My step 2 studying attempts are progressing nicely (mostly thanks to habitrpg.com, which allows me to incentivize my daily study habits and my lengthy to-do list).Did I know that I meet the criteria for having both social and specific phobias? No!
My friends and I went out to dinner tonight and we mutually commiserated on how awful studying for huge tests is. But I really think studying for step 1 was worse. I have terrible flashbacks of skin flaking off of my face and my ears bleeding.
Step 2 is better if only because it is more interesting:
Although it makes sense. As much as I love talking to patients, I dread actually introducing myself to people. I frequently find that I yell at myself for missing an opportunity to talk to a stranger, or engage with a patient longer. Little things will bother me for the rest of the day, like when I missed an opportunity to say thank you to someone at the park who helped me figure out how to work the water fountain.
The treatment for social phobias is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and SSRIs.
Cognitive behavioral therapy really fascinates me, but I think that's mostly because it's always listed as an efficacious treatment for many psychiatric disorders which I think is pretty counter-intuitive. Psychiatrists (they can prescribe you drugs because they are doctors) are thought of as superior to clinical psychologists (they can talk to you because they are Ph.D's), yet both medicating and therapy are equally effective for a lot of mood and anxiety disorders.
Regardless, I guess I could start trying to enforce CBT on myself. I could assess why I avoid talking to strangers and how that behavior is affecting my life. I could try to change it. I could slowly mold myself to become the person I've always wanted to be--gregarious, friendly, fun--using various tricks I've found on the internet or in self-help books.
On the other hand, I could just ask my psychiatrist to switch me to an SSRI.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to say absolutely whatever, whenever.