I feel like it's stupid to google this when there's probably a few people on here who could answer this question from experience.
After getting diagnosed by a doctor for a psychiatric disorder like depression or anxiety, do you have to do talk therapy in order to continue to get medicine? How does that all work? Does it depend how bad it is?
My friend has been thinking about going to the doctors lately but s/he had a traumatic experience with a psychologist when s/he was a pre-teen. S/he doesn't mind seeing one temporarily but not as a long-term treatment plan. S/he would rather not even get help.
Im pretty sure the human brain is a bit more complex than you think and that the root cause for why the brain cant produce those chemicals isnt as simple as "you were born that way" nor do I think you as a person cant help to produce them(as your mental state directly impacts those parts of your brain).
But then again I lack both knowledge and effort to google and back up these claims so what do I know, but Im sure a licensed therapist should know more about this matter than some uneducated people with google can which is why its a very good idea to see one, regardless of what you might think about them.
But my statements still stand regardless; Medication merely linger the sympthomes while therapy tries and cope with the root cause.
Those drugs arent really physically healthy aswell and often cause long term damage, since more often than not they are just prescribed doses of amphetamines or opiates with fancy names. But for most people its choosing over the lesser evil, so its quite helpfull. But yeah, they shouldnt be treated as a permanent solution IMO.
the root cause is not always psychological, and therefore therapy can't fully help in that case. you can be depressed purely because your brain simply doesn't produce enough of the chemicals that make us happy. not all depression/anxiety is triggered by events/circumstances and is purely biological.
if someone's starving, you can get just give them water. it might make their stomach feel full, but their body is still lacking the nutrients it needs to properly function
deletedover 7 years
Also I would strongly recommend getting a fully licensed therapist with a PhD or Masters in Psychology and not a counsellor. Just my personal experience. And if you're using university provided counselling, the counsellors there are only working to raise your gpa to raise the schools prestige. They will not care about your long term problems the way a proper therapist would
deletedover 7 years
I'd argue that if therapy is harmful you just need to switch therapists asap. Of course there are some bad apples but my therapist is completely non judgemental and challenges me to be a better person. Most therapists will start by agreeing on mutual goals to make sure that you both aren't working towards separate things.
Also check out group therapy or other support groups, heck even becoming part of an online community can help, like r/depression
deletedover 7 years
Sometimes therapy is more harmful than helpful though.
deletedover 7 years
You can go see a psychiatrist (different from a psychologist) and get medication with little talking, especially with a diagnosis. I'd recommend psychologists (who don't even give medication) in coordination with a family doctor over a psychiatrist though
There is no medication that will "cure" depression, only linger the symptomes so that either you yourself can get over whatever is causing it or so that you atleast can live as a functioning human being.
Therapy tries and solve the root cause, pretending that just taking meds will solve all of your issues is merely escaping the problem, not solving it.
idk if this has been said, but like, therapy won't work in cases where the ailment is physiological. if you have a genuine chemical imbalance in ur brain, therapy can help this, but it won't fix it. for depression and anxiety, some people can be naturally predisposed to them. some people's brains just produce way too much serotonin or way too little, and in this case, medication is the best fix. other people struggle with the way they think and how they handle their emotions. in this case, therapy would work much better than medication simply because the issue isn't a matter of biology.
tl;dr different situations and different people require different treatments. medication isn't a hot fix and therapy isn't the be all end all. no one treatment is inherently superior and no one treatment "doesn't work."
all u have to do is say "uhhh so im...i want.....i need some xans doc.............. i am so uh anxious i am having seizures or something can u prescribe me some uhh....bars pls......." it'll work scout's honor
medication works whether you want it to or not which is why so many people like it, but you have to work at therapy and want it and be willing to open up to your therapist, otherwise it's completely pointless.
