Posted by PM80 on May 5, 2005, at 7:53:40
In reply to Re: Cause of episodes? » PM80, posted by Lydia on May 4, 2005, at 17:01:24
I see a psychologist rather than a psychiatrist so the focus really is therapy, and not medication. He works with my doc so that I'm on the right meds for my brain chemistry. But overall, psychologists tend to be better than psychiatrists for help with actual therapy because they aren't looking for a quick fix - ie give her some meds so she'll act normal. They want to help resolve the heart of the issue so that when flair-ups occur, the patient is able to deal with and manage them on their own. Obviously this is just a general statement and won't hold true all the time for every pdoc versus psychologist.
If you've been thinking about going to therapy for a while than you probably should. Therapy can give you the tools to recognize when you are starting to have an episode and give you tools to fight them. It can help you realize the power that you rightly have over your life, both related to your sickness and beyond that. You do not need to wait until you are in deep depression or extreme hypomanic/manic mood. In fact, you can probably be more objective when you are not, which is good in therapy. For example, if you got a bad cut, would you wait until it turned green and black with infection before you went to see a doctor - of course not! You'd go right away to get it cleaned and to get stitches. Same is true with therapy.
You asked what meds I was on: I am on 200-300mg Seroquel at night and 750mg/day Depakote.
poster:PM80
thread:493652
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050504/msgs/494015.html