Question by Dan: Are there any good structured therapy programs?
I’m 21 years old, male, from Idaho/USA. I was abused from early childhood and throughout my whole life. My situation and circumstances have forced me to continue living with my abusive parents. I am (hopefully) going to be getting SSI within a few months. I have my ALJ hearing coming up. I will move out and hopefully start a new life, but I’ve already been through 11 years of off and on therapy with over 14 different counselors. I’ve been through some really complex and horrible stuff that has caused many diagnosis, including PTSD, Avoidant Personality Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, And a few learning disorders. I am opposed to medication. Also, it’s not effective in my situation.

However I have made huge strides and am moving forward. I’m not as insane as I sound, I’m just in so much pain.

My question is what kind of therapy programs are there? I’ve just been doing the same old ‘talk to someone for 1 hour once a week’ and it isn’t really getting me anywhere. I feel like I need more. As soon as a session is over I feel like I was only just about to get to the real ‘omph’ of an issue. I wondered if there is anything out there that is more focused and for longer periods of time? Like a 2-3 hour per day program or something. I need more. I’m not suicidal and I don’t need in-patent care, but I can’t fix the bulk of what I go through with 1 hour of help a week.

I live in Idaho, I’m not sure if there’s anything like that here, but anything you know of will help.
Thank you!

Best answer:

Answer by jannsody
You do NOT sound insane 🙂 How about looking into a partial care (or “partial hospitalization”) program which usually entails going to a day program (during the “day”), for example, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and then going home by dinner time. A partial care program usually involves group therapy and learning about one’s mental disorder(s) and some coping skills. One may also learn ways to help prevent relapse (“relapse prevention”) and using outside support.

This page by helpguide.org has more information re: (regarding) abuse and resources: http://helpguide.org/topics/abuse.htm

I’m not sure if this site will have “partial care” programs per se, but it may have some local counseling agencies (or your Health Insurance company should be able to let you know of such programs): http://store.samhsa.gov/mhlocator and can click one’s state of residence on the map or type one’s zip code into search.

To search for some possible local “partial care” programs (albeit it’s not a panacea/cure-all), one can just go to http://www.yahoo.com and type into search “Idaho and adult partial care program” or such.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

 

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