how can i be a psychologist when I am needing a psychologist.

[emmly]

This year I just finished the psychology faculty.. ( we do only 3 years and we must do the master for 2 years- in Romania) I feel depressed and I do have the binge eating disorder since a long long time.. I only gained weight over time.. little by little.. I also think I am a borderline personality:|
how can i be a psychologist when I am a case of needing to go to a psychologist... ? and i did that.. but unfortunately it is so expensive.. and i could just realise that he was using a behavioral tehnique on me.. and also the psychiatrist gave me some Prozac, but the psychologist told me that those medicine have a poorly effect and he was like almost laughing  about them... so in short time after e period in which I thought I was starting to be better because of the medicine and the therapy... I though that those medicine are useless and the psychiatrist only wanted to increse the doze.. and I was into an inner conflict.. How will I have the self control if I feel well and she is giving me more, intead of getting lower the dose... I gave up medicine and therapy..  I think I am so distrustful with the professionalism in Romania .. that I am just afraid ot go and give so much money and in the same time to not be for real helped .. and after that to become more discouraged...

I feel so bad and just thinking where my road goes makes me close my abat-vent and just sleep... I hate mornings.. I hate the vacuum inside of me... the confusion ... and just thinking that I also can love life as the opposite of hating life.. makes me even more depressed

[Ajna]

Introspection. use the tools youve been given to help yourself... in turn you become a stronger psychologist as well. It will be a long potentially painful process, but well worth the spoils.

[voodoo scientist]

You have three major advantages compared to the average depressed person:

1: You know you're not happy. This is the first important step in overcoming depression, recognition of the problem. Most depressed people will rigorously insist nothing is wrong.

2: You know that it's possible to be happy, you're just not. This is the second important step in overcoming depression. Most depressed people will refuse the possibility of happiness.

3: You're already reading psychology. Most people go to a psychologist because they lack the time and dedication to study psychology themselves, like they go to a mechanic to get their car fixed. This is not the case here. If you can't go to a good therapist because you can't afford it, you can substitute the therapist with studying harder, but you need one or the other.

Overcoming this will also teach you valuable lessons that simply can't be covered in psychology class. You'll be better able to empathize with your future patients and thus you'll be better able to help them with their problems. If you must, take meds, but you should only be receiving psychiatric medication while also in therapy. Medication is meant to "patch up" the problems so that therapy can fix them for good, medication is not a long term solution. Your psychiatrist probably increased your dosage in order to further improve your therapist's ability to fix your problems because he was seeing good results from the lower dosage. It's a shame you stopped going because within a year or two, the dosage would have gone down and the medicine could have been removed.

Here's what you gotta get over: no investment is too great to fix your head. Your mind is going to be your bread and butter for the rest of your life, so you can't worry about "I don't want to spend the money to get fixed because maybe it won't work!" Even if it doesn't fix the problem right away, each failed solution will bring you closer to the right solution. You have to remember you're depressed and are not able to rationally decide whether something will work or not (or will be worth it or not) until you actually try it - it's one of the main effects of depression.

It takes time, often months or years, to correctly affect desirable change in yourself, but it's definitely worth it. Be patient and keep working at it and it will bear fruit.

[SWM]

hello


it is possible to become a psychologist after having a psychological problem.  people tend to draw a distinction between mental illness and physical illness, but this is due to these people being misinformed about mental illness.

imagine your friend had cancer, but recovered and she told you that she had given up wanting to be a psychologist because she had been ill and that meant she was weak and therefore unable to help people. what would you say to her?

in fact i think the opposite is true, i think having lived through such an illness and recovered makes it easier to empathise and relate to people that have mental health problems.

i am not a "psychologist" but i work in psychology, i am more of a counsellor/ therapist. i am good at what i do, i have enough patients and clients that have told me so, to know that it is an objective not just a subjective perception of my skills.  around 10 years ago i was diagnosed with PTSD about 8 years ago i was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. at that time i had no idea i would be doing this kind of work. i was an artist going through art college. when i was ill i realised that a lot of the people that were trying to help me did not understand what i was experiencing and that made me want to understand.

i believe that having gone through that illness to arrive where i am, gives me insight into mental illness that many other profesionals do not have.

you cannot learn from a book what it is like to be mentally ill and to spend time on a ward taking medication that does not work, you can learn a lot more about it from living through it. you can read about it and talk about it in classes but you dont have the same quality of knowing and understanding that experience gives.

you have a great opportunity to learn about your self and about the illness you have, make the most of it before you get better and forget what it was like.  

