I have a bone to pick with your PCP. Well, it's likely I do.
I think it's great that people are comfortable enough with their PCP's to ask them for medication to address their mental health issues. You need to be able to talk to someone you trust and who you believe has your best interest at heart. But I need you to listen to me...
LISTEN TO ME.
If you are struggling enough to talk to your doctor about needing some Lexapro, Zoloft, or Prozac, and your doctor agrees that you are in need of it, then I am here to tell you... You are also in need of therapy.
Medication is great, particularly when we are talking about the extreme side of symptoms such as panic attacks, thoughts about suicide, or even paranoid thoughts.
However, the purpose of medication management in conjunction with therapy is so that an extensive amount of energy is not used in session just trying to manage the symptoms. If the therapist and patient are spending weeks and hours on end just trying to just manage the symptoms, then it's difficult to get to the source of the symptoms.
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Medication is not supposed to completely mask the symptoms but to get them into a place where we can manage them with some ease so we can start talking about the more challenging things... to start talking about the not-so-easy stuff. Research tells us that to treat the more difficult symptoms we need both medication and mental health therapy.
If you are not seeking therapy while taking medications, then how do you plan on managing your symptoms when you stop taking the medication?
