I do not think therapy is working.

[travelgirl77]

I had a therapist appointment today. It is my fourth one with this therapist who I like a lot, but just do not think it is working. I have had some lower left back/hip pain for the past two days and was shaking in bed this morning reading about OC. I thought I had this last year with the same pain, but what if now this is what it really is. Anyway, I told the therapist how I was feeling and how this pain was worrying me. But, then we went into working on the internal family systems therapy. I understood what she wanted me to do and I called my husband after the session. But, on the way home all I could do was concentrate on the back/hip pain and came home and looked at OC symptoms. I have a regular doctor appt next week and will discuss my anxiety. But, as far as therapy goes, it is it me, is it the therapist....why don't I feel empowered?

[ankietyjoe]

There's a few things here -

1) What kind of therapy are you having, and for what reason?

2) You've only had 4 sessions, what are your expectiations?

3) How do you expect anything to work if you catastrophise back ache AND google symptoms and feed the anxiety?

[AthenaFaeyrn]

You've only have four sessions. Therapy isn't a quick fix by any means. It takes time to work through the underlying issues causing your problems.

Your health anxiety is only the symptom of a much deeper issue, so it'd be concerning if you were only presenting your surface symptoms of health concerns to your therapist, instead of probing deeper and wanting to get under the surface. For as long as you're still obsessing and fixating on health concerns from HA, you'll only be able to progress in therapy so far.

That can be very hard to do of course, - putting the health concerns aside when they're still giving you anxiety - but you will at some point need to confront the reality that you have health anxiety and need to address the root cause of it.

The therapist themselves can only do so much. The work on confronting your health anxiety and realizing what is and isn't a delusion, will be up to you to work through in therapy and outside on your own too. You need to remember why you're going to therapy in the first place.

[NotDeadYet]

reading about OC...all I could do was concentrate on the back/hip pain and came home and looked at OC symptoms.

Travelgirl77

The above quotes are why you don't feel empowered. You keep acting in such a way that is normal for your brain. Therapy's role is to train you how to retrain your brain. You will only overcome this by actually practicing. Please remember that therapy is not like a pill. You don't go 4 times and feel better. You go 4 times and work your butt off in between sessions practicing what you're being taught. It's hard work and you'll have slip ups but it's all part of the process. Don't give up on therapy. Keep going.

Best wishes

[Allochka]

Travelgirl,
you've been given great advice above. May I ask if you are on any meds? Sometimes they help to calm down a bit and make therapy much more effective. At least they allow you to finally absorb what is being taught and discussed there...

I wish you (and myself :-)) good luck and to get better. PLease joing "No Googling" support thread. If you feel the urge to Google - just come there and fight back!