[SWM]

you may find this documentary interesting

http://psychologyforum.us/general-psychology-forum/rufus-may-the-doctor-that-hears-voices/new/#new

[futureshrink]

Hello,

I just discovered and registered for this forum, and responding to your topic is the perfect first post for me. I want to offer my support and will probably echo a lot of what the others have said.

I recently decided to undertake a career change and go back to college to eventually become a therapist. Certainly the greatest motivation for me is to be able to learn about and help myself, as well as finding meaning in helping others who suffer from mental problems.

A few years ago I was diagnosed with depression and social anxiety disorder. Rather than consider this a hindrance, I too think it will be a great asset in making me a more astute diagnostician and more effective therapist. I have experienced "feelings of unreality" and other symptoms of panic attacks, I have experienced hypomanic states, ego weakness, and borderline traits (I gravitate toward psychodynamic viewpoints, but of course I'm just an amateur so take anything I say with a grain of salt). I have also experienced therapeutic insights and remission of my symptoms, which are now well managed.

In fact, I would think that other therapists who do not have this sort of experience might be at a disadvantage. The subjective experience of the client has meaning. Can someone truly empathize who hasn't experienced a bit of it himself?

As for medication, I agree that it is a useful band-aid. I resisted taking medication for a long time and now regret it. In my experience with depression, you do not know how deep the hole is until you are crawling your way out of it. Along with therapy, it has helped me to be a functional, happier person.

Anyway, good luck to you and don't give up.

--Peter

[emmly]

Below is a private message that I've sent only to SWM because he post the video with DR. RUFUS, but his reply made me think that is better to share with all of you. 

hi emmly,

thank you for sharing that, would you mind if i post your message in the forum where other people can read and give their advice too, remember that nobody here knows your identity.

other people have different expereinces and all together you may get more insight into how to move forward. i dont have time to reply quickly to your comments but other people may give you more to think about sooner and until i get a chance to write back.

i will not post it in the forum if you do not want me too.

I couldn't watch more than part 3 minut 4 of the video's with dr rufus.

I have been today to the neurologist. The same person who told me to see the pshychiatrist at the beginnig of this year.
At first I have been to the neurologist because I wanted to see if my hormonal disorder ( the menstruation was delaying  up to one month or more almost every month since i have it, there were times when it was normal, but seldom), has a neurology root and also I told her about the fact I have problems, since little with my concentration, my mind is always fugitive. I think I have been always wondering how I finished school ( the first grades I always had the first place, 5th-8th grade the third and in highschool I was somewhere in the middle, but it was ok, I did the maths and informatics highschool, so it was one of the hardest school in my town).  During the faculty I don't think there was an information that I have read more than once, maybe there were times that I couldn;t  read even  one page. Still ask me how, I always took my exams. It is true that in the third  year for the psycho-patology exam i took the lowest mark... it is just hard for me to read information like this. i put a lot of mental effort to write my dissertation, which had something with religion.. another conflict of mine... and i think if there weren't my friends to tell me.. you must finish your faculty.. I would have dropped it. I felt like I was going crazy during that time.
So now, I will start the clinical master... but I feel that meeting in the future with people who suffer mental problems will just take me with them, in their world, cause I am so sensible and take any word for good.
For me the world has no significance.. only the minds that live in the world.. and I get so confused living through so many minds.. and not knowing what mine wants... it is just a lost mind.


Today the neurologist, after i told her why I interrupted the medication, she told me that for the doctors is more difficult to work with intelligent people who put questions of the manner they do their job. She told me that i didn't trust the psychiatrist (and is true, because once she behaved unpolite with me, she started to yell that I  didn;t came on the day she programed me and when I wanted to tell her the reason why-cause she told me one day, but wrote something else, she became more hysterical and told me she will get me off and will not receive me anymore, after that scene she sat down and calmy asked me ,,So how have you been lately?") and so i dind;t trust her professionalism either. And she said that is like I go to fix my car, i don;t know her domain so i should just let myself treated. She also told me that by myself I won't be able to get well and that i need treatment and she suggested to go to another psychiatrist, that will not be so tough with me.
And with the psychologist it was hard too, cause he was a man and he always talked to me in such a polite manner that made me talk of my problems in the same way. That kind of psychologist who stays in the chair, drinks his cofee and puts questions, but i didn;t seem him involved at all in what i was telling him, or looking more deeper inside of me. Sometimes I felt we are at a cofee meeting, talking of daily problems.

