Is recovery possible?

[Jaquta]

It seems like a rhetoric question, but it doesn't feel like one.

When one is overwhelmed by the symptoms and debilitating affects of mental illness, how can one keep the bigger picture in perspective?  So often it can feel like we're stuck and making no progress.

Is change possible when so many of us already exhibit degrees of cognitive rigidity?
(Or perhaps I should ask if I can change -it is wrong of me to assume that others are like me).

Is it about having the courage to participate when we're feeling absolutely terrified, stressed or anxious?

Are there any tips you would be prepared to offer for those with existing mental health issues who are trying desperately to recover and live a normal life?

I hope I haven't asked too much of you.
Many thanks again for your time and expertise.

J

I don't think I'm really understanding the barriers being thinking and doing.  Whatever it is, it feels very real.  What feelings and experiences would cause people to become so stuck in a life they loathe so much?  How does one identify those feelings and resolve the issues?  Can that invisible barrier and stronghold holding people back be broken?  

[Jaquta]

I was planning on leaving therapy.  I don't have a great rapport with the new T and I don't feel she gets it.  Getting it and getting me are really important to me.

It's difficult at the moment because I'm feeling extremely stressed and I would love to be able to talk about what's going on for me but ... I feel threatened, angry and upset when she uses my therapy time to talk about her and her background and to give me questionnaires to fill out.  Then I feel guilty for feeling so frustrated with her.
I am trying really hard to stay but it is not easy and it evokes negative feelings from other therapy I've had -especially where the system projected their negative feelings.
It all feels incredibly overwhelming.

The reality is I have limited options and at present this could possibly be my best option.
It hurts to have someone overlook issues and functionality when my previous T said that my issues date back to when I was very young and need to be addressed there.
We spoke a bit about my internal world and a lot about the oral phase (although she said I was stuck in the anal phase).
Is working on sporting goals, etc going to help me achieve what I need to?  Will that help integrate my internal world when I can't even participate due to the anxiety from the fragmentation?

Discerning reality could become a problem.  Sometimes feelings feel like facts.  I love this quote from Dr David Burn's book, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy.
"Your emotions follow your thoughts just as surely as baby ducks follow their mother.  But the fact the baby ducks follow faithfully along doesn't prove that the mother knows where she is going!"

Are you able to give a brief example of starting and ending with reality?  If the reality, for example, for binge eating (or any issue really) begins with identifying the emotions, where does it end?

This sounds a little like rational emotive therapy and analyzing whether something is rational or not.  Is that the foundation for discerning reality?  I can't think.

Your program sounds like a useful tool.  Looking forward to it.

I hope you don't burn yourself out.  I have had fears for the 'old doctor'.  Obviously totally unfounded.  I had wondered whether you started accepting death at your age.  Obviously much too busy for that, but I guess nothing is written in stone.
I hope that didn't sound that bad.  I think about lots of miscellaneous things.  I've wondered about an adhesive for fragmented parts of personality too.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

I see you trying so diligently to figure things out. You need your therapist to sort this out, but as you said in another posting, you are going to have to wait another week.  There is one  principle to keep in mind that might help you.  Reality is your friend. Yes, starting with and ending with reality as the basis of your decision making keeps you on a  sustainable  track, tells you what you have to change in yourself, and will put your fears of change in perspective.  In a few months from now I will have a program online that can help you keep your  perspective in exactly that way...stay tuned, working on it as fast as I can...