Anemia, depression and therapy

[Jaquta]

Can anemia be confused with depression?  I've been feeling rather flat and are just trying to understand why.
I was diagnosed with anemia last week.  I took the depression check list in Dr David burns' book, "Feeling Good: The new mood therapy' and scored 83 (my lowest score ever!).  I don't really feel a lot at the moment, except tired, and thought that this may have reduced the values in the thoughts and feeling section.  Not sure.

Also, should one persevere with therapy if one just goes to vent (nothing more and nothing less)?  My T and I don't seem to be having any of those conversations that are so important to change.
I think the T is afraid he may trigger me (again).  He has even suggested that I don't go to therapy if it is not helpful.  I don't feel that it is all that helpful.  It is the only support available though.
Therapy actually seems worse than posting on the internet.  At least here there is that connection.
If staying is the best option, is there anything I could be doing to make the therapeutic relationship better?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

J

[Jaquta]

Dear Dr Gould
Thanks for your response.  There was no need to apologize.  I think you do a good job of responding to most people's posts.  I know I haven't given you much to show that I can mange my emotions but I am a little resilient and while some events may be painful and/ or hurtful, for the most part, I can deal with them.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I posted this question.  My question was similar to the individual with low testosterone (which made him feel tired and then anxious).  
It will be interesting to see if the iron and vitamin c supplements will help my mood.  
I was a sad sack over winter and was feeling increasingly defeated by the amount of effort it was taking to do everything.  I'm at least hoping the supplements will help with energy and concentration.  The rest I'll have to work on in therapy.

Having all this happen has scared me enough to be a little more proactive with working on the emotional eating.  It's not nice being blue and having chest pains, etc regardless of cause.  At the moment I'm adjusting to the added variety in my diet.  It provides more freedom but less perceived control.

My T was away at a conference last week so I haven't had this discussion with him.
I was aware that therapy didn't seem to be progressing and that I was becoming derailed by initial questions of how I was or how my week was.  I think it will be hard for me to get that balance where I can express my emotions and problem solve issues.  My last T made this effortless.  I don't think I'm very disciplined in therapy.  I don't have, or often lack, either the emotional control or the organization.
My GP appointments are working better at present.  I guess that is about discussing the problem and then trying to resolve it.  I think the fatigue got overlooked, in part, due to the focus that had been placed on the mh stuff (which is exhausting).

I feel a lot is happening at the moment and I feel I am beginning to view things from a different perspective.  I expect this is all part of the aging process.
This may be a useful conversation for me to have with the phone counselor I speak to from Lifelink Youthline.  He's someone who's twice my age who keeps telling me I'm falling apart.  But who can be philosophical and insightful.

Sorry this is a mess.  I'm really struggling to concentrate.  I wrote this other stuff to Paxiled earlier but needed to put it last after respect to you and your title.

J


Hey Paxiled!  I agree that some of the tests are not very helpful (or informative).  I feel some however do have some value.  In a professional setting I feel that some should not be applied.  I think a health professional needs to use common sense.  I object to spending an entire therapy session filling out questionnaires when several questions in combination with good observations can garner the same information.

No, I haven't seen the bipolar one.  I'm a bit biased when it comes to bipolar though.  Not because I have it but because of my experience with those who do.  
I don't read or fill out those love ones in the magazines.  (I just stick to the Mills and Boon medical romances -which can be very educational too by the way.)

When how you feel constantly changes it can be difficult to know how you feel and to trust it.  I don't know that it is as black and white as you suggest.  Perhaps it is??

I think the answer to your question is yes, I do still need therapy.  It was a useful reminder to me though to not get stuck in the same rut exposing myself to therapy that is not helping me to move forward.

What conclusions did you come too about your own therapy?  Were you able to elicit anything helpful from it?

J

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

Sorry I missed this question..just found it...yes, anemia makes you tired and less energetic, and that definetly contributes to depression inasmuch as it makes you feel deffeated rather than in charge of your forward motion.  Re therapy, what you can do is use your therapist in a different way..not venting, but in problem solving, with the goal being to get yourself moving constructively along a pathway of life that means something to you. Venting is a waste of time.