Posted by mtom on July 28, 2019, at 18:41:35
In reply to Did anyone ever consider or do psychotherapy only?, posted by Lamdage22 on July 28, 2019, at 12:06:05
Yes. First time was many years ago, I developed quite intense Depression and Anxiety brought on by a long period of intense and multiple situational Stresses. I was fortunate that in those days Psychiatrists still practiced Psychotherapy and I had a good one, Chief of Psychiatry in a Hospital and a very smart, open-minded and caring person (since deceased). However by the time I saw him I had started making changes to my life to alleviate the stress and was already starting to recover. Psychotherapy sessions together with consistent meditation practice (I had learned several years earlier but had not been practicing) led to my complete recovery.
More recently, before trying antidepressants, I did a Group Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy program (MBCT). This did help for a while, but more situational stresses cropped up and I started slipping again. I tried a number of private therapy sessions with the Psychologist who led the group program - didn't help. In fact, added additional stress because we just didn't hit it off on a one-to-one basis and she didn't offer any more guidance than what she had taught in the course, we never got in-depth on a really personal level. We were getting frustrated with each other and going nowhere. I tried another psychologist a couple of times but the same thing, I found Cognitive Therapy kind of cookie-cutter one size fits all. I tried a third Psychotherapist - and almost walked out of her office before our 1st and only session ended.
One of the plusses of the days when Psychiatrists practiced Psychotherapy was that, because they were Medical Doctors, they were covered by my Canadian "medicare" insurance.
Anyway, I gave up looking for another therapist because all this therapy experimentation was costing me a lot of money (Psychologists not covered by Government insurance and my Private insurance only paid a small portion). And I think making me feel more hopeless.
I eventually ended up 15 months ago trying AD's (now on my third - a common story).
I think if you find the "right" Therapist it could be very beneficial, depending on the root cause. In my case it is multifactorial as my current depression came on just before I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease (see posts on inflammatory theory of depression), and subsequently exacerbated by a number of new life stresses. I also still believe that some kind of Mind-Body practice is very supportive, lots of literature has shown this. I stopped meditating in part because the concept had lost credibility with me, and that at least in part because the Therapist teaching it had lost credibility. But I did find meditation helpful in past, more than once.
If I knew of a guaranteed really good Psychotherapist, I would consider trying again. I also hope to try meditation again as I do believe it can support and accelerate recovery.
poster:mtom
thread:1105471
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20190728/msgs/1105481.html