Considering Quitting Therapy

[ptsdkate]

I started therapy after my PTSD was retriggered by someone attempting to lure my son about a year and a half ago. I had worked through my feelings about both my childhood and adulthood sexual assaults, and had made peace with who I am now. Then the luring incident happened, and my PTSD came back, full-blown and awful.

I have worked hard on therapy, and am taking Zoloft now. I'm feeling much more like I felt before the luring incident. Going to therapy has recently become a stressful thing for me. At first therapy felt like (icky analogies coming up here) lancing an abscess, a necessary surgery in order to relieve pressure, pain and infection. Now it feels more like picking at a scab, instead of letting it alone to heal. I think it may be time to step back from therapy and see how I'm doing.

Has anyone else done this? Am I way off base?

 

[cherryblossom]

I think it's a very personal decision, that only you can assess. To assess it, I think you need to be able to be brutally honest with yourself.

Firstly, my personal opinion is that for therapy to work/help, you have to be 100% committed to it, however hard and difficult it may be. If you are not committed, then it's a waste of time. So in that sense, if you feel you need a break to step back and evaluate then do it.

However, if you feel you still have issues, then therapy is worth pursuing...... but only if you are committed to resolving those issues.

Also, you have to take the anti-depressants into consideration. Do you think they help you? If so, are you happy to be on them forever? If you want to stop them, would it be worth having a therapist on hand to deal with stuff that comes up when you stop them?

I'm not asking for you to answer the questions - but they are questions you need to ask yourself.

I don't see anything wrong with stopping therapy, or taking a break to evaluate - so long as you are completely honest with yourself about how you are doing. If you are stopping therapy to avoid talking about difficult things then I would not recommend it. But if you are stopping therapy, because you are pleased with your progress and feel you can't go any further, then good for you.

Only you can decide what is right, and whether your motives are right. I sincerely hope that you are in a good place and that you can now lead a happy and fullfilled life :)

 

[snugglepuss]

Hmmmm...

this brought up some different ideas for me. The first thing I thought is if the issues you are talking about now in therapy are triggering you. When you leave therapy, how do you feel for the next few days? Are you isolating? Are you able to fall back on the coping skills your therapist made sure were in place and used on a regular basis? Are you feeling emotions? Or are you sitting in the intellectual space and blocking the process?

Have you talked with your therapist about how you are feeling?

What kind of goals did you and your therapist set up? Is it possible that you have achieved those goals?

For myself, there was a time when I felt like therapy was stressful, but what I really needed was just some time to process some stuff that was going on in my life at that time. I also isolate big time when I am triggered and stressed, and find excuses to get out of things. Not exactly the best idea...