Posted by jumpy on February 15, 2003, at 14:49:15
In reply to Re: Ritch:Juggling Meds and Frustrating life » Tabitha, posted by Ritch on February 15, 2003, at 10:42:09
> My hurdle now is: "imperfection of the available medical treatment". I've went through the acceptance of the diagnosis thing pretty quick, but it took quite some time to work through those "gap issues" you speak of. I finally found the "gap issues" mostly a mirage after awhile. I began to realize that I had known quite a few people over many years that clearly weren't mentally ill that were considered "ne'er do-wells" (but were happy), and other quite successful people (business/family) who weren't mentally ill, but .. they were just very UNhappy people!
I found that many of these chronically "unhappy" people are infact mentally ill. Most meet criteria for dysthmia or cyclothmia and respond to psychiatric medication. Would you agree?
>The med juggling hassle is starting to wind down some because I've tried nearly everything already. (Not that the stuff doesn't work-it's always tolerability issues, always) I am starting to lose my skepticism about the helpfulness of therapy-and that's a good sign.
I have alway considered therapy similar to brainwashing ... it a good sense. In therapy you continually reinforce optimistic/positive thoughts despite being a a bad situation. This doesn't not resolve your problems, but allows you to accept them and move onward. I guess it is like give a parapledgic a wheelchair. It helps the individual get around, but does not heal or change the physical paralysis ... and the solution is far from perfect. Even with the wheelchair, the individual still has many problems to contend with.
I had a year of therapy with a very good pdoc. He made me see all the negatives in my life as positives. So he convinced me that my poor work performance was actually good, my fragmented/unloving family was normal/standard, my lack of a relationship was actually me being "independent". So I did not resolve any of my issues, just accepted them and convinced myself that this was "okay" or "normal". I am not sure if this is healthy or not.
Jumpy
poster:jumpy
thread:140790
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030214/msgs/200725.html