If i go for therapy....?!
Question: i have depression...and ocd...when i tell my therapist what is on my mind and i feel "better"...will my ocd slowly but surely go away too? once im not as stressed and everything? or should that be one of the first things i mention to him/her? this ocd is not helping thats for sure. it's not the center of my problems but without it..i would probably be able to cope better with my other issues. what are your thoughts? thanks in advance...oh and also no rude comments please.
Answers: i have depression...and ocd...when i tell my therapist what is on my mind and i feel "better"...will my ocd slowly but surely go away too? once im not as stressed and everything? or should that be one of the first things i mention to him/her? this ocd is not helping thats for sure. it's not the center of my problems but without it..i would probably be able to cope better with my other issues. what are your thoughts? thanks in advance...oh and also no rude comments please.
When jeff returns you'll be fine.
Medication usually is needed for full blown OCD, and sometimes for depression. If clinical depressed, yes, medicine and talk therapy. But if only blue, or sad, then talking with someone will alleviate the sadness, and you can move past depression.
To start therapy, don't try to manage the therapy. Just go in, and talk, about the day, your feelings, etc. The therapist, if a good one, will know which direction to take you to get you to feel better. You will possible find out the reason for the OCD, but that doesn't mean it will entirely go away.
Use therapy to get into your deepest thoughts and feelings, use cognitions to understand how you interpret life,and reality therapy to learn to live in the present. Going back to see where any damage was done is good, but not to stay there and talk about it forever. The major point is "how did it affect your present life?" No blaming anyone or anything, just learning about yourself and then how to manage life around your stressors, triggers and obsessive thoughts.
I would say that just being able to talk to someone will help a lot. My grandma is a true manic-depressive, when she's manic she hallucinates and everything. Whenever she would have an "episode" (as the family calls them), she would end up going to a daytime therapy group with other people with similar issues. They would have talk sessions and activities and such, and after going everyday for 2 weeks or so, she would be even better than normal. I think it has something to do with being able to talk to someone that understands whats happening to you, whereas just talking to an unaffected family memeber just seems pointless at times.
Not to say that you should take meds or that I agree with some doctors medicating everyone up the wazoo, but there have been great strides in medications for mental issues. I remember growing up that my grandma always seemed distant and completely deviod of emotion. As I got older and found out about her illness, I was told that it was all the meds she was on that made her that way. Within the past 2 or 3 years they have been transitioning her to differnt meds, and now she is comletely normal. You wouldn't even be able to tell she was mentally ill unless you already knew. Her personality has come back like it was never gone.
It's OK to choose what order you address things with your therapist. OCD and depression can be very different topics - or they can be related. Stress will potentially make either (depression or OCD) worse. Kudos for getting help! You deserve to be happy. OCD can be based in good intentions, but it can make one unhappy - even miserable. Or it can make our loved ones miserable. Depression and OCD can have neurochemical roots, and/or emotional roots. De-stressing your life is a really great start. If you trust your therapist - I recommend you lay it all on the line. Let the therapist help you sort it out. In severe cases, medication can help both OCD and depression - but the treating physician needs to know about both to choose the right medicine for you.