Posted by sowhysosad on September 27, 2009, at 20:38:16
In reply to Re: Success Rate of Antidepressants And Theraphy, posted by SLS on September 27, 2009, at 20:06:48
> Psychotherapy does not produce an improvement in my depression. None at all. The depression persists despite my accomplishing the goals that I set out to address in psychotherapy.
A UK health service pdoc would probably still try to convince you otherwise despite your experience!
That said, they may approach bipolar disorder in a different way to unipolar depression. I have no experience in that area - as far as I'm aware I'm not on the bipolar spectrum.
> For some people, it is crucial to process the psychological issues that contributed to the precipitation of their biological depressive condition.
I'm sure you're right, particularly in the case of "situational" depressions that have been precipitated by recent life events or stressors.
Where therapy is helpful, I firmly believe techniques like CBT and Psychology of Mind that are concerned with the "now" and dealing with broken thought processes are probably most effective.
To me, dredging up and analysing negativity from your past is counter-intuitive to getting well. It can only push you deeper into depression whilst making the therapist substantially wealthier.
> I think there might be differences between unipolar atypical depression and bipolar depression with respect to the propensity of psychotherapy to yield meaningful results in reducing symptom severity.
Yeah, I would imagine they have a largely biological basis, in contrast to many unipolar depressions.
My current depression in a weird one. It came after a bout of SSRI-induced akathisia which, in turn, may have been caused by suddenly quitting another SSRI weeks earlier. To me, it's blatantly a biological depression.
It's probably been exacerbated by external stressors since then as my life has come apart at the seams, but I was in a good place before the depression kicked in.
Despite explaining this until I'm blue in the face, I can't get a pdoc to understand the concept.
poster:sowhysosad
thread:918637
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090921/msgs/918766.html