Psychiatrist Not Addressing Trauma?

[Hypothermia2012]

I've seen my psychiatrist a couple times now, and all we seem to do is talking about grounding techniques, he has a very small understanding of my trauma, and we haven't really touched on it. I feel like I need to address it, lay it out for him so he knows what he's dealing with so then I can further move on to overcoming what has happened to me. With that being said, I dissociate , freeze and enter flashbacks during therapy.. So maybe he is taking his time for that reason?

 

[shimmerz]

With that being said, I dissociate , freeze and enter flashbacks during therapy.. So maybe he is taking his time for that reason?

Yes. There is no point in stirring up the trauma if it re-confirms old patterns of coping. He/she is most likely attempting to show you new ways of dealing, ones that are safer. Based on your conversations with him, he may well know more about your trauma than you know.

 

[Deleted member 28740]

o maybe he is taking his time for that reason?

Your T wants you to have a tool chest to deal with the opening of a pandora's box. Excavating what has been to some degree submerged. I think back to kid riding bike and skidding on gravel and what it took to clean the wounds. Not so easy to pick out the gravel and clean the wounds for buried stuff.

 

[Suzetig]

You've only seen him a couple of times. If he's responsible he'll want a sense of how you respond and react before getting into trauma work so that he can help you put the brakes on.

 

[Chava]

No point in addressing trauma when you are dissociating. You have a wise psychiatrist if the need to move carefully and slowly and work on grounding first is understood.

I've seen my psychiatrist a couple times now, and all we seem to do is talking about grounding techniques

A couple times is almost nothing. I didn't talk about my traumas much even until about a year (therapist knew some generals). Why the rush to talk about the traumas? Your dissociation tells its own kind of story right now. The work involved in therapy IS grounding really and learning how to stay present. We aren't healed just because we can talk about our trauma. And if we don't have grounding in place, I know it's possible to talk about trauma somewhat from a disconnected or dissociated place, so healing doesn't happen anyway. We have to get connected and work through it carefully. I'd be worried if your doc wanted to get into the traumas within the first couple meetings. Sounds like you have someone who understands trauma, which is a good thing. Hang in there. Real healing requires patience and I know that's hard.

 

[Friday]

2nd'ing everyone else... In order to talk about something, first you have to be able to talk about it. Next, be able to talk about it without killing yourself later that afternoon after leaving the office, and next after that not so overwhelmed &/or embarrassed after talking about it that you come to your next appointment instead of canceling!

Ounce of prevention better than a pound of cure = sounds like he's setting you up for success.

 

[Sandstone]

Just to check, do you really mean psychiatrist? Normally they are the ones who prescribe meds, so one wouldn't expect them to be doing therapy. That usually sits with a psychologist or therapist.

 

[shimmerz]

Your dissociation tells its own kind of story right now.

This is brilliant. I hadn't thought of it this way but it is so true.

 

[katz]

My new T is doing the same thing. I would really like to talk about what happened, but she keeps pulling me back to create/finding some safe place, in my head, to be able to go to instead of panicking. She is even having me describe what would be in my "safe place/room" that I could go to. Furniture, colors, things, even activities that I could do there. She said that she wants me to have a picture of this safe place in my head.

 

[Hypothermia2012]

yes , he's my psychiatrist, and he is a psychiatrist who has specialized in trauma. Psychiatrists prescribe meds yes, but they do a lot more than that. And thank you everyone for kind of giving me a different view of all of this. I'm not in a "rush" to talk about my trauma, it's just that I feel like I have developed my mental illness due to not confronting what it is that happened to me. The first 14 years of my life were trauma. And once I got out of that place in my life I became very shocked that other people didn't live that way, or go through the same stuff. As if I thought it was some dark twisted right of passage. I just need to get it off my chest, but my brain and body think it's to much, so I guess, we wait and practise grounding ! :)

 

[sun seeker]

Having opened a Pandora's box of my own, I second what everyone else is saying. Build the coping skills first. Build more of them than you think you need, and build as strong a support system as you can muster. All those "evils" flying around really do unsettle a person.

 

[katz]

yes , he's my psychiatrist, and he is a psychiatrist who has specialized in trauma. Psychiatrist...

I am still amazed when I see other families that don't yell. I thought that was the normal way to speak to each other. No wonder I have such a terrible time with loud noises. It was just a "normal " part of my life.