Does anyone else feel too dependent on therapy?

[Starfish]

I identify with your thoughts and feelings. I realized (when I found a therapist who diagnosed me with PTSD and found her to be someone who slowly helped me find/verbalize my truth), I realized that openly discovering /revealing memories and feelings with another human being (despite the fact she was a therapist) totally freaked me out. I had been so conditioned to keeping it all hidden. I felt “bad/wrong/shamed at my verbalizations. I mentioned that It felt uncomfortable with her looking at me during sessions and she said she has had clients feeling same way and she actually turned her chair around for them. It was (and still is, most often, hard for me to be seen and heard by anyone) I felt more comfortable after that, realizing I was not alone in the feeling. I never asked her to turn her chair around.
She served her purpose for me for a couple of years to identify and verbalize out loud what happened,how I felt then and the feelings I had currently.
I ended treatment about 4 months ago when she was about to retire and I noticed that our work together had become static and time to move on as I had started a pattern (similar to patterns with mother and others who I felt I needed their approval through the years) of not being totally honest as I wanted to keep my image up with her.
Anyway, that is my experience on this topic .

 

[Mach123]

I talked with her about this today and actually lots of the stuff that gets discussed on here ends up getting discussed in therapy because that's what I'm thinking about.

So yeah she's like "I don't want you to be here forever."

You don't? ?

 

[Rumors]

I talked with her about this today and actually lots of the stuff that gets discussed on here ends up getting discussed in therapy because that's what I'm thinking about.

So yeah she's like "I don't want you to be here forever."

You don't? ?

Lol. That is hysterical. Where did you end up on the subject? Only if you feel like sharing. I cancelled my appointment this week.

 

[nomorefear]

For me, I had to get to the place where after I processed and dealt with it, I had to move on. I realized that I was "becoming" my abuse. I had to get involved in productive things, activities, hobbies, etc. I also started reading everything I could get my hands on about the brain. I didn't want my abuse to define me and the rest of my life. "Take Your Life Back by Dr. David Stoop has been a big help in my healing and recovery.

 

[Snowflake]

So my therapist is likely the ONLY person I have ever been able to talk to about crazy stuff. I am an abuse survivor and although I remembered it, I had not owned it as mine until I hit my 40's. The movies I saw that were mine I thought were just fiction and I was easy to dissociate and dismiss them. Now, I can't. There are tons of things in my life I now see through a different perspective and it is frightening and makes me want to run to my therapists office to talk about it. WTH? I have NEVER been like that. I gotta stop! It's too much sharing. Plus, I have never been dependent on anyone for anything especially stuff like this. Does it go away? I literally don't like feeling needy. I am not a needy person. I do everything for everyone else. Tell me this goes away. It's not that I want to have my therapist fix me or hang out, although she is very easy to be with and I enjoy her personality very much, but I feel...ugh... lonely and afraid... sigh... I don't like that either.

I could have written this myself -you’re not alone

 

[Rumors]

I could have written this myself -you’re not alone

Thanks for posting... hang in there too!

 

[NightSky]

Oh yes, ALL the time. My constant fear that I was being “needy” (which my T has assured me is nowhere close to needy) lead us to do some great work around my avoidant attachment style. Learning about that has helped me so much. It is so difficult to lower those walls, even inches. It feels disempowering and (in my experience) causes horrible feelings of vulnerability and exposure. I am very successful at my job and do a good job raising my family, etc and cannot seem to pair that with the HUGE needs of five year old me. My T has shown consistent care for all parts of me, and has told me repeatedly that she doesn’t see me any differently when I’m functioning on autopilot and cruising through life (I can feel proud of that- I’m not into expressing emotions) or when I’m at my worst and emailing her out of desperation. I’ve finally begun to believe her. Even though to me, that needy part disgusts me.
A book i read talks about how in physical therapy we have to take the weight off of what hurts for a while and lean on support. Same is true in trauma therapy. I’m beginning to learn how to do that. And I’m finding with practice and consistent results, it’s getting to feel more natural.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you don’t want to die as a workaholic. There’s more for you in life. And I think you want that, given the fact that you’re working this stuff out in therapy. It’s so hard, but it’s the only way through. As you learn to lean a little on your T, you may be able to branch out in real life. I feel deeply for you that you don’t have at least one or two friends who can know you fully. Those people are out there. But you can learn in the safe holding environment of therapy first. That’s what it’s designed for, you know?
For avoidant types, being “dependent” isn’t weak- it’s incredibly brave.

 

[recoveringfromptsd]

Actually I came to the realization that I was to dependent on hospitals as a coping mechanism instead of confronting things.

I don't think there is any such thing as too much therapy, unless the therapy consists of going in, not doing any work, and leaving. While that is safe. No one gets better that way.

 

[Snowflake]

Oh yes, ALL the time. My constant fear that I was being “needy” (which my T has assured me is nowhere close to needy) lead us to do some great work around my avoidant attachment style. Learning about that has helped me so much. It is so difficult to lower those walls, even inches. It feels disempowering and (in my experience) causes horrible feelings of vulnerability and exposure. I am very successful at my job and do a good job raising my family, etc and cannot seem to pair that with the HUGE needs of five year old me. My T has shown consistent care for all parts of me, and has told me repeatedly that she doesn’t see me any differently when I’m functioning on autopilot and cruising through life (I can feel proud of that- I’m not into expressing emotions) or when I’m at my worst and emailing her out of desperation. I’ve finally begun to believe her. Even though to me, that needy part disgusts me.
A book i read talks about how in physical therapy we have to take the weight off of what hurts for a while and lean on support. Same is true in trauma therapy. I’m beginning to learn how to do that. And I’m finding with practice and consistent results, it’s getting to feel more natural.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you don’t want to die as a workaholic. There’s more for you in life. And I think you want that, given the fact that you’re working this stuff out in therapy. It’s so hard, but it’s the only way through. As you learn to lean a little on your T, you may be able to branch out in real life. I feel deeply for you that you don’t have at least one or two friends who can know you fully. Those people are out there. But you can learn in the safe holding environment of therapy first. That’s what it’s designed for, you know?
For avoidant types, being “dependent” isn’t weak- it’s incredibly brave.

Thank you

 

[TruthSeeker]

My therapist told me therapists do this. I was dumbfounded. i know it's a real thing though. : (

My therapist said something similar- but Il

Regurgitated bad salmon ROTFLMAO

yep-great way to put it( giggling!)