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Online Therapy to Cure Insomnia??
In the community forums, Joanne responded to someone asking about "online therapy" to cure a serious insomnia problem. She said:
It takes courage to put yourself out here, where you know no one. Kudos to you for taking that first step. From what you're saying, I couldn't agree with you more. It would be terrific if we could just type a bit online and a real therapist who could help would magically show up and solve our problems, especially those that make us uncomfortable, costs a lot of money or downright too personal and embarrassing to talk about.
Unfortunately in my experience, those who pretend who offer such help are charlatans and not be trusted. I mean, how many of them went to school to learn how to do that? None – because none of the graduates programs I know of have degrees related to anything near online counseling. At most, they have a course, but most programs don't even have that.
What you'll get is someone who took a weekend workshop, or maybe a 1 or 2 hour seminar, and now they know exactly how to treat someone they've never seen, can't see and will not ever see. They don't know if you are really 14 or 76, male or female, US American or a Hindu living in India. Your personal needs, religious, cultural socio-economic and a slew of other factors that are crucial to good treatment get completely neglected. After all, much of good treatment comes from the therapist seeing things you can't. If you blind them by not giving them access to some of the most revealing aspects of you, they just won't be able to give you the same quality of care. It's that simple.
If they do it, it's because they aren't respecting the education they received, and they want to be mavericks. Don't get me wrong, mavericks are fine, but I don't want one giving me personal advice about somethign really important.
So if you're willing to consider the opinion of an old lady with plenty of experience dealing with insomnia, here it is, for free, but offered only as a friendly suggestion and nothing more:
Call your doctor in the morning, have a fit on the phone and say you can't take it anymore and you INSIST on a referral to a sleep center where trained and competent professionals who know about sleep problems because they study sleep and work with it all day are going to have you sleep there, where they can study you for a night or two and figure out how they can help you.
Again, this treatment involves letting someone see what you can't see. And make sure that doctor order more than a study to determine if you need a C-PAP, too. You only get what you ask for when you go to a sleep center. Ask for nothing specific and you get nothing specific but a big fat specific bill. Let me know if you decide to take some action and get this figured out.
Big Hugs, Jo
One Response to “Online Therapy to Cure Insomnia??”
Probably tried this already but if not, try getting in a regular strenuous workout (if you're able). Fatigue the muscles. Be sure to do this more than a few hours before you're going to try to sleep.
My two cents.