Hi. I’m a psychology enthusiast (not a licensed psychologist) and I have a few bits of information that I think might be useful to you. I’ve read all of the replies to this, and your replies to those, to make sure I wasn’t missing something obvious about your situation. Additionally, I defended your decision to post here. Three bits of information that may help you:
1.) If you haven’t found psychologists useful, this might be an explanation
If you haven’t found psychologists helpful, it might be because you are gifted. Here’s my reasoning for why I think you might be gifted, why this matters to your psychological health, and some ideas for getting services and doing further reading:
Gifted people can need a psychologist who has experience with gifted clients. Taking a gifted mind to a psychologist who is trained to work with normal minds can be like taking a space ship to a car mechanic. It can be frustrating or unhelpful.
About 25% of gifted people are misdiagnosed by psychologists. If you were diagnosed with any mental or learning disorders, do consult a book called Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children and Adults (I got the 25% figure from that book as well.). You are obviously upset, but there’s a good chance that there’s far less wrong than they think there is.
If you’re depressed and gifted, you aught to know about something called “existential depression”. The misdiagnosis book above does have a blurb on that in the depression section. I am not sure what to recommend for more extensive reading on existential depression, as it’s not an officially recognized form of depression. (There isn’t nearly enough research on gifted adults.) However, now that you have the term “existential depression” this may enable you to find services or books that are more helpful.
Consider phone counseling, especially if you’re seeking a psychologist who has experience with gifted people. Psychologists who have experience with gifted people are not very common. You may or may not find one in your area. If you increase the range you’re looking in to the size of your country, you’re likely to have much better luck.
2.) My method for finding useful health professionals:
When I was sick with a medical condition, I discovered that a lot of doctors did not have any idea what to do with me. They’d spend lots of money on tests and come up with nothing, or they’d treat symptoms without getting at the root cause. The only reason I got better was because I found someone who had the same problems that I was having, who had gotten better and she referred me to a doctor that:
A.) Understood my specific problem (There are wayyyyy too many problems out there for any doctor to produce quality results in diagnosing or solving them all. Better to locate someone more specialized.)
B.) Is focused on getting to the root cause. A lot of doctors who are focused on actually finding the cause call themselves “naturopathic” (the Wikipedia entry on naturopathy has this frou-frou introduction about “energy” which I find quite annoying because the most important connection between the different definitions of naturopathy I’ve seen on professional organization’s websites is the focus on getting to the root cause).
I recommend a similar approach when seeking a psychologist. Find someone with similar problems who got better and ask for their doctor (may not be as useful for psychological problems if, as my memory is regurgitating right now, studies show that 1⁄3 of psychology patients get better without treatment). Barring that, find someone who has tons of experience with your specific problem(s) as opposed to somebody who hasn’t specialized very much. Prioritize professionals that are focused on getting to root causes. Also, do your own research (or ask someone with research skills to assist, if you’re not feeling up to it.). Some psychologists don’t use the most effective methods according to scientific evidence. If you know which methods are the most well-supported, you can find the professionals with the most experience using those.
There are lots of pitfalls when seeking good health professionals. The approach I just described will help you sidestep many of the common ones.
3.) It might be a doctor you need, not a psychologist.
Also, a lot of psychological symptoms are caused by medical problems—and I’m not talking about the vague and ominous “chemical imbalance” (often just used as a semantic stop sign). For instance, if you look at the correlation between irritable bowel syndrome, depression and anxiety, the overlap is incredible. As it turns out, these can be related in more than one way. Getting at the root medical cause of some diseases can stop the mental symptom of depression.
Invitation
If you would like to elaborate on your medical, emotional or life problems, you are invited to do so either here or in PM. I will let you know if I have information that is relevant to them. If you respond publicly there is, of course, a better chance that other people will have additional useful things to say.
