Topic: The Skeptic's Guide to Psychiatry/Psychology (and or mental health/illness)

[WC]

A'ight, I'm just gonna keep throwing these out there in the hopes that someone will jump in with a little sumpin' sumpin' (or some signifigant compressive knowledge and skeptical opinion... Really, any insight is helpful; anything.)

What's up with REBT?

[cedric86]

How have you been looking for a CBT practitioner? This looks promising: http://www.nacbt.org/searchfortherapists.asp

[WC]

That does look promising (nothing within my Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater region unfortunately). Thus far I've been going through listings in psycologytoday and cross referencing possible good fit candidates with info elsewhere on the web, and then writing/calling the therapist's office to screen further. Very slow. Very time consuming. Not even sure if this is the right way to go about this. I have two or three possible therapists in my area that I may be able to deal with.

But like I've said, in the past, it tends to take 3 or 4 visits before the crazy reveals itself.

I'm gonna go back to straight up google maps searches for therapists in the area, and go down that avenue for a while.

[Plastique]

If you're self-motivated and self-disciplined enough, you can implement CBT by teaching yourself.

[WC]

If you're self-motivated and self-disciplined enough, you can implement CBT by teaching yourself.

Curious.

Curious because there is a lot of crap out there [see self help aisle(s) in any book store or public library].

(click to show/hide)

As for me, my motivation and discipline fluctuate and cycle rapidly beyond my control, due to bipolar, so I always feel I need adult supervision before I go running off into the woods with a pair of scissors; which I've done more times than I'd care to admit.

Currently seem to be on the low ebb of the thing after spinning out of control last month. Can't even seem to complete a thought or a to-do list right now, and feel like I'm walking through quicksand in a mindless haze. Can't complete anything I start or even clean up after myself. A month ago I was having rage-o-holic fits at everything and couldn't stop fidgeting or cleaning or pacing around talking to myself. In Feb. my brain felt like it was screaming, and I couldn't make it stop or get any sleep (had to go into an emergency 24 hour psych place a couple of times). Anyway, I've been coming up on Lamotrigine since then, so, who knows, maybe it will help, maybe not. It's hard to tell from within here, I need observers to give me feedback on that, I just really can't tell, and never have the wherewithal to chart my own states.

So yeah. Or no, rather, for people like me, even with some level of psychiatric maintenance and supervision, I still go funny and off the rails. Even in the best of times. In years past, with better jobs and better insurance, the bipolar thing was constantly my undoing, no matter how hard I tried or how compliant I was in treatment. And now that I'm vicariously watching my 51 year old dad self destruct (yet again) with bipolar...  It's disheartening.

This last bit about my dad^ is me reflecting on discipline and motivation. He's one of the most disciplined and motivated people I know. A JD and an MBA amongst some other things that escape me at a moment, with a remarkable career(s) in law and business, and teaching. All the work and discipline in the world, even with the best health care money can buy, don't seem to do a lick of good for him, or his (also bipolar) folks for that matter. Seems to get worse with age in my family. It seems that way, but I'm looking at my elders who, to me, seem to be going apeshit. Granted, there is Mormonism (see Glen Beck) in their mix, and some toxic Tea Partying and conspiratorial thinking that may be making them unhinged. Oh, who knows.

[Plastique]

Fucking hell. Sounds wretched.

My comment was purely anecdotal. I think I used a textbook, not a self-help one. But it doesn't sound pertinent to you.

Good luck to you, man, that's a tough way to be.

[WC]

A textbook, ey? Never heard this before, elaborate.

Oh, as for me, no worries, the bipolar side of my family are all doctors and lawyers and professors, despite bipolar. So, who knows.

[Karyn]

Like staring down the barrel of a gun.  Hopefully they will be able to come up with something more effective as medication that what your dad had available.

[Plastique]

A textbook, ey? Never heard this before, elaborate.

Psychology textbook. Don't have the details, it was a while ago.

[WC]

Ugh, why has searching for a podcast in iTunes become exactly as painful as searching for an app? Hideous. Trying to find a psychology podcast. So far, something called My Three Shrinks Podcast by Shrink Rap, and a mental health one from MUSC. At least both of their pages listing podcast descriptions are easy to sift through.

The mythreeshrinks' audio is pretty harsh.

But hey, right off the bat, from MUSC, one on CBT.

Finding a good cast on psychology is about as hard as finding a good psychologist. We'll give these a try, and look at some others tomorrow.

[WC]

Another one from MUSC immediately caught my attention;

Bipolar Disorder: Signs and Symptoms

I'm kind of beyond signs and symptoms after 15 or 20 years, but there's still a lot about it that I don't know much about, and my understanding is that the medical understanding of it has come some way since I was originally diagnosed.

[Karyn]

Read that madness book I recommended earlier.  They go way beyond the signs and symptoms of bipolar.  I think I learned more about mental illness from that book than anything else, even the abnormal psych course I took in college.  Also, when it comes to psychology, you are better off going for open courses at universities, IMHO.  I've failed on finding any decent psychology podcasts.

[Karyn]

A post just came across facebook from Darrell Ray that the Therapist project is now open to clients seeking professionals.


https://www.therapistproject.org/index.php

[WC]

 

ETA- no one in my area. But that's to be expected. I hope more and more people sign up with this. In fact, I think I may send a link to prospective therapists who have returned my emails, and just straight up ask 'em if they "get it".

Two things I learned since signing up as a client;

• REBT was devised by Albert Ellis.
• Albert Ellis was an athiest, a humanist, and a skeptic.

Not that that means much, I suppose. Seeing how this really isn't my area, you know, as a layperson who cringes at psychologists, I had never heard of Albert Ellis till the other day.

[cedric86]

A post just came across facebook from Darrell Ray that the Therapist project is now open to clients seeking professionals.


https://www.therapistproject.org/index.php

Hooray!