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[LizGR]

Hi everyone. I don't know what I'm doing. I have depression and anxiety and have been suffering from that for the last 10 years. It has mostly been manageable. Last year was when I started to really lose myself. A lot of things happened close together to make me feel like I was trapped with no way out. After seeing a counselor and going to the hospital, I realized that I had to get help or I would end up harming myself. I'm on medication, but I need a counselor to talk to. This is actually turning out to be really hard to do. I'm being sent to other places to get help and they keep giving me resources to contact. I'm getting tired and feel like giving up. I really think that nothing is going to help. All I want is to overcome this, but instead I'm getting stuck before I can get help. I kind of don't like going to the psychiatrist because I feel like I did something wrong when I see him. Hate the mess in my mind, but I'm scared of letting go of it.

[Loveydovey0519 Ambassador]

Welcome! Hope you find this place as helpful as I have, also don't lose hope or give up! There is always light at the end of the tunnel no matter how bad it seems. I myself have been dealing with panic disorder, anxiety, and depression for 10 years. You'll definitely have ups and downs.

[BonnieSue]

It sounds like you really could benefit from a good counselor who will listen to you. If you keep getting info about resources but no one IS that resource, I can see how frustrating that would be!! Very frustrating!! I'm sorry that you keep going around in circles that way.

Many times I hear people say to look for a psychologist (PhD) for therapy. Well I have an excellent LCSW (licensed clinical social worker) with who I am wonderfully happy with. Some people think she has her doctorate but she is at the master's level, not the doctorate. We have a 17 year history and we enjoy a great friendship after all that time. I also pay less for each appointment because she's not a PhD...a very good thing!! The PhD I went to isn't nearly as good as she is.

I'm praying for you that you find the right counselor for you asap! Hang in there, there's one for you that you haven't found yet!

[Kobojunkie]

🤔 Sounds like your medications are not where they ought to be so you at least are able to engage yourself in some selftherapy while you wait to find a good counselor.

Look, it is simple! If your current psychiatrist is not listening to you to help meet your mental goals, then please for Pete's sake, find you another psychiatrist that will listen to you and help you.

Since the beginning of this year alone, I have had to quit Four psychiatrists because they weren't listening to me. I am the one suffering and so the treatment should be tailored to my needs not be some standard set in a text book he got his/ her training from.

You will be heading the same stupid route many before you have taken if you decide that medication does not work because you have issues with your psychiatrist. Way too many people quickly forget how hard it was for them managing all this mental chaos on their own. And these same forget how even harder it was for them to take the step to seek help. Don't end up like one of them. Search for a psychiatrist that will treat you like a human being and listen to your pain and actually work with you to do something about it.

Your psychiatrist is in fact supposed to be someone you may even come to consider a friend as you have to run to him everytime you think your meds are not doing what they ought to be doing, aside from the monthly visits to have him check where you are with your meds and how you are then adopting to living without mental Chaos.

so please stick with the meds you have for now, as long as you are not having some serious side effects( in that case go see a doctor immediately), and search for another psychiatrist who will use a patient-centered approach in helping you manage your situation.

Nobody else is going to do this for you but your own self. Work on getting acquainted with your own mind and discover issues that may be keeping you from having full control over it(Self-therapy/management).

A Counselor/therapist should come after you have taken care of all that, not even before. Counselors cannot dig into your mind to find what is holding you up, if at all. That is why people spend years going to therapy, trying to find their independence, when the power to make that happen is within them and they only have to honestly dig into their own mind and face their own demons head on, and forgive themselves for all their faults and mistakes racked up over time.

[jrae13]

Your story sounds so much like mine. I have just been suffering anxiety and depression for 3 years and really it's become bad the last month or two. I feel hopeless and lost. I don't feel like there is help, if there is, where do I find it. I don't have support from my husband and I feel myself losing control. Please keep updates coming.