Hey I just need to vent a little, and I'm sure a lot of you boxers have had some experience with this. Today I went to my first session for therapy, not sure exactly what this lady's title is but I believe she has a doctorate as I think I was told I'd be seeing "Dr. _____" Anyways I show up and the reason I'm there is because I have pretty decent anxiety and some pretty bad depression. We go through all the usual stuff, then for about 45 minutes she just talks to me in metaphors like, "You are like this plant, we have to get to the roots" and she compared me to a mong bean or something, also an astronaut, and about 50 other things. She just kept giving me these very elaborate metaphors to tell me very simple things like, eat and exercise, you need to let yourself experience life more, the basic stuff I could have read in a self help book. Anyways this was kind of annoying, but when it came to the subject of me having serious issues concentrating in class, she told me she thinks ADD is bs and overdiagnosed and blah blah (shes probably right?) then she brought up pills and said that a lot of American doctors (shes Indian) will prescribe you a pill for everything but thats no good she doesn't believe in em, then she asked if I have suicidal thoughts or crippling panic attacks. After I said no suicidal thoughts and only a few attacks ever she basically completely shut down the idea of medications. Granted I honestly didn't go there seeking drugs, but the idea that unless I have suicidal thoughts or crippling panic attacks she won't even consider them is concerning to me. She also seemed to have a slight prejudice to Americans, with the talk about pills and she also called me spoiled a few times even though I barely discussed my past. Anyways overall the meeting left me very confused, but I don't want to give up because this is only the first session. But honestly if she is just going to sit there and tell me the basic bs I already know through elaborate metaphors I'd rather not waste my time. Sorry for such an exaustive story but I needed to get it off my chest, anyone had similar experiences? Really good experiences? Share your stories and feelings about therapy. Oh I forgot to mention I almost laughed at her a few times when she was being totally serious, she asked me if I ever saw the movie Contact (the one about aliens with Jodi Foster) and was talking about how big the universe is or something and I had to try my hardest not to laugh.
Sounds like you didn't have very high expectations of her. I think you have to start asking yourself what you want to get out of your time with the therapist. You might need to find another therapist also. It sounds like you had a hard time respecting the indian woman doctor's words, so maybe you need a male therapist? You need to do your research before walking into a room with an unknown doctor and expect them to really help you. I went to therapy after my close friend committed suicide my senior year of high school. The doctor I went to had lots of experience dealing with grief related depression in young adults so when I went it only took me three sessions before I started feeling a lot better about everything that was making me depressed and keeping me down and I finally felt like I didn't need these sessions any more. Therapy does work, you just have to be open to it.
Yeah you're right. And the thing is I went into it with a positive attitude, I've been telling myself for weeks that after I start seeing her I things are going to start getting better and I got my hopes up, maybe why my head is so jacked up right now because I had too high of expectations for the first visit. And about not respecting her I'm on the fence. I left out in my first post that there were a couple moments where she said something and I thought "yeah, thats exactly how I feel, this lady knows her shit". And we also had a couple good moments just joking around, turns out her husband has the same name as me and her daughter goes to the same school as my brother, stuff like that. We also joked about the movie What About Bob. I think its therapy in general maybe I expected something different. She kept telling me like general motivational metaphors and stuff, the kind of things I hate listening to. Maybe I should just be up front and tell her this. She also asked me if I would feel more comfortable with the male therapist who did my intake, but I didn't have the balls to tell her I didn't want to see her after we had just sat and talked for an hour about our families and all my hopes and all this stuff. Part of my anxiety I guess. Thanks for the response though I do appreciate it.
ive seen 3 docs and had mixed experiences with all. The one i got now is great tho, so maybe you just need to see another doc if you dont feel comfortable with that one. some people are good at their job, others suck. but the most important thing is your trust and your recovery so find someone who works for you