posted
Ha, ha! Laugh it off, Jamie. You're just being too sensitive. I mean, calling your chosen profession a pack of foolish indifference, well is that unreasonable?
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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*bumped because I just now read through and felt like I needed to say something*
Anne Kate, I saw the hug thread earlier and I hope that you are getting some help somehow. It sounds like you are having a tough time.
IndexCard: My heart goes out to you. Feel free to email me if you want someone to talk to , though it seems like some very competent and caring hatrackers have already offered you some advice.
Yeah, competent hatrackers like mack and Theca. I hate to say this, but the comments about the counselling and psychiatric professions were way off base, ak. I have a psychiatrist and a counselor that have helped me tremendously. My primary care doctor gave me an SSRI and I took the drug for 10 months and got steadily worse. ONly after starting therapy with an MSW,LCSW (the same certification mack is pursuing) did I begin to improve. Drugs alone did not help.
Drugs in combination with good therapy has made the difference. Once we determined that I was improving, but there were still some worriesome symptoms, we brought the psychiatrist on board, becuase my primary care physician said he would feel better if I were under the care of someone that deals with those drugs in their specialty. I'm now in a better place than I have been in years, and none of it is due to drugs alone - but with the combination of therapy and drugs prescribed under the watchful eye of a good psychiatrist.
When I'm going through a tough time, just the knowledge that my therapist is available for me calms me. I know that I can turn to her anytime I need it, and she is nothing less than a godsend. I would not have that assurance from simply a pill. And a pill can't offer me advice on coping with difficult days, a pill can't suggest ways of dealing with stress and anger so it doesn't spill over to my kids. Just about every aspect of my life has been improved through working with my therapist. Without her, I never would have found the courage to apply to college again. A pill couldn't give me that.
The place to start is often your family physician. But if things progress to the point where that's not enough - then by all means you should seek help from professionals.
mack has every right to be angry about what was said. For the sake my of my own therapist, I'm miffed as well. That sweeping generalization disparaging these professions was uncalled for.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Petulance is brought out when people are shocked by an affront.
I would think that having a person whom you know to be competent in a profession that, though on the whole you find incompetent, would lead you to think that the entire profession is useless. I suppose I think wrong in the Book According to Anne Kate.
I do have Index Card's interest in mind. We've talked. We continue to talk. I continue to advise her and Emp on how to obtain the professional help that she needs. I can't advise her otherwise because that would be unethical. What if something happened? I mean, I can be completely honest and explain that sure, there are hacks in every profession. I can tell her what to look for in a good psychiatric evaluation, in a good clinician, in a good psychiatrist. I can explain how to get hooked up with services in her area. I can contact authorities if I think she's gotten into too hairy of a situation.
Studies show that the combination of pharmacotherapy and talk therapy leads to the best results when dealing with mental illlness. There is a lot to be had in congitive/behavioral therapy, with symptom management, illness acceptance, crisis avoidance, crisis stabilization. There's a lot to be said and is documented for the real, human connections that are made in good therapeutic relationships.
I want to help Index and I do what I can. Don't want to have the LBJ complex, right? (Little baby jesus, trying to save everyone). I know I don't know everything, but I do know that it's impossible for me not to know ANYthing. That isn't realistic. That's black and white thinking and a symptom of depression. A few therapists or doctors or bad, so they ALL must be bad. No room for gray, just black and white. That could help Index, but not in the way you intended. As an illustration of illness, rather than sound advice.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I decided that I won't give up. I called Ruth again- that's the lady from my evaluation- and she was in a group therapy session so she is going to call me back, hopefully. I will call again if she doesn't, though. I am going to get the number of the psychiatrist again and find out why they haven't called. I need an appointment and I need it now, or soon, and I won't give up until I have one. Oh but I'm scared.... it took me forever to pick up that phone and call her again. But I did it.
I'm proud of myself, even if no one else will be. Who cares. I can believe in myself even if no one else believes in me.
posted
Index, even the most loathesome of creatures has something to be proud of. You are above such a creature by many, many orders of magnitude, I suspect, and others who know you better know. As this thread has evidenced, there are people outside of yourself who believe in you. Instincts that tell you otherwise are lying to you. I think with time you'll learn to recognize those instincts-I did.
Speaking for myself, hopelessness and paralysis as far as doing anything is concerned was a major part of depression. Unfortunately it would seem you have problems that run deeper than mine did, and do, and I'm sorry for that. But I suspect that one way in which my experience can relate to yours is that I can tell you from it that taking that first step, doing the first thing, is a very powerful action. It takes a great deal more willpower to take that first step, and it yields bigger results, too: everything becomes just a little bit less daunting, because you're doing something about it. Dialing seven digits on a telephone is sometimes very easy, but sometimes very hard-I am happy to hear that even when it was very hard, you were up to the challenge. Don't berate yourself because it was so hard and you almost didn't do it. You did, which is what matters.
