Posted by octopusprime on February 16, 2004, at 20:19:03
In reply to revised advice on the matter, posted by Racer on February 16, 2004, at 11:21:16
> Pegasus is right, when you don't have a lot of discretionary income, it is very hard to decide to devote a potentially large fraction of that to therapy, especially when you have other uses for that money. You say that your insurance pays $500 for therapy in one year? How about looking for a short term, goal oriented therapy model that will allow you to put together a detailed plan of what you can do for yourself to improve your situation while you're working on improving your financial situation?
this is exactly what i am interested in. my income is middle class, but i am paying back student loans and i manage money poorly. i never seem to have an extra few thousand dollars just lying around when i need it, i have to save. my financial situation will improve significantly in about a year (when the worst of the debt is paid off), but i really could use some therapy now.
but i could totally understand how therapy could take a while in my case. i've been the way i am since i was a kid. there are no abuse or trauma things here, just "normal" run-of-the-mill dysfunction.
> OK, so why do I feel as if I can give advice on this matter? Because I'm not on the younger side anymore. I was in therapy with a wonderful therapist for several years in my early twenties, and we did some good work together. The problem is, we didn't do all the work I needed to do, and the result is another twenty years of downwardly progressing trouble and strife and anguish. The depression has become so much worse, and it's exacerbated by the thought that I missed the opportunity to avoid it by finishing what we'd started twenty years ago.
Racer, i very much appreciate you sharing your experience. i am *very* concerned about me getting worse unchecked. the process you described finding a therapist certainly does sound expensive, but what's the price of my sanity? i'll meditate on this some more, thanks ...
poster:octopusprime
thread:313810
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040211/msgs/314307.html