Posted by Noa on October 31, 1999, at 16:44:19
In reply to Re: Anti-Placebo Effect., posted by Bob on October 31, 1999, at 14:58:23
> Hi Kathy, I'm glad you're back to fill us in.
Ditto.Depression, like many conditions is both biological and psychological, both mutually interactive. Don't torture yourself by trying to tease apart the cause. It seems to be adding to your shame.
I agree that you are taking steps to take control of your treatment. That is good. Get a good psychopharmocologist, one who will listen to you, who will share his or her thought process with you, who will cooperate with your talk therapist, and who will, of course not shame you. And find a good therapist, one who knows that depression usually needs a multimodal treatment approach, who will cooperate with the psychopharmocologist, and who, of course, will not shame you.
I, too, have the down-in-the-gut feeling of badness. It is part of my depression, but because it has been with me so long, and has been the thing I have tried to avoid thinking about (using less than healthy avoidance mechanisms), starting to look at and understand these feelings is part of my therapy. But when I am really depressed, getting too close to those feelings is risky. I advise you to not delve into the anxiety stimulating material in therapy until your depression lifts a bit with proper medication. You need to reach a safer more stable place. As someone on this thread mentioned, you need to be able to access some rational skills when looking at these very irrational feelings. When in the throes of depression, I know that my thinking is too much in line with the irrational negative beliefs I have deep down inside.
So, don't give up on therapy. You are right that a pill will not enable you to be fluent in French. What I think it does is heighten the language learning abilities, the ability to attune your ear and hear things in a new way, which would allow you to pick up the language more effectively.
Keep us posted. Glad you are back.
poster:Noa
thread:11227
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991028/msgs/14326.html