How to steer your own mental health journey?

Post date: 2021-04-08 09:00:12

After nearly two years of pretty intense instability, I finally feel stable and can look for new / better support. But without much in the way of diagnosis or explanation, how do I figure out what I'm looking for from therapy next and what modalities to use?

You all have even pointed out how unsupportive my therapist is in previous questions -- that has been true throughout, but now I finally feel recovered / spoon-abundant enough to actually take on the project of getting a new one.

I got medicated finally last summer on a low dose of an SSRI and these days am feeling pretty good, most of the time, even during stressful or difficult circumstances. It also gave me enough space in between panics to work on stuff to make my life better. I also noticed I probably used to have some social anxiety, since that's pretty much melted away now. However I suspect what I was dealing with during this period was a mixture of a lot of things - past work & sexual trauma, potentially something non-neurotypical going on (OCD or ADHD? not clear to me but a lot of both of these symptoms resonate), plus general life dissatisfaction / pandemic stress, and maybe a bit of addiction / substance issues.

So one angle to try would be to focus on the emotional dysregulation piece and join a DBT group or therapist (current therapist has suggested this would be helpful for me, some of the techniques I've taught myself have already been useful when dealing with / fending off anxiety attacks.)

Or, I could prioritize the trauma side and try something like EMDR as many people close to me / with similar issues have experienced a lot of relief from this.

Or, prioritize body focused repetitive behaviors (this seems like it could be something relatively easy to solve) since it's concrete and would be an obvious quality of life improvement.

There's also psychedelic therapy which I am generally pro – but since my medication seems in a decent place right now that feels less compatible at the moment. It's coming up in my therapist search already though, so not sure how to think about that.

I know it doesn't have to be only one topic at the expense of the others and imo the therapist should be able to work out what's most important, however I'm feeling like I'm not really going anywhere without driving the direction, and therapists all have their own angles. I also don't feel any huge need to pathologize / name my condition, but perhaps it would help sort out what is causing other issues?

So my question is, if you were me / have been in similar shoes, how would you sort out what you're looking for in a therapist next and where to direct your treatment?

Please click Here to read the full story.