directionless Posted December 4, 2015 Author Share Posted December 4, 2015 At times in my long journey with depression and anxiety symptoms I have felt angry - mostly just angry at my bad luck for having this problem. When we feel angry at ourselves for any reason, that can be a symptom of depression, ie negative thinking, self loathing. I find it helps to think of my brain as a physical organ that doesn't work as well as it should, just like if I had a heart, liver or kidney condition. It's not my fault that my neurotransmission chemicals and structures don't work well all of the time. Same with you. Since you don't want to use medications, you might want to look at talk therapy, as a good therapist can help you learn coping strategies, including getting some things on paper. Like a relapse and recovery plan, so your wishes are recorded and people can act on them as much as possible. It can also be a prompt for you... sort of like a letter your well self writes to your unwell self. It's possible that if you were unwell enough, you might disregard the plan and see it as part of a conspiracy. That's where having a therapist or one or more informed support people can help. In NZ we have free universal mental health services where you can work with a social worker or mental health nurse for say an hour a week for months or years to do this planning and talk therapy. They can sit down with you and your support people so everyone is on the same page. They are like an anchor in stormy seas. You can phone someone 24/7 and if you need inpatient care they arrange it and keep seeing you in there. I don't think there are many parts of the US that have this kind of service, and the threshold for getting help is probably higher, and the help is not as long term. I wish the US would develop services like this though, as I think it would do a lot of good. In summary, writing down your rational views about your thought patterns and beliefs can help you when things start slipping into irrational thinking. And maybe giving a copy to someone else so you can't destroy it while unwell too. Thanks, that is good advice. It's amazing that NZ can afford to offer the services you described. Of course, a stitch in time saves nine. The US may pay for lack of these services when people become less productive members of society as a result. I've been seeing a psychotherapist for several months. I was disappointed with the results and told her I wanted to end, but she convinced me to try CBT and focus on a single goal that I care about. Even though my superstitious thoughts are not relevant to that effort, I decided to tell her about them today in the weekly session. I wanted her to be aware in case it turns into psychosis again. Yesterday I scoped-out a swimming pool where I hope to try some kick boarding and aqua jogging hopefully. Exercise helps a lot when I can do it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreeThinkerNZ Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 At times in my long journey with depression and anxiety symptoms I have felt angry - mostly just angry at my bad luck for having this problem. When we feel angry at ourselves for any reason, that can be a symptom of depression, ie negative thinking, self loathing. I find it helps to think of my brain as a physical organ that doesn't work as well as it should, just like if I had a heart, liver or kidney condition. It's not my fault that my neurotransmission chemicals and structures don't work well all of the time. Same with you. Since you don't want to use medications, you might want to look at talk therapy, as a good therapist can help you learn coping strategies, including getting some things on paper. Like a relapse and recovery plan, so your wishes are recorded and people can act on them as much as possible. It can also be a prompt for you... sort of like a letter your well self writes to your unwell self. It's possible that if you were unwell enough, you might disregard the plan and see it as part of a conspiracy. That's where having a therapist or one or more informed support people can help. In NZ we have free universal mental health services where you can work with a social worker or mental health nurse for say an hour a week for months or years to do this planning and talk therapy. They can sit down with you and your support people so everyone is on the same page. They are like an anchor in stormy seas. You can phone someone 24/7 and if you need inpatient care they arrange it and keep seeing you in there. I don't think there are many parts of the US that have this kind of service, and the threshold for getting help is probably higher, and the help is not as long term. I wish the US would develop services like this though, as I think it would do a lot of good. In summary, writing down your rational views about your thought patterns and beliefs can help you when things start slipping into irrational thinking. And maybe giving a copy to someone else so you can't destroy it while unwell too. Thanks, that is good advice. It's amazing that NZ can afford to offer the services you described. Of course, a stitch in time saves nine. The US may pay for lack of these services when people become less productive members of society as a result. I've been seeing a psychotherapist for several months. I was disappointed with the results and told her I wanted to end, but she convinced me to try CBT and focus on a single goal that I care about. Even though my superstitious thoughts are not relevant to that effort, I decided to tell her about them today in the weekly session. I wanted her to be aware in case it turns into psychosis again. Yesterday I scoped-out a swimming pool where I hope to try some kick boarding and aqua jogging hopefully. Exercise helps a lot when I can do it. That's great that you told her about the superstitious thoughts. How did she respond? Remember sometimes changing therapist can help give you a new perspective. I saw the same one for months before deciding it wasn't doing much to help. The new one is much better. The cost of the services in NZ is well worth it, because more people are able to function and even do paid work, which saves money in disability payments. Having a section of the population more mentally unwell than they need to be has a lot of direct and indirect costs. I'm sure the US has enough resources to fund a similar service, but the politics is so different there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
directionless Posted December 5, 2015 Author Share Posted December 5, 2015 That's great that you told her about the superstitious thoughts. How did she respond? Remember sometimes changing therapist can help give you a new perspective. I saw the same one for months before deciding it wasn't doing much to help. The new one is much better. I thought her response showed a lack of understanding of delusional thinking. She tried to explain to me why my superstitious beliefs were silly. I already knew the beliefs were silly - that is why it bothered me that I believed them. Here is a quote from Wikipedia. Note the "despite superior evidence". You can't deal with a delusion by presenting superior evidence against the delusion. If that approach would work then the belief would not be a delusion (by definition). The cure that seems to work for best for me is to simply get some rest and then try to exercise regularly. The superstitious thoughts go away. A delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusion But I like this therapist better than most of my past therapists. I'm a hard person to correct, because I am like a cat. My vet was telling me that cats don't like change. Change upsets them. They have a certain place they sleep at a certain time of day, and that is how they like it. That's how I am. I was probably a cat in a previous life I'm glad you found a better therapist. Do you find that your knowledge of psychology makes therapy easier or harder? (It seems like you know a lot about psychology to me. I assumed you might be studying psychology for a career or something.) Sometimes I have heard that doctors make the worst patients LOL. My therapist keeps complaining that I research crazy psychological and medical theories on the internet instead of trusting her advice. IDK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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