大象传媒

Little sixth grade me would be shocked I am writing this right now because during my /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/first year in middle school, I began to have suicidal thoughts. I was asocial, meaning I was withdrawn and had no interest in socializing (APA Dictionary o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f Psychology), I had no /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/friends, and I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Major Depressive Disorder, which are common comorbidities1. Eventually, my thoughts were so out o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f control due to my illnesses and the situations I was put in because o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f my illnesses, I was Baker Acted (involuntarily institutionalized), put on antidepressants, and sent to therapy weekly. So, now you may be wondering, why in the world would I title the blog the way I did. Shouldn鈥檛 I be in therapy like鈥� /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/forever? Well, last week my therapist told me that I don鈥檛 need her anymore! 2 Because o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f my personal experiences, I know that no matter how hopeless one鈥檚 situation may appear, e/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/fective behavioral health care is available.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is, essentially, when someone is persistently worrying. To have GAD, someone must have anxiety /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/for at least six months, signi/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/ficant distress and/or impairment, and at least three other symptoms, which can include poor concentration, edginess, and /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/fatigue (Comer & Comer, 2021). When someone has Major Depressive Disorder, they go through depressive episodes, periods o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f deep sadness and /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/feelings o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f hopelessness3 (Mayo Clinic, 2018). To be diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, one must have a depressive episode lasting /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/for two or more weeks with a total o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f at least /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/five symptoms /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/falling into the /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/following categories: emotional symptoms, motivational symptoms, behavioral symptoms, cognitive symptoms, and/or physical symptoms (Comer & Comer, 2021).听

While many o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f the symptoms /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/for these two disorders overlap, like sleeping too much, they a/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/fected me in di/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/ferent ways. For instance, even i/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f I got over the barrier o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f being unmotivated to socialize /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/from my depression, I began to have anxiety about people judging me. There/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/fore, because I have both depression and anxiety, breaking the cycle I had /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/fallen into o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f avoiding li/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/fe was even harder.

The path to get to where I am today required I utilize a variety o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f di/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/ferent methods, such as medication and multiple kinds o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f therapy. For me, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) was the most e/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/fective. CBT combines cognitive techniques, such as challenging your patterns o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f thinking, and behavioral aspects, like changing or stopping unhealthy habits (In/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/formed Health, 2006). My therapist /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/found behavioral activation, which is a technique o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f CBT, produced the most improvement. In behavioral activation, I had to push mysel/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f to socialize, do smaller, manageable homework assignments, and go to school more o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/ften because I was very unmotivated and, basically, not /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/functioning.听

As a college student, you probably know that once you /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/fall behind in classes, it is very hard to catch up. To recover success/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/fully, you must catch up on the material you missed, while also learning new material at the same time. Juggling all this at once is a challenge. While it isn鈥檛 a per/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/fect analogy, you can kind o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f think about my past situation as trying to catch up, not just in school, but in li/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/fe. My progress was in baby steps, but I started doing homework assignments and being social again. Trying to get back my motivation and catch up in school took a lot o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f tears and breakdowns, and it did not take a week; It was more like a rollercoaster because I went up, back down, and then up a little higher, etc. And, by the time I /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/felt a little better, I was thrown back into the jungle that we call 鈥渕iddle school.鈥� Let鈥檚 just say middle schoolers are brutal. Fortunately, because I was already in therapy, and I had some skills on-hand to be able to deal with problems on my own. So, while having someone to talk to about one鈥檚 problems is nice, therapy also is use/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/ful because one can learn techniques on how to deal with issues in a manner that is help/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/ful and, o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f course, not make things worse.听

Basically, I was not an easy client and thank Gd I already had a supportive team working with me. Let me say this, though: While I said that I do not need therapy anymore, it doesn鈥檛 mean that I am not going to have problems. So, I think that having a supportive, positive person to talk to is ALWAYS a good idea. I/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f you /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/feel that you are in need o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f someone to talk to, try meeting with counseling services at 大象传媒 (website: /counseling/). I/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f you even /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/feel stuck in a situation or unmotivated, it is a good idea to ask /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/for help. Just know that 鈥渢his too shall pass.鈥� Good moments will not last /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/forever, but neither will the bad. 听
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Footnotes:
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1 Comorbidities are two illnesses that occur at the same time (APA Dictionary o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f Psychology).
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2 However, I will still see her because I don鈥檛 want to bottle up my emotions like I did in the past.
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3 I/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f these symptoms are accompanied by a history o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f mania, then the diagnosis would be Bipolar Disorder (Comer & Comer, 2021).
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Sources:
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American Psychological Association. (n.d.). APA Dictionary o/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f Psychology. American Psychological Association. Retrieved September 5, 2022.听
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Comer, R. J., & Comer, J. S. (2021). Abnormal psychology (11th ed.). Worth Publishers/Macmillan Learning.听
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In/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/formedHealth.org [Internet]. Cologne, Germany: Institute /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/for Quality and E/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/f/thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/ficiency in Health Care (IQWiG); 2006-. Cognitive behavioral therapy. 2013 Aug 7 [Updated 2016 Sep 8]. Available /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279297/
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Mayo Foundation /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/for Medical Education and Research. (2018, February 3). Depression (major depressive disorder). Mayo Clinic. Retrieved September 10, 2022, /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/symptoms-causes/syc-20356007听
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Sreenivas, S. (2021, November 17). Comorbidity: What to know. WebMD. Retrieved September 10, 2022, /thrive/students/thrive-thursdays/notherapyanymore/from https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/what-is-comorbidity听