Should I Continue Going To Therapy?

[littlestars]

When are you "done" with therapy? Is there a finishing point with ptsd? Or at least with therapy?

I haven't been to therapy in two weeks now. I've been doing alright. Honestly, I don't know if I "need" it anymore. I think it kind of makes me get stuck in this loop of self-pity and angst... I don't know for sure. Just seems like it's more of a crutch now than it is helping me. There's nothing bad about my therapist either. It's just I don't feel like going anymore. I've been in therapy for ten years. I've been on disability for two years. Treatment has been my job for a decade of my life. I haven't accomplished much outside of my mental health.
In the last ten years, I was misdiagnosed for six of those years as bipolar type two. I went to college, but didn't finish as I couldn't afford it. I've worked at least twenty jobs, but nothing really stuck. The longest I've ever worked anywhere was about five or six months. I couldn't afford for much except pay for gas to get to work. It was awful. So here I am, this person that has been putting all of their energy into getting well, when I haven't progressed at all as an adult. I really want to change that.
I want my focus in life to be building it now. But I am not sure what to do about therapy. Maybe I don't need to go every week now? Maybe I should just take a break from it and see how I feel?
I don't know... I just want to have a life again that's more than just going to therapy or not going anymore at all...
Anyone else feel this way? I'm curious and I'm not sure what to really think or do.

 

[Lucycat]

I have been in therapy for over 4 years now. But I am now down to seeing T just when I feel I need to - which over the past 9 months has been approximately every 6-8 weeks.

I don't think I could have gone from weekly to nothing. I don't know when my final session will be, but to me it does not matter as I have the safety net of this very flexible arrangement.

 

[darrenS]

i tend to think that if you feel comfortable with it , then go with it, you will know if you need to get further support at any stage. I tend to think it is healthy to let go of therapy for periods , otherwise you tend to get stuck in this constant loop. I also believe that if you trust your instincts , you will find many ways to continue self healing by simple measures , and getting your life back so to speak is one of them

 

[CrazyHorse]

Honestly, I don't know if I "need" it anymore. I think it kind of makes me get stuck in this loop of self-pity and angst... I don't know for sure. Just seems like it's more of a crutch now than it is helping me.

I can relate to this. This is the reason I quit therapy after five years. It was actually a doctor who advised me to focus away from my trauma in order to get it away from my frontal loapes or something like that :-). For me, best advise I have ever got!

 

[paula parcell]

It sounds like your ready to move from healing the past to creating the future.talking to your therapist about it may be helpful ,to tell that it's time to change the focus of your therapy from symptom management to goal settings. Perhaps it is time to stop seeing the therapist and put what you already know to use for yourself . If you stop seeing your therapist and it doesn't work you a can go back and start seeing the therapist again

 

[darrenS]

There is a school of thought that works on the idea that talking about the trauma repeatedly and not in a long exposure sense, only damages us further, they are defining it as a brain injury that can be healed by gently coaxing your thoughts and what not into more positive territory and looking out our initial reactions and thoughts rather than the trauma

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I stopped therapy a year ago and I am doing better now since I am focusing on other aspects of life such as school, career, etc. Therapy was a weekly roller coaster and I needed to get off desperately. I am uber sensitive and my system can't take the weekly rehashing and examining of all the little details. I am better now that I don't have that weekly up and down....and crash. Don't get me wrong, I still have my ups and downs, but at least they don't revolve around therapy. I do get kind of annoyed when I meet someone new and they assume that since I have PTSD and can't work that I'm in therapy most of the time. I think they're sort of shocked that I'm not in therapy at all as it gives the impression that I'm not working on healing, when the opposite is true.

 

[Kefira]

I can completely relate to many things said here. I'm struggling with whether to start with a new T or to stop for a while. I've found that while I still have symptoms they're much more manageable when I'm committed to my routine of self-care. It takes a lot of discipline, but at least it's something I directly control.

I've been in therapy for 10 years off and on and I feel like unless I find someone who's really teaching me new coping skills or providing some sort of helpful support that I need and won't find damaging in the long run, I have the information by now. Implementing it is another thing, and sometimes therapy can help just to keep reminding you to work toward that implementation, but I've gotten really tired of being told the same things I already know in theory but just can't get right in practice over and over. Often it's made me feel more like I'm not making any progress and thrown me into a negative cycle.

It seems difficult since it's a chronic long term sort of thing. When are you done? Do you stay in therapy for the rest of your life? I've asked therapists those questions and none have seemed to have an answer. For now since my situation is unstable I think I'll go until I have rapport with my new T so that if I end up in crisis I at least have someone to call.

 

[ghotiff]

Maybe changing your therapy by changing to a new T, starting fresh and choosing your new T for the skills you now want to learn (ie not a trauma T). ?

 

[littlestars]

Thank you for your responses everyone. You were all helpful.:hug: I feel less lost now and more comfortable with taking a break or doing whatever I'm doing right now :p

Hope you all are doing well and good luck