Posted by Racer on June 13, 2004, at 9:13:47
In reply to Am I in Denial? Complete Treatment for Depression?, posted by Simcha on June 12, 2004, at 23:45:22
You're not in denial. And the fact that you are so highly functional should tell you something pretty important about the treatment course you're on, right? After all, if you can work with severely disturbed kids, you are very, very highly functional.
The first time I went on anti-depressants, I was in therapy. I'd been in therapy for a couple of years, and we hit The Hard Stuff in a big way. My depression got much worse, and I couldn't get past the block to work on the hard things we were facing. After spinning my wheels for a while, feeling really wretched, my primary care doctor sat me down and told me that I was depressed (really?) and sent me to a psychiatrist for an anti-depressant. That drug gave me what I needed to work past the block in therapy.
Unfortunately, my therapist was anti-drug. She kept saying that any gains I made in therapy while on drugs were false, because the drug was a crutch. She was rabidly anti-med. And she's not the only therapist I've met who has that idea. My own personal theory is that each mental health practitioner has his/her own blind spots about treatment that come from focussing on their own methods. (Although most psychiatrists seem to have a healthy respect for psychotherapy, so it's really more the therapists tending towards an anti-med view.)
Anyway, I think you're right about not looking at being med free as the answer. Maybe someday you will no longer need the meds -- who can say? If what you're doing works for you, and you can function at the level you described -- you have no idea how I envy you right now -- you're doing it right for you for now. Maybe pschoanalysis would help, maybe it wouldn't. If you're satisfied that the therapy you're in is working for you, why change it? If you're interested in trying psychoanalysis, try it. But not because someone has 'prescribed' it to you as a cure for anti-depressant medication, if you see what I mean.
Yes, depression is a serious condition. There's no question about that. But it's like diabetes, you can control it. No, no cure on the horizon, but there are ways to control it -- and you're already doing the full treatment and it's working for you.
Best luck.
poster:Racer
thread:356230
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040608/msgs/356267.html