Looking at the video with Dr Rufus I immediately started to think like him.. that medication gets you stupid, that all the mental hospitals should be shut ( cause i don;t really have my brain, my mind.. it is not solid- who am I, what are my priciples etc)... but how will i get my help? I can;t help myself, i tried to much with no results.. my mind is to tangled, I just can't find a way of thinking about what I want , who am I, what i think of some issues, that i just don;t feel alive, i don;t understand my world, in my head. So, there is no dr rufus here in Romania.. who can think like you don't need medication  or give so much time of his life to be there, next to you ( I reffer to the psychiatrists). If i will go to the new psychiatrist, probably she will give me medication...  am i sure that this is what's best for me.. ? No, I am not... but I am in lack of energy.. no pulse for life, no desire for searching the right way of getting me well. 
 

[SWM]

@emmly

have a look at this tell me what you think

http://www.workingtogetherforrecovery.co.uk/Documents/Wellness%20Recovery%20Action%20Plan.pdf

[SWM]

Hello,

I just discovered and registered for this forum, and responding to your topic is the perfect first post for me. I want to offer my support and will probably echo a lot of what the others have said.

I recently decided to undertake a career change and go back to college to eventually become a therapist. Certainly the greatest motivation for me is to be able to learn about and help myself, as well as finding meaning in helping others who suffer from mental problems.

A few years ago I was diagnosed with depression and social anxiety disorder. Rather than consider this a hindrance, I too think it will be a great asset in making me a more astute diagnostician and more effective therapist. I have experienced "feelings of unreality" and other symptoms of panic attacks, I have experienced hypomanic states, ego weakness, and borderline traits (I gravitate toward psychodynamic viewpoints, but of course I'm just an amateur so take anything I say with a grain of salt). I have also experienced therapeutic insights and remission of my symptoms, which are now well managed.

In fact, I would think that other therapists who do not have this sort of experience might be at a disadvantage. The subjective experience of the client has meaning. Can someone truly empathize who hasn't experienced a bit of it himself?

As for medication, I agree that it is a useful band-aid. I resisted taking medication for a long time and now regret it. In my experience with depression, you do not know how deep the hole is until you are crawling your way out of it. Along with therapy, it has helped me to be a functional, happier person.

Anyway, good luck to you and don't give up.

--Peter

hi peter,

welcome to the forum, it is good to here your are doing well and have set yourself some career goals that build on your past experiences.

consider investigating what types of therapy are most effective  for treating a range of disorders. you may find that psychodynamic/psychoanalytic are not as effective as some others. there is a lot of research and evidence to support various forms of therapy for various disorders.

and of course reading about the different theories can be very enjoyable too so i would suggest learning as much as you can about all the other therapeutic models before you pigeon hole yourself as a specific type of therapist.

[emmly]

@SWM

I think it can be a useful plan. Thanks.
Next week I will go and see my therapist. He said that the door is still opened. 
I hope this time to do better at my recovery.

[SWM]

here is a workbook that will help you understand a bit more about your problem

http://www.thegarthsurgery.nhs.uk/fileadmin/garth/Understanding_depression_-_workbook_1.pdf

again let me know what you think

[emmly]

hei...

In the last time.. I think I feel just a bit better and wanted to say thanks for your support just when I needed the most!!!
 
It hellped me to think of what you all said, than to just stay in my black thoughts! I started to take some medication a week ago and that will help a bit also.. the quantity is little, but I think will just calm my ciclotimic personality, and during this time I will go to therapy also!

This is my thought at the moment... a really big THANK YOU,  for giving me your help and opinion!

[SWM]

hi emmly,

i am really pleased to see you back here and with a fighting spirit awakened.
 

[Lilybitch]

Haha, Doesn't a doctor needs doctor?, Its not a big deal =P