I have another doctor's appointment today. This time it is with a neurologist. It's been many years since I've seen a neurologist. I've had tests run for my cluster headaches, but nothing ever came of them. Over the course of my life, I have been to many doctors and many specialists for my headaches, none of them have offered relief. The only relief I've ever gotten is with the medicine that my old doctor prescribed to help prevent the cluster cycles. While it greatly lessens the intensity of the cluster headaches, they haven't completely gone away. There is still rarely a moment when I don't have a headache. Luckily, they are no longer debilitating, but they are manageable. I wish I could be headache free, but I've come to the point that I doubt it will ever happen. At this point it seems to be more about managing the pain, which I've mostly learned to do, and not to concentrate on ending the pain, which I'm not sure is possible at this point. I've suffered with them for so long, I don't know how I'd deal with being pain free.
I'm sure the headaches are also spurred on by my depression. I'm still waiting on a referral to a therapist. I've resigned to go, but I'm not thrilled about it. The last experience with therapy was not good, but maybe I can find one that will help.
4 comments:
"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul"...
Wishing you the best possible outcome, Joe. <3
Finding the right therapist (counselor, spiritual director) is not always easy. I have had both good and bad experiences. One thing I found helpful (on whichever side of the relationship I found myself) was to build in a relatively short-term date for evaluation. Say after four or five sessions, to take stock together and see if it seemed to be a good fit, with each one able to opt out without having to justify himself. The therapist who is wrong for me may be perfect for John Doe, and it would be better for me to free up his time so that they can work together. I also found it helpful when I was the helper and did not think a relationship was working out, to be able to recommend another helper. Sometimes the best help I gave was pointing a client to a person who could be of assistance.
Hope you find the right one or at least one to point you to the right one.
I hope the visit goes well and you find the right therapist, Joe. I have had three -- two were extremely unhelpful and one was great, but she moved across the country. Some therapists make things worse, so I understand your skepticism. It can especially be difficult for those of us who are LGBTQA+
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