(Pictures by Dave McKean from The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman)

Friday, April 14, 2006

another pointless therapy session

I was dreading going to my therapy appointment this morning, as usual. Usually I have to wait a few minutes. There's a sign up saying if you're waiting more than 10 minutes, to check in with the receptionist. I never do. I just sit there hoping that my therapist forgets about me or is running really late (despite mine being the first appointment) or something so I can escape. Today, I was waiting a bit longer than usual and I assumed she was reading the email I sent last night. When I got in there, though, it turned out she never got it, which was even worse than if she had gotten it, because then she tried to make me tell her what it said. I couldn't, of course. I think she finally got that I'm so frickin' terrified in there that there's no way I can talk. She tried to suggest ways to change the setup so that it might be easier, but her suggestions were things like walking around or playing cards or something while talking and I think that would make it worse, if anything. I got the impression, the first time I emailed her, that she dismissed the idea of using some messaging program to talk online, instead of face to face, but I wonder if I should suggest that.
She asked if I could use the computer in the hallway to send her the email she didn't get, but I couldn't send it to her and then come back into the room and have to talk about it. I couldn't explain that, though, and I thought she was getting annoyed at me because I just couldn't say or do anything. And then she tried to trick me into answering her questions while she made the next appointment. It felt like a trick, anyway, because she's noticed that I'm usually a lot less anxious while she makes the next appointment and she thought that would mean I'd be able to answer questions if she shifted the focus, but I only relax because I'm usually safe from questions then; it doesn't work if she keeps asking things.
Once I got into lab I sent her the email I wrote yesterday. She'd also asked about how the depression is affecting my daily life, so I described how I can't get out of bed and never get anything done etc. She wrote back pretty much straight away asking if I felt suicidal and reminding me there's always someone on call to talk to. She also asked if I'd talked to a friend I've mentioned going to a movie with sometimes about how I've been feeling.
Pretty much the only thing I've been able to actually tell her is that I can't talk to anyone at all. I thought maybe she was starting to get that today, but then, why would I be able to talk to this friend or worse, some on call person, if I've never been able to talk to her after almost a year?
I know I'm being unfair to expect her to piece together the few scraps of information I've given her, and understand exactly how impossible it is to talk to anyone, but a year of therapy and I can't even answer a non-yes/no question? Doesn't that give some indication?

Of course, the rest of today sucked, too. As soon as I got here, I had a meeting with Overly Verbose Student and my (not exactly taciturn himself) advisor for three frickin' hours. I spent most of the time concentrating on keeping my head from exploding, so combined with my week spent doing exactly nothing, I wasn't exactly contributing anything. I've spent the rest of the afternoon trying to recover and I managed to chat with another student for a bit. I'm still putting off the 3 hour (at least) experiment that has to be done today (the same thing as 2 weeks ago). I so badly want to go home.

Oh, she also said medication can't really help if the depression is just because of feeling so lonely etc, which I took to mean I'm pretty much stuck feeling this way and I'm just making myself miserable...

6 Comments:

At 8:15 PM, Blogger Terminal Degree said...

You're making some great steps, even if it doesn't seem like it. Even sending the e-mail was a good start (even though she didn't get it).

The good thing is that you're incredibly clear on this blog. Would it be helpful to print bits of it out and bring it next time? You could hand it to her at the end of the session and escape. :)

Just a thought.

 
At 1:47 AM, Blogger sheepish said...

I like terminaldegree's suggestion of dropping something and fleeing. I would hope that by now she gets that you aren't able to talk about things and maybe her continual questioning is trying to figure out why.

 
At 9:20 AM, Blogger Phantom Scribbler said...

If the depression is just because of feeling lonely? Gah! I am once again not at all impressed with your therapist, for several reasons. But as long as you're stuck with her, I'll third terminaldegree's suggestion of giving her print-outs right as you're walking out the door. She's not going to get it unless you spell it out for her -- a great match for you, given your communication issues, eh?

 
At 10:57 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, I don't quite buy the "just b/c of feeling lonely" thing either - partly b/c something my therapist once said (which made sense to me), which was that sometimes these feelings can start off as a coping mechanism/reponse to situation (i.e. being lonely), but can then become something that's triggered by non-threatening situations (i.e., something other than the original trigger).

But I agree with TD and others about bringing in bits of your blog - I thought that the other day, how clearly you express here what you're feeling, and maybe that would help your therapist get it?

 
At 1:10 PM, Blogger Lucy said...

I'm probably not as clear in my emails to her as I am here, because I have to actually see her so I'm more self-conscious and careful about what I write.
The difference between how I appear in the therapy sessions and by email is already so huge that it's embarrassing and I'm scared to admit that I can write about how I'm feeling, because I've given her the impression I can't really tell how I'm feeling (which is kind of true when I'm actually there).
I have another 3 weeks before I have to go back, anyway.

 
At 9:43 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's my understanding that NewKid has a point - stressors (such as lonliness, upheaval) can start a slide down into depression, but then your brain chemistry takes over and the depression which *was* situational *becomes* clinical. This isn't something you do to yourself, it's your body's response to ongoing stresses.

And thus, even if the underlying issue continues, treatment (therapy, drugs) is needed to lift you up to the point where you can address that underlying issue effectively.

All that clinical discussion is separate from this: I'm sorry you're struggling so much. I wish you could have a therapist that you could communicate with. You're facing this and trying to work on it, and that is so, so, hard for someone in the place you're in. And you're certainly not doing this to yourself.

 

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