Things may not improve in the short-term when you act, but they will inevitably improve in the long-run when you overcome that sort of fear and doubt.
We ARE behind you. And you definitely have something to be proud of. Keep us posted, okay? I think about you every day, I so hope they can help and you feel better soon. As is, you have my respect. I know how hard it is to make the steps you have, so I'm proud of you too.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Email me your name, your psychiatrist's name, and the clinic number, and I'll happily talk to them and try to straighten it out. As a physician, I can get in through back doors, and I can make sure you get called.
My promise -- just send me the info.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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It's okay for butting in. I think the thing I really needed was for someone to butt in. I don't think these people are taking me seriously at all. So thanks again CT, a TON, and... OWWWWWWWWW! *runs after Mack*
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Thanks a ton, again, CT. I really appreciate it. Maybe after just knowing you know what is going on (without them telling you it is) then they will call me back... Or maybe not. But I still really appreciate it. (((((CT))))))
(((((Mack)))))
(((Hatrack)))
edit: I just called again, and I was informed by Ruth- I spoke to her, the psychologist from my evaluation- that she called my mom about an hour and a half ago to let her know what was going on. There was a delay eith the minor medi-cal so that is still going through and she said that if by the middle of next week the psychiatrist has not called (She said she called them and confirmed that they have openings for me) then we should call her and let her know, and she will have them call us right away. Thank you CT. What you did may not have seemed like much, but it got through to them, and it really worked. I am so relieved... thank you so, so much!!!!!
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I was tired at 11. Now it is 2:40 a.m. and I am still not alseep, or even sleepy for that matter. I hope this doesn't last again. I've begun documenting my moods and such so I can talk about it as frankly as possible with the psychiatrist when I get one.
Slaap kindje slaap Daar buiten loopt een schaap Een schaap met witte voetjes Die drinkt zijn melk zo zoetjes Slaap kindje slaap Daar buiten loopt een schaap
It's about a sheep. Did your parents also tell you when you were little, that you should count sheep when you couldn't sleep? Or is counting sheep to get to sleep a typical Dutch (or maybe European) habit?
Posts: 1247 | Registered: Apr 2000
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Well, I count sheep. I count cats. I count crickets, and how many different discernable bird "voices" are singing outside my window. I count how many times the hawk cries, and I count how many times the rooster crows and at what time. I count the uneven number of "tick-tock"'s that it takes for my clock to go from 12 back to 12 again. I could count the hairs on my cat's tail... but I don't think that any of tat helped. I like the song though, I think the words are pretty. Thank you. =)
I got all of the words except kindje and zoetjes. Kind is "child," right? So what is kindje? And I think zoet is "sweet" or something... what is zoetjes?
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Well, most of the words, like kind, zoet, slaap, schaap, loopt, een, witte... haha, okay so about every word except buiten, voetjes and zijn, those I had to look up on an online translator. Hehe.
Posts: 219 | Registered: Jan 2003
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I was up all night two nights ago but I wasn't tired after I stayed up all night. ~_^ ... and last night I slept more than usual. I keep feeling like there are bugs on me every now and then but there aren't. It's grossing me out.
posted
<nods> I stayed up all last night but slept today. I've never had the bugs thing happen. I wonder if it's a symptom of no sleep. I've seen visual bugs that weren't there when I go long enough without sleeping, but never felt them. That doesn't sound pleasant. Anyone know what this is?
Right now I'm feeling bugs but it's because I'm covered in bug bites from the mill in the Georgia coastal swamps at which I was working all week.
Good luck with the doctor. My experience with people in all professions who won't call you back is that even when you finally do get hold of them, they don't work out. If they didn't want to talk to you to begin with, then it's very likely they won't want to help you very much either. That seems to hold true for everyone from furniture upholsterers to roof repairmen to priests. I do hope you have better luck.
But if not, please don't wait forever. See any doctor at all rather than continue to suffer unhelped.
<<<<<<<Index>>>>>>>
I'm so sorry for what you are going through.
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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I won't be able to sleep tonight. Those of you who pray, if it is not too much too ask, pray for me that it goes well tomorrow, because I am sick of this but these people are the only ones who accept the medi-cal (in my area.) Everyone else... would you cross your fingers for me? Thanks, guys.....
Please try not to be too apprehensive. Walking into a therapists' office is a tough thing to do, it takes courage. But you have courage, you've already shown that.
As for sleep, I do empathize, I've had my bouts of insomnia before.
Just hang in there, and I'll pray this appt. is the beginning of you getting to a place where you feel better.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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You're awesome CT!
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It's grossing me out.
