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Thread: Too much self-help and therapy causing depressive feelings?

  1. #1

    Too much self-help and therapy causing depressive feelings?

    I feel as if I 've become obsessed with therapy and trying to find the perfect treatment. I just realized that this is something that has been going on. For the last three years, I find myself constantly rehearsing for therapy, googling problems, self-diagnosing, reading self-help books, trying to implement therapy perfectly and worst of all none of it feels like its enough. I find myself looking for more therapy and advice, higher levels of care, and it feels as if nothing will ever be enough to make the therapy feel "just right." I don't know how to break out of this loop. I feel like I don't want to even implement the things I learned because the timing doesn't "feel" right or I might not be doing it correctly enough. It's really becoming very counter productive. It feels like I'm trying to fill the void with advice and therapists.

  2. #2
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    Re: Too much self-help and therapy causing depressive feelings?

    Quote Originally Posted by Sharon123 View Post
    I feel like I don't want to even implement the things I learned because the timing doesn't "feel" right
    How do you mean?
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  3. #3

    Re: Too much self-help and therapy causing depressive feelings?

    Well I do have OCD, which causes perfectionism type obsessions. So it feels like I need to wait for an optimal time to implement the therapy homework because only then it will be most effective. It feels like I really need to do therapy correctly in order to live a great life. It feels like there is too much pressure surrounding it now.

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    Re: Too much self-help and therapy causing depressive feelings?

    Quote Originally Posted by Sharon123 View Post
    Well I do have OCD, which causes perfectionism type obsessions.
    Me too.

    So it feels like I need to wait for an optimal time to implement the therapy homework because only then it will be most effective.
    I hear you, but I think this 'waiting for when the time is 'right'' isn't unique to people with OCD. People tend to do that in general, as in, 'I will be happy when - I feel well, or the bills are paid, or I have a job, or whatever...

    It feels like I really need to do therapy correctly in order to live a great life. It feels like there is too much pressure surrounding it now.
    Does life have to be 'great'?

    What is your idea of a 'great' life?

    Not having a go at all here, btw, I'm genuinely interested in what you've said.

    Maybe you've just taken in too much therapy info and it's spangled ya brain a bit?
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  5. #5

    Re: Too much self-help and therapy causing depressive feelings?

    Yeah taking in too much therapy info has been a bit of a mistake I think. It's given too much info on what to do and what not to do and creating a lot of over control. My OCD can be pretty severe and debilitating, it latches on to everything, even therapy sometimes. But I do think that mixed in there is a regular human desire for wanting to be happy when a particular thing comes to pass. At first it started out as me wanting to show my family that I have a genuine diagnosis and need help so going therapy sort of felt like proof of a problem (which I genuinely do have). My family used to be very dismissive of this. But then over time even when they did become more supportive it starting turning into other things. It turned into what if I don't have the "right" diagnosis and excessive googling on mental health conditions and searching for different interventions started. It then went into, I'll feel better when I feel like I received this kind of treatment or when my therapist says this particular thing. And I think it grew and grew from there. Maybe recognizing it might be a good first step though...
    I think I do have some really high expectations for my life. I daydream excessively a lot and have all sorts of fantastic stories that are nothing like my life. Sorry for the ramble.... just thinking out loud haha

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    Re: Too much self-help and therapy causing depressive feelings?

    Quote Originally Posted by Sharon123 View Post
    Yeah taking in too much therapy info has been a bit of a mistake I think. It's given too much info on what to do and what not to do and creating a lot of over control. My OCD can be pretty severe and debilitating, it latches on to everything, even therapy sometimes.
    Totally get that. When I go with something, I go in deep...

    I think I do have some really high expectations for my life. I daydream excessively a lot and have all sorts of fantastic stories that are nothing like my life. Sorry for the ramble.... just thinking out loud haha
    Not at all. Ramble away. I certainly do lol. You're in the company of a fellow rambler.

    And I also understand what you're saying, though possibly from a different angle from you because I have OCD and I'm autistic.

    I spent a lifetime being disheartened with reality never coming anywhere close to my inner world. Crushing disappointment - like when I go to the cinema to watch a fantasy film - where I resonate fully with the protagonist - (a recent example - Bumblebee) then I walk back into reality and the 'jolt' is both physical and emotional...

    I'm 50 now and I know that life will never be as I want (or need) it to be for my brain to be at peace. I just have to find ways to make the best of being here, and that takes some creativity.

    I know there will never come a day where things are 'perfect' or 'great' even. It hasn't happened in 50 years. I have great moments, not days, and I accept this as my life, but that I can go wherever I like inside my mind..
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    Re: Too much self-help and therapy causing depressive feelings?

    I think you need to have confidence in your own ability to live your life and cut out the reliance on therapists and the view that they must hold the key to the "correct" ways to lead that "perfect" life?

    There is no magic formula to fulfillment in life and a therapist is just offering an assessment of what he/she thinks may help you. What is happiness anyway? It means different things to different people and endlessly searching for it will bring frustration and anxiety because nothing will be good enough when you are a perfectionist.

    Do you think you would be able to consider putting therapy on hold, Sharon?

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