Therapy

I met with my shrink yesterday and asked about his thoughts on depth therapy. He said that I could see a psychoanalyst if I wish and he could recommend one. However he started talking about the length, frequency and cost of the therapy and basically the cost would preclude me from doing it. He said it was not in great demand and there are only a dozen or so in Sydney who offer it. Medicare (public health system) will pay part of the cost initially and then the only way you can continue is prove that you have a borderline personality disorder. They charge about $280 per hr and you will only get $120 back from the Medicare and that?s for the first 20 meetings or so, but you'll need to go for about two years. Much to rich for my blood. To go once a week for two years I'll need in excess of $26 000!!. I just can't afford that with all our other expenses. On a positive note he did point out that we are still doing what he referred to as insight therapy which examines over underlying problems I may have that may be causing the anxiety. And come to think of it we tend to talk much more about other problems in my life rather than the DP/DR symptoms. The good thing about him is that he understands this condition well.

I also talked about DP/DR being a distraction from the other real problems we have in life. He agreed but not in all cases. He mentioned that if a patient had a bad LSD trip and got DP/DR from it he would treat it more of brain chemistry problem, especially if there were no life problems before the trip. These patients tend to fear the fear of the panic attacks. But in my case there was a lot of anxiety before the experience so there is a focus on these issues. He said if you want to feel reality start dealing with the real issues in your life and then he chuckles. Fortunately he has a sense of humour.