Is it possible to be helped with therapy if you don't really talk much about your dp/dr? Because I have a really good therapist who's been helping me a lot with my anxiety and worrying but I get the feeling he doesn't really know much about derealization. Which I completely understand. It's pretty hard to know about it unless you've been through it first hand. So can I be cured without curing the dp/dr?
therapy question
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Question: Is it possible to be helped with therapy if you don't really talk much about your dp/dr?
Personally, I think so. In my experience, DP is a subset of anxiety, not a thing unto itself. What's ailing us is usually "cured" or "alleviated" not by discussing the symptoms, but by talking about our feelings about substantive, actual problems, situations, other feelings, especially our feelings about ourselves and our lives and the people in them, and so on.
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Question: Because I have a really good therapist who's been helping me a lot with my anxiety and worrying but I get the feeling he doesn't really know much about derealization. Which I completely understand. It's pretty hard to know about it unless you've been through it first hand. So can I be cured without curing the dp/dr?
If he knows the basic outlines of the symptom, that is entirely enough.
If you have a sprained muscle in your leg, does your doctor sit with you and do the very things to the muscle that injured it in the first place -- over and over and over and over and over again? Or does your doctor send you home with the instructions to spend 30 minutes a day doing the activity that injured you in the first place?
Of course not.
In like manner, the immersing of oneself in the merry-go-round world that produces DP in order to have someone completely understand it is deleterious to recovery. For your therapist to understand DP, he would have to experience it, and I just know you don't want that.
If he knows it's a particular way of perceiving, if he does the minimum reading about the subject to get a general idea that it's a most uncomfortable state that its sufferers want to avoid, that's quite enough.
At bottom, his task is to help you create an interior environment in which you feel at home. Let him help you.
Personally, I think so. In my experience, DP is a subset of anxiety, not a thing unto itself. What's ailing us is usually "cured" or "alleviated" not by discussing the symptoms, but by talking about our feelings about substantive, actual problems, situations, other feelings, especially our feelings about ourselves and our lives and the people in them, and so on.
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Question: Because I have a really good therapist who's been helping me a lot with my anxiety and worrying but I get the feeling he doesn't really know much about derealization. Which I completely understand. It's pretty hard to know about it unless you've been through it first hand. So can I be cured without curing the dp/dr?
If he knows the basic outlines of the symptom, that is entirely enough.
If you have a sprained muscle in your leg, does your doctor sit with you and do the very things to the muscle that injured it in the first place -- over and over and over and over and over again? Or does your doctor send you home with the instructions to spend 30 minutes a day doing the activity that injured you in the first place?
Of course not.
In like manner, the immersing of oneself in the merry-go-round world that produces DP in order to have someone completely understand it is deleterious to recovery. For your therapist to understand DP, he would have to experience it, and I just know you don't want that.
If he knows it's a particular way of perceiving, if he does the minimum reading about the subject to get a general idea that it's a most uncomfortable state that its sufferers want to avoid, that's quite enough.
At bottom, his task is to help you create an interior environment in which you feel at home. Let him help you.
I think you're right sojourner. Thanks for replying. We're working on the anxiety and obsessive thoughts which are pretty much what caused the dp/dr in the first place so I think that's enough.
enngirl5,
Is it CBT therapy you're in?
Is it CBT therapy you're in?
Yes, it's CBT. I know some people here say CBT didn't help them but I think it works good for me. I don't really have problems with depression. I just worry and obsess a lot and he's teaching me how to have more realistic views of things instead of catastophizing everything.
I think its a very small percentage who at least have it chronic.
G
Guest
·How is CBT done?
Is the talking CBT itself? Or is it an actual process?
Is the talking CBT itself? Or is it an actual process?
CBT, Cognitive Behavioual Therapy, is used to attempt to change your patterns of behaviour, or thinking, so as to control anxiety, triggering thoughts, and panic. It doesn't really delve into 'why' you feel like you feel, and it doesn't really care - which might be a good thing in some cases.
For me it was about as much help as a good solid punch in the teeth, but that's probably because I think I know better and dismissed the techniques without really trying, so it's worth a go. CBT has got a good track record of dealing with anxiety related disorders. Problem is - here in the UK anyway, CBT admissions are usually dished out to psychology graduates who sit and look at you with terror, then nervously read out some guff from a battered old psychology manual.
Enngirl, I wouldn't worry. It's not an especially talky-talky kind of therapy. It's more of a workshop on how to employ CBT techniques to control or stop your anxiety/depression/panic/obession. In that respect, I think it's quite helpful. And if anxiety/etc is at the root of your DR/DP, then it may well help that too. Give it a try. You haven't got anything to lose have you?
For me it was about as much help as a good solid punch in the teeth, but that's probably because I think I know better and dismissed the techniques without really trying, so it's worth a go. CBT has got a good track record of dealing with anxiety related disorders. Problem is - here in the UK anyway, CBT admissions are usually dished out to psychology graduates who sit and look at you with terror, then nervously read out some guff from a battered old psychology manual.
Enngirl, I wouldn't worry. It's not an especially talky-talky kind of therapy. It's more of a workshop on how to employ CBT techniques to control or stop your anxiety/depression/panic/obession. In that respect, I think it's quite helpful. And if anxiety/etc is at the root of your DR/DP, then it may well help that too. Give it a try. You haven't got anything to lose have you?
http://www.nacbt.org/whatiscbt.htm
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy...
is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes the important role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. Cognitive-behavioral therapist teach that when our brains are healthy, it is our thinking that causes us to feel and act the way we do. Therefore, if we are experiencing unwanted feelings and behaviors, it is important to identify the thinking that is causing the feelings / behaviors and to learn how to replace this thinking with thoughts that lead to more desirable reactions.
There are several approaches to cognitive-behavioral therapy, including Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Rational Behavior Therapy, Rational Living Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, and Dialectic Behavior Therapy.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy...
is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes the important role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. Cognitive-behavioral therapist teach that when our brains are healthy, it is our thinking that causes us to feel and act the way we do. Therefore, if we are experiencing unwanted feelings and behaviors, it is important to identify the thinking that is causing the feelings / behaviors and to learn how to replace this thinking with thoughts that lead to more desirable reactions.
There are several approaches to cognitive-behavioral therapy, including Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Rational Behavior Therapy, Rational Living Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, and Dialectic Behavior Therapy.
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