Interesting psychiatric approach... [View all]
As I posted before I'm having some unusual sessions with this psychiatrist. He practices psychoanalysis as I mentioned before and is not your usual psychiatrist who prescribes medications and then just does follow-up and changes meds when things don't work. In fact he seemed concerned if not annoyed that I was on medication to begin with and wanted to know why I was on them, why they had been prescribed. It was his opinion that I wanted to try to hide in a "medically induced fog". There are aspects of this that are true, I've developed an almost instinctual response to hide away from my emotional problems and he has readily picked up on this and keeps coming back to it.
I've since just about completely tapered off the medication I was on and I feel just about the same as I was when I was on it. Whether that means I was never on the right dose or type or that they never did anything for me in the first place I don't know. I know they have never done a lot for me, so it's not a big deal now that I'm off them.
He's something of a Freudian type of psychoanalyst. As HereSince1628 pointed out when he looked up "psychodynamic therapy" the therapy involves as he said "challenging patient/client about issues in order to build a therapeutic relationship". The approach this guy uses seems to be silence. He will say NOTHING unless I start the discussion. Once the conversation is going about my issues he will interject and point out things I say that he thinks I've glossed over or things that he thinks have a deeper meaning. Again he seems to constantly bring it back to the fact that I'm hiding from my problems and until I make the choice to stop hiding things aren't going to change. He's slightly accusatory in some ways though by no means really mean. If I don't start the conversation he will quite literally sit there and stare at me for 20-60 mins! I find the sessions somewhat uncomfortable as he never offers his opinions on anything or make any type of suggestion. I told him as much and he basically said he knew the sessions were uncomfortable, that in some ways that was the whole point of them. That facing my emotional problems is something that I've chosen never to do and that doing so would be uncomfortable, he did in fact tell me before that these sessions would not be comfortable. He never offers any opinions or suggestions probably cause he want's me to do the digging and come to my own conclusions.
I wouldn't say that I find him horrible. But I'm not sure yet quite what to think. He seems to be a bit on the tough love side of the spectrum which in all honesty is probably just what I need. But then again there's so far nothing new about what we have done that I don't already know. In fact I DO know every step I need to take I've just been unwilling to take them. I'm not sure how therapeutic having someone semi grill you and make you feel uncomfortable about your choices to hide is.
We will see I guess.
= new reply since forum marked as read