Emanuel Posted October 5, 2013 Posted October 5, 2013 Hello everyone. I've discovered philosophy and the idea of self knowledge through this conversation around 6 months ago. Since then, I've learned a lot about reality and human life, my own in particular. I have been keeping a journal and have been searching out for new information. Recently I realized how important the unconscious mind is to my own life. I believe that if I want to succeed in my endeavors, I must explore these ideas and their manifestations in my own experience more closely. After watching a documentary about Freud and mulling over it for a while, I realized that if I want to win the fight of self-improvement, I need to truly listen to my dreams. (I really had to stop and think about writing this phrase. Phew!) So, I'm looking at really working toward increasing the relationship I have to my unconscious mind and inner family. Should I look for a therapist now or wait until I know more, so that I can ask the right questions and know what to say when I'm with the therapist? I think I don't want to accept the fact that I have serious psychological wounds. It's really hard to grasp how much work will be necessary to get me back on track. Thanks for reading and I await your responses.
Kawlinz Posted October 5, 2013 Posted October 5, 2013 I'll tell you this, if wanted to wait, you'd pick the therapist. You're also basically asking us if you would rather be more cost efficient or less cost efficient with your money. Weird eh? Sorry this had a lot of my shit in it, I can easily see this not being applicable to many people at all.
aFireInside Posted October 5, 2013 Posted October 5, 2013 I say if you can to go. You can explain to the therapists what you want to accomplish and he or she should help you Keep an eye out for bad therapist who just want to make your life "functional". They want you to conform to the culture around you bad or good. Ex: So if it was Nazi Germany they would say yeah just go with the flow and be happy.
Mick Bynes Posted October 5, 2013 Posted October 5, 2013 I found the thread title to be misleading. I thought you were gonna write something like "no I'm going to a therapist, because...." Well okay, that's not the case. Ever seen a therapist before or do you plan on going to one for the first time? I've seen therapists through out most of my life. I would avoid the psychiatrists, because most of them are bad news. Psychologists on the other hand are good. Psychiatry is bad, psychology is good. Remember that. OH and do not go to a therapist who will push psychotropic drugs on you. They are the worst. Avoid them at all costs. The last therapist I saw was last year, she was a psychotherapist. She was really really good and she is the final therapist I will ever see in my lifetime. She helped me out the most out of any therapist I ever went to. I'm happy I do not need to see therapists ever again. Well I wish ya luck. If you find the one that is right for you... go for it!
Lians Posted October 5, 2013 Posted October 5, 2013 It's not an either-or question. Doing a lot of self-knowledge work on your own will save you some money when you decide to go to a therapist. You'll have most of the basics covered and progress quickly. Going into therapy now will save you time. You'll have guidance and won't have to stumble around on your own. You can always make more money, but you can never buy more time. That's why the second option is better in my opinion. However, if you don't have the cash right now, the first option seems perfectly reasonable.
Emanuel Posted October 5, 2013 Author Posted October 5, 2013 Thanks everyone, to answer some questions: It would be the first time I go to a therapist, and money is not an issue as my parents have insurance that could get me up to 12 sessions for free. You're right, therapy will save me time, and seeing as how money is not an issue at all, I'll go to a psychotherapist. I'll do some more research and listen to that podcast. Thank you very much.
LovePrevails Posted October 5, 2013 Posted October 5, 2013 if you compliment your therapy with lots of journaling and other work you can prepare for your sessions and get more out of thm happy self-archaeology
DaisyAnarchist Posted October 5, 2013 Posted October 5, 2013 I think I don't want to accept the fact that I have serious psychological wounds. It's really hard to grasp how much work will be necessary to get me back on track. Emanuel, good for you. I don't really have answers or suggestions for you as I'm actually going through more or less the same process. I remember you posted in my thread about considering therapy and how it helped to shed some light on your situation. I just wanted to tell you I am glad you are going through this process in your mind, and that you are able to admit feeling like you don't want to accept your psychological wounds. That is definitely understandable. I think it is good that you can feel that fear (or whatever that specific feeling for you is). Not that the unpleasantness is good, but that you're aware of it. Hopefully that makes sense. Ditto the "happy self-archaeology" sentiment
marius Posted October 12, 2013 Posted October 12, 2013 Im looking for a guide on journaling. the problem is that i have some ideas which are difficult to analyze in simply chronological order. say you have a problem, and you want to list multiple possible explanations, so you make a separate chapter where the organization is based on problems not dates. you want to find contradictions and paradoxes in your thinking, so you make a chapter for that tags? what system do you use to link ideas together? do you have a task list chapter to observe the progress? Can anyone share their experience regarding these more complex points or show me somewhere to look. Much obliged.
Lians Posted October 12, 2013 Posted October 12, 2013 Im looking for a guide on journaling. the problem is that i have some ideas which are difficult to analyze in simply chronological order. say you have a problem, and you want to list multiple possible explanations, so you make a separate chapter where the organization is based on problems not dates. you want to find contradictions and paradoxes in your thinking, so you make a chapter for that tags? what system do you use to link ideas together? do you have a task list chapter to observe the progress? Can anyone share their experience regarding these more complex points or show me somewhere to look. Much obliged. Hey marius, I found this video to be really helpful. It's made by a member of this community. Personally, I use RedNotebook to keep my journal. It's cross-platform, supports markdown text formatting and has a tagging functionality. The search function could be a little better, but overall, it's a solid piece of software. When I start writing in my journal, I'm describing whatever's on my mind. I imagine that I'm telling a story to someone else. Someone I trust. As I'm writing, I keep observing my emotional state and add remarks about how I feel at the moment. I don't "talk" about things in a chronological order. It's useful to see how your thoughts flow from one topic to another. If I'm dealing with a serious problem, I first journal about it. Afterwards, I read what I've written, grab a pen, a piece of paper and I start writing and drawing. Typically, I'd write down the main ideas on the piece of paper as sentences. Then I start drawing arrows connecting them in what I think is a logical way. For example, this thought was generated by this particular feeling, while these ideas are logically connected. It's easier for me to see where there are missing links and I start thinking about what could possibly be there. If I come up with anything useful, I go back to the journal entry and write about it. So far, I've found this approach to be really helpful. I'm not particularly experienced with journalling (have been doing it for a little over a month now), so take my advice with a grain of salt.
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