10.07.09
Therapy… or not?
I suppose I’m a pragmatist at heart. If I have a toothache, I go to the dentist. If I develop a squint, I get a new prescription for my eyeglasses. And so, when I found myself in a state of chronic depression two years after I discovered I was adopted, I sought help through medicine and therapy.
Eventually I started posting stuff on the web about LDAs and founded the Late Discovery Email List. LDA’s began to contact me since I was one of the few resources available. Some had come to their own terms about what had happened to them and just wanted to reach out to another like them. Others were deeply traumatized; depressed, anxious and troubled.
I believe in the power of peer support groups, in the trust and compassion built from shared experience, but I also believe that some things we deal with need individual care and attention. I also know that I’m unqualified to offer psychiatric or psychological evaluations or treatment.
Occassionally I have suggested therapy to some of the LDAs that have contacted me. My suggestion is not authoritative, but based on my own life experience.
What’s interesting to me is that recently some folks on the LDA list have shared about their, mostly, negative experienes in therapy. A lot of their bad experiences stem from a general lack of understanding about LDA, or general adoption, issues on the therapists’ part.
I had thought at one time of posting a list of therapists I felt were sensitive to LDA issues on the Late Discovery website, but then quickly came to the conclusion that I had no criteria by which to judge their suitabilty. I had brief liabilty nightmare fantasies of being haunted by LDAs, “you said they were good, now look at me! I’m more messed up than ever!”
I suppose the bottom line for me is that therapy is more art than science. How many artists do you really like? How many would you trust with your psyche?
