A Question About Psychoanalysis

[Tieeree]

Are/Have many around here undergone psychoanalysis?

My therapist and psychologist I had mentioned it as an option but did not encourage it for a

person with my diagnosis (Borderline, GAD, Depression) since it could make my mental health statues worse.

Has anyone done it and does it help? or am I just depsperatly looking for some sort of relif?

[addy2]

Hi, i have had psychoanalytical before and i have exactly the same as you, i also have OCD and PTSD and then i was moved to cbt and now soon i will be going back to psychoanalytical therapy they told me it was what i needed but then everyone is different, hope you find something that works.xx

[hummm_mabbe]

Its sort of horses for courses. Insight often forms a core part of many therapies, and psychoanalytic and the similar psychodynamic therapies tend to make this their core approach. So there will be lots of looking at feelings, understanding what they stem from and why they are so powerful for you in your everyday life. It can be quite powerful because seeing where feelings come from can often help you to let them go, so they don;t hold so much power.

The problem with using it to treat BPD is that sufferers of BPD often easily feel controlled, taken advantage of, and especially invalidated - and so sometimes being handed an analysis (the therapist's view of why you are feeling something or acting a certain way) can sometimes press those buttons. For example someone may have done something to make you angry, and being told that its transference or projection (the way the past comes up in the present and our own reactions to our feelings) can feel extremely invalidating, and the person may end up in a cycle of fighting with the therapist over an interpretation and end up feeling not heard, or perhaps even pushed into accepting things they don't agree with. There is a usefulness in what the therapy tries to do, its just the manner in which its delivered can sometimes conflict with the core difficulties in BPD.

Therapies that are more accepting of feelings, and which help you to finding your own answers and are less directive, often work better with BPD, though all therapies will at some point challenge certain core parts of the person.

Ross

[starryeyesee]

Hi

I have been having pshychcoanalytic therapy for ove a year. It is helping me a lot but I was worse for the first 3 months or so. It is also a therapy I know I couldn't have handled a few years ago because I was too ill and jumbled to investigate my past.

Now it is making more sense. I am also following a DBT course on line.

starry x

[Tieeree]

Been through CBT, medications, conventional therapy, mentorprograms etc etc and now been denied DBT so don't really know what to do more.

But since Ive earlier been adviced not to go thru PA it feels like I really should think about it twice before making the decision.

So thank you for thoose answers

[hummm_mabbe]

Hi there

There are many types of therapy out there, but remember that the therapist is just as important as the therapy itself. There's a lot of focus nowadays on "EVT's" or Empirically Validated Therapies. All they mean is, someone bothered to try to sit down and take numbers of how effective they are. However an integral part of that is the therapist, and the relationship you have with them. Therapies that make this a big focus, especially when there is a good 'fit' for client and therapist in terms of personality, can be especially helpful for personality disorders because it tends to be the relationship side that we struggle the most with. CBT will tend to work with limited specific issues, and can help in those small ways, but doesnt tend to work on the many and varied elements that make up a PD.

Take a look at Client Centred Counselling, Schema Therapy (it has a special version of it for BPD), Gestalt counselling, and anything that has a 'humanistic' or 'experiential' approach. But especially think about what you want and need in a therapist.

Of course if this is going to be NHS, then you may not have a huge deal of choice, especially if they have said No to DBT. Is this just due to availability, or is there other reasons?

Ross

[Tieeree]

Im moved to open psychiatry, so I don't have an assigned therapist.

If I need to come in I have different ones each time. Because of that it's been very hard to communicate.

Last thing I was told was that since Ive already been thru extensive therapy the last 6 years I would not be considered as an candidate for DBT at the precent time.

Im supposed to come back in 6 months for a new mental health assesment.

But I was offered a psychoanalysis from my former workplace when they

heard. So I thought I'd see what the experiences had been, if I would dare do it even though I was recommended not to.