Hi. I’m a psychology enthusiast (not a licensed psychologist) and I have a few bits of information that I think might be useful to you. I’ve read all of the replies to this, and your replies to those, to make sure I wasn’t missing something obvious about your situation. Additionally, I defended your decision to post here. Three bits of information that may help you:
1.) If you haven’t found psychologists useful, this might be an explanation
If you haven’t found psychologists helpful, it might be because you are gifted. Here’s my reasoning for why I think you might be gifted, why this matters to your psychological health, and some ideas for getting services and doing further reading:
A large proportion of people at LessWrong are probably gifted. If you feel a sense of understanding here, that may be a sign that you are gifted, too.
About 50% of the (American) gifted population doesn’t know they are gifted.
Gifted people can need a psychologist who has experience with gifted clients. Taking a gifted mind to a psychologist who is trained to work with normal minds can be like taking a space ship to a car mechanic. It can be frustrating or unhelpful.
About 25% of gifted people are misdiagnosed by psychologists. If you were diagnosed with any mental or learning disorders, do consult a book called Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children and Adults (I got the 25% figure from that book as well.). You are obviously upset, but there’s a good chance that there’s far less wrong than they think there is.
If you’re depressed and gifted, you aught to know about something called “existential depression”. The misdiagnosis book above does have a blurb on that in the depression section. I am not sure what to recommend for more extensive reading on existential depression, as it’s not an officially recognized form of depression. (There isn’t nearly enough research on gifted adults.) However, now that you have the term “existential depression” this may enable you to find services or books that are more helpful.
Consider phone counseling, especially if you’re seeking a psychologist who has experience with gifted people. Psychologists who have experience with gifted people are not very common. You may or may not find one in your area. If you increase the range you’re looking in to the size of your country, you’re likely to have much better luck.
2.) My method for finding useful health professionals:
When I was sick with a medical condition, I discovered that a lot of doctors did not have any idea what to do with me. They’d spend lots of money on tests and come up with nothing, or they’d treat symptoms without getting at the root cause. The only reason I got better was because I found someone who had the same problems that I was having, who had gotten better and she referred me to a doctor that:
A.) Understood my specific problem (There are wayyyyy too many problems out there for any doctor to produce quality results in diagnosing or solving them all. Better to locate someone more specialized.)
B.) Is focused on getting to the root cause. A lot of doctors who are focused on actually finding the cause call themselves “naturopathic” (the Wikipedia entry on naturopathy has this frou-frou introduction about “energy” which I find quite annoying because the most important connection between the different definitions of naturopathy I’ve seen on professional organization’s websites is the focus on getting to the root cause).
I recommend a similar approach when seeking a psychologist. Find someone with similar problems who got better and ask for their doctor (may not be as useful for psychological problems if, as my memory is regurgitating right now, studies show that 1⁄3 of psychology patients get better without treatment). Barring that, find someone who has tons of experience with your specific problem(s) as opposed to somebody who hasn’t specialized very much. Prioritize professionals that are focused on getting to root causes. Also, do your own research (or ask someone with research skills to assist, if you’re not feeling up to it.). Some psychologists don’t use the most effective methods according to scientific evidence. If you know which methods are the most well-supported, you can find the professionals with the most experience using those.
There are lots of pitfalls when seeking good health professionals. The approach I just described will help you sidestep many of the common ones.
3.) It might be a doctor you need, not a psychologist.
Also, a lot of psychological symptoms are caused by medical problems—and I’m not talking about the vague and ominous “chemical imbalance” (often just used as a semantic stop sign). For instance, if you look at the correlation between irritable bowel syndrome, depression and anxiety, the overlap is incredible. As it turns out, these can be related in more than one way. Getting at the root medical cause of some diseases can stop the mental symptom of depression.
Invitation
If you would like to elaborate on your medical, emotional or life problems, you are invited to do so either here or in PM. I will let you know if I have information that is relevant to them. If you respond publicly there is, of course, a better chance that other people will have additional useful things to say.