iansf on November 24, 2009, at 12:47:17
In reply to Re: No benefit to adding psychotherapy to medicati, posted by morganator on November 23, 2009, at 23:41:43
While I agree agree depression can linger underneath layers of denial, I do not believe this is true of the typical person suffering from chronic depression. It is perhaps common among "overachievers" but not common among the population in general. For both myself and most people I've known who suffer from long-term depression, the depression is anything but hidden.
I do not accept the notion that it is helpful to force a person in pain to go into even more pain. From my own experience and my observations of others, what most depressed people need to do is find a way to alleviate pain, not to suffer more. To my mind, there is something sadistic about pushing people deeper into pain as a pretext for therapy. Living in long-term pain is profoundly disempowering. What I gained from antidepressants is a recognition that life can be pleasurable, and that provided me a foundation I could build on. Years of psychotherapy did nothing in that regard.
Also, I've found it extremely common for psychotherapists to claim their patients aren't working hard enough if their methods are not working. I find that very arrogant. Perhaps they should take a look at whether they themselves are not working hard enough, or, from a more charitable viewpoint, ask if perhaps the techniques they use are either inadequate in general or inappropriate for the particular client. Few other professions can get away with blaming the client for the failure of their methods.
> Depression can also linger underneath layers of denial and other mechanisms of coping for years. We may be angry or depressed/sad about something deep inside but not really feel it. This is why when therapy is really working people get depressed before they get better. As you work through emotions that you have been carrying deep inside for so long you have to feel them and fully experience them in order to work them out of you. This may take some time. Many people are unwilling to do deal with the pain they carry which is why therapy is not successful.
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> Not only should one be working hard in during the therapy session, but one should be working hard outside of therapy in between session. This takes lots of reflection and time spent trying to work out what it is that ails your psyche.
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> I feel like most people, even the most and maybe especially the most intelligent people, do not want to think about how powerful our psyche is and how crucial it is that we have the proper nurture while developing. I believe that many of us need medication at this point in our lives but I also think that many of us taking medication would benefit from several different types of therapy, including psychodynamic and psychodynamic group therapy. There is a part of me that believes that despite our genetic predisposition(which I think is exactly that, a predisposition) we may not have needed medication in a different world.
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> I would like everyone to consider going to group psychodynamic therapy. I think it can work wonders, especially if two highly qualified and well trained psychotherapists conducted it. If you want to go further than what your medication can take you, you would at least try group therapy for a few months. You also have to be willing to face yourself like never before and do some serious heavy lifting.
poster:Iansf
thread:926342
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091117/msgs/926826.html