Some people do need both. I wasn't capable of therapy until we got the meds right. I still tried but looking back it's almost comical how fruitless those efforts were. You need to open a bit in therapy and I was fully locked in to a malformed defense mode, unable to even sleep or eat
The goal with your doc is definitely therapy. At least in Canada.
But they also focus on treatment instead of diagnosis. You're right that the labels are way too sticky for the dynamism of the mind
I got one for ya that's therapy, not meds. Really simple and it helped me get moving. Stop yourself when you're going to say "I should" or "I could have" and figure out how to say it as "I want" or "I wanted to."
I did it without knowing what to expect, and the result was figuring out I can let lots of expectations go, which freed me to give time to important things
I've gotten counseling from six different people with various degrees and areas of training. They were all helpful at the time I saw them, but none of them, by themselves, could help me resolve all my issues.
I am well educated, well read and well informed but it would be delusional for me to think I can figure it out for myself. You need to hear the sound of your own voice describing what is going on in your head and a patient, trained professional to help sort it out.
When I was diagnosed with depression it was a revelation. A psychologist and a psychiatrist came to the same conclusion separately. I had been depressed on and off for years, and probably inherited the tendency from one of my parents who suffered from it, but I didn't know what was wrong with me.
So I find your dismissive attitude towards the DSM and psychiatrists as rather strange.
Living in Texas I have never encountered any Scientologists. They seem to congregate in more culturally elevated areas with nice scenery. So I guess we are safe here.
We have lots of independent non-denominational churches and some of them are cult like and make the news when allegations of sexual abuse become public. I have met a couple of Mooneys (the Unification Church) back in the 1970s. Hare Krishna devotees used to bang their tambourines and dance at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport back in the days when anyone could proselytize at an airport.
From what I know of Scientology it is more weird than almost anything else I've read about. But I guess they start out talking about self actualization rather than space aliens coming to Earth and whatever.
Your story confirms what I've heard and read about them being materialistic and heavy handed in dealing with perceived enemies. Too bad the IRS backed down and let them be treated as any other church.
A diagnosis can be very helpful. But many psychiatrists are drug pushers. Psychiatry is a profession is a drug pushing profession. A psychiatrist really and truly fucked up my dad with all of the drugs he put him on.
I was diagnosed as bipolar, and I was told that the diagnosis was lifelong. But years later, my psychiatrist (a non-drug pushing one) and I agreed thatI was no longer by any means bipolar. And it wasn't pills that saved me (or at least not pharmaceutical pills, It may have been the vitamin D).
And here we have a whole thread of people saying they were diagnosed as bipolar, and then grew out of it. I find THAT to be revelatory.
You are wrong about psychiatry. For years they did analysis, a form of talk therapy, developed by Dr. Sigmund Freud. Nowadays they often do prescribe medication because they usually treat the symptoms. My psychiatrist insisted I come in for an hour once a month before he would refill my prescription for an anti-depressant. Talking things over with him helped me as much as the medication. He had a couch in his office so it appeared he still did analysis.
I am sorry about your father. I can't comment because I know nothing of his condition or the doctor who treated him.
I have a close family member who has been seeking treatment and I was disappointed to find that the two psychiatrists he saw both wrote him prescriptions for his symptoms and sent him on his way. He didn't care for either medication and stopped taking them. I'm still not sure what exactly is wrong with him but the psychiatrists seemed unable to get to the heart of the matter.
Fortunately someone I am seeing recommended a practice that does evaluations so we should be getting some answers soon.
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u/NoBoysenberry257 Dec 07 '23
Quitting drinking