Wondering if therapy is for me

[Rishie]

Hello,
My best friend has had therapy for over a year. She has a really good therapist and she has found it really helpful.

I have depression and I am wondering if therapy is for me. One thing about me is that I find it far easier to write about how I feel, but talking about things does not come easily for me. I could write for an hour about what I think and feel and what's happening with me, but talking with someone for that time, even with them leading the conversation and asking questions, I think I'd find that really hard. When I'm really depressed, i would rather write a poem or write in my diary about what's going on with me, I'm able to express myself more clearly and go deeper by writing than by talking about it with someone, even someone I trust.

I guess what I'm asking is, does anyone else have this kind of issue? If so, have you found therapy helpful? Any advice would be welcome. Thank you.

[geoff]

Hello Rishie, you've asked a common but very important question as many people may feel exactly the same as you do.

Writing down how you are feeling is again essential and we often say for people to do this before they have their first consultation, so the therapist can read over what you've said and makes it much easier for them to know what you are struggling with.

What I would also do, as a suggestion, is either print off your comment or mention how you find it difficult talking about what you're suffering from, this will let the psych or therapist know not to ask too many questions because their aim is to get you to come back.

The idea of counselling is to make you feel as though you do really want someone to talk to, simply because you have kept all your secrets to yourself and probably been pretending that there isn't anything wrong with you, but from experience, this certainly becomes too much for us to cope with and need the answers from a person who is qualified to help.

Also mention that even your friends, those that you had trusted, you're unable to talk to, and if you need you can write down any questions asked, by writing down your reply and you are entitled to do this.

So please you've contacted us and when you're available you can respond back to us.

Take care.

Geoff.

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Rishie,

Thank you for your question. Absolutely I can relate to this- I've been journalling for as long as I can remember in-between and during therapy. Writing things down is very therapeutic for me.

The fact that you can put your words down onto paper is a big strength and one you can bring to therapy. Geoff has given you some excellent ideas. My therapist is very open to me emailing her between sessions, but if yours isn't, it's also okay to bring things that are written down to talk about.

You may find that the first session is a bit awkward, but then once your therapist can understand that's how you communicate, you can both work together and find a happy medium. I know from my experience it's a lot easier to talk about things writing it down and having them read it as opposed to starting from scratch.. I hope this helps and encourage you to try.

rt