Dealing With Therapist?

[CK1901]

So I've been a mess with anxiety and insomnia and mood swings recently. As a result, I decided it might be time to go back to counseling. (I used to go before I was diagnosed with Celiac but stopped many years ago.) It's taken a while, but I'm at a point where I think I need to acknowledge and deal with some of the stressors in my life, celiac being one of them, but there are other things that are also very prevalent.

 

I really like the therapist I picked, but I'm also getting kind of frustrated about explaining the celiac thing to her. Obviously it's a major part of my life and psychiatric symptoms are often tied in to the disease. I'm concerned that she doesn't have the medical knowledge to understand the connection. It's not so simple to just diagnose someone as depressed when it's like...well I'm depressed if I accidentally eat gluten, but maybe not so much in general. Or I'm depressed because I'm tired of dealing with people and not being able to eat things, but I'm fine when it's not a factor. (For example, I'm good hanging out with people when there is no food involved, but I get really stressed when I have to eat with people, especially ones thats don't know me that well.) It's not like the black and white thing where everyday is bad. It's more about just acquiring coping mechanisms, especially when you have a special situation that makes your life a little more complicated than normal.

 

So far, I have gone to two hour long sessions and probably spent over 1/3 of the time explaining the difficulties of eating out, dealing with unsupportive or unwittingly ignorant family & friends, avoiding CC, and just generally maintaining the diet in a culture that puts wheat in so many things. I'm not trying to dwell on it, but I've had to repeat myself on a couple things that I guess you would call nuances (like CC) and I'm starting to get exasperated. Maybe I'm being impatient, but I just want people to understand immediately, without having to explain "yes it is really that complicated. There is no loophole here." It's definitely just one of those struggles you get accustomed to and other people can't really empathize with it. I'm getting kind of tired of explaining things, but it's too much of a major life-thing to not address. This time, I said "think of cross contamination like dealing with raw meat. You wouldn't reuse a plate that had raw chicken on it without washing it." I think she understood at that point. It's like I need a therapist that also has celiac disease. Has anyone else had similar experiences?

[kareng]

Maybe you could find a therapist that specializes in people with chronic illness?  Maybe call a hospital's psychiatric service and see if they could recommend someone?

[bartfull]

Or maybe print out some info from a reputable site like cureceliac.com or Dr Fasano, or even the Mayo clinic. If she sees these things she will know you're not making it up (about how strict you have to be). Then she will be able to concentrate on your real issues instead of thinking that your CC anxiety IS one of your issues.

[pippylongstocking]

 I struggle with the anxiety and depression too.  I have a great T, but she is human.  Sometimes I think I teach my T, more then I get from her.  Must be the teacher in me.    I went to school to be a T but dropped out after a year.  T's are just human and often as messed up as we are, if not more.  Sometimes you just have to move on.  I really liked that suggestion about T who deal with chronic illness.  Best of luck to you. Pip

[CK1901]

 I'll see how it goes with this one for a few more sessions, but I think that's a great idea kareng.

[LauraTX]

A therapist is not going to have the extensive medical knowledge to understand every chronic condition out there.  The first few sessions with any new therapist are always going to be building the base so they understand you and what you are going through.  There won't be as much work in those first sessions, they are more of you telling your story.  So, what you describe sounds very normal to me.  If you feel like you have to explain the condition too much, get them some concise literature on celiac disease and ask them to read it.  But hearing from you what your specific difficulties are is what is going to help them help you.  If depression is a factor in any part of your life, that is what it is.  It doesn't matter what is causing it, it needs to be addressed so you can live a healthier life.  Obviously if a factor contributing to the depression can be removed, it should be, but your difficulties with Celiac disease are going to stick around, so the idea is to help you learn to cope better with the onset of this chronic illness.  

 

If for some reason you choose to find another therapist (I would give it a few more sessions before doing that), I recommend typing up a narrative and giving it to the therapist to read at your first session.   That way you can cover everything and not forget something, and you can include something on Celiac disease in what you give them, so you don't have to explain.  But the chances of a therapist knowing everything and not have to be told what your struggles are is... unrealistic.  Once you let them know what your struggles are, they can help you with those.  So I recommend staying with the current person and seeing how it goes after a longer time.

[CK1901]

 I struggle with the anxiety and depression too.  I have a great T, but she is human.  Sometimes I think I teach my T, more then I get from her.  Must be the teacher in me.    I went to school to be a T but dropped out after a year.  T's are just human and often as messed up as we are, if not more.  Sometimes you just have to move on.  I really liked that suggestion about T who deal with chronic illness.  Best of luck to you. Pip

Thanks, I really like her in general, so I'm going to give it a little more time. Obviously, we have to give people the benefit of the doubt and I definitely get the feeling that this woman's intentions and motivations are where they need to be in order to generally constructive and helpful. I'm going to print out some stuff from the celiac sprue association for the next session. TBH, I didn't even think about looking for someone who deals with chronic illnesses. If it doesn't work out for some reason, I'm definitely going to investigate that. 

[Googles]

Hello. 

 

I have had to deal with this with my therapist. I have a new therapist now than I did when I was diagnosed. It was months for me between the blood tests and the endoscopy so my first therapist got to learn all about celiac as I was learning.  It seemed for a while I was talking with everyone about what I was learning as a way to cope. However, my current therapist had to get some crash courses on Celiac from me. Therapists wont know about every medical illness that a client can have. I agree with the others about providing her some written material to read and then provide information about how it impacts you specifically given that it is different for everyone. I would provide the information given how much stuff is out there that does not take us seriously and you don't want her finding that stuff. The first few sessions of therapy are often giving background, and for you this is a major part of your background.