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Questions |
I have
developed a mild addiction to alcohol, and have a severe case of Attention
Deficit Disorder (not hyperactive). I went to see a psychotherapist and she
assured me that 7 hours of therapy would cure me. After about 4 months of
therapy, and really throwing everything into it, there is less control over
the drinking than ever before.
From what you say, your so-called therapist doesnt seem to be practicing much of anything correctlynot even brainwashing! First of all, no competent psychotherapist can ever promise anyone that a certain number of sessions will be a cure for anything. Because psychotherapy depends so much on the client-psychotherapist relationship and on client motivation, a psychotherapist can speak only in generalities at best: Its possible that . . . or It might happen that . . . or No one knows for sure, but . . . As for the brainwashing, common sense and anecdotal evidence tell us that prenatal experiences can have an effect on infant development, but it is simply impossible to reconstruct prenatal experiences with psychotherapy. In genuine psychotherapy, you must come to terms with your emotional and behavioral life of the present. If constructing a myth about prenatal and birth traumas helps you accomplish the psychotherapeutic work, fine. But if not, you should not have such ideas forced on you by anyone, and especially not by a psychotherapist. Third, if your psychotherapist knew nothing about ADD, then she had the ethical obligation to have said so, upfront. Then you would have had the opportunity to find someone else, or to continue working with her on an experimental basis. There really is nothing wrong with experimenting in psychotherapy, as long as the client agrees to it. Finally, everything is an acquired conditionmore or lessbut different persons need different interventions in different circumstances. It can be possible to get to the core of mild alcoholism with psychodynamic psychotherapy, but maybe you might need cognitive-behavioral treatment with a psychologist who specializes in treating addictions. So it seems that you have wasted a lot of time, energy and money on this so-called therapy. Should you continue? Well, ask the question like this: Perhaps you should have terminated after you were cured at the end of the seventh hour?
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