i am thinking of starting to see a shrink. please chat with me and tell me of your experiences with shrinks, if you do have any.

I take one anti-depressant as part of a coctail to keep my autism from being socially crippling, but it took years of experimentation to find one with minimal side effects. Very small dosage, too.

First of all, yes, I think a month or six weeks of sessions can be worth having, but if by 'shrink' you mean a psychoanalyst, I can't help you as I've never had psychoanalysis. I don't know whether you can do anything useful in that time. You could however consider other forms of therapy such as counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy. These are not intended to continue for long periods, usually. They may not work through all your issues, but should give you some strategies to help you get out of the hole you appear to be in at the moment.

I've been through 2 courses of counselling, one lasting six weeks and one for eight weeks. The first was very useful and the second was disastrous, so my main word of warning would be this: find someone whose approach makes sense to you. You may just be looking for a sympathetic ear (that's the approach that failed for me: it allowed me to wallow in my misery rather than look for ways to change) or you might do better with a structured approach that sets specific goals and gives you tools to help you acheive them. There are many different forms of therapy available. If you don't feel up to researching them I'll try and give you a few pointers, and I'm sure other people here will help too.

i have never been to one. i have, however, been described by a life-long shrink-goer as "incredibly well adjusted", whatever that means.

in the uk (or on the nhs anyway), it's pretty hard to get referred to a shrink. the gp will try to give you anti-depressants. if not/if they think you have something serious enough to warrant it, i think you get passed to a psychiatrist; you may, in the fullness of time, get to someone for therapy, but it's not easy.

Any medical doctor can prescribe anti-depressants. (Many "shrinks" if they are psychologists rather than psychiatrists can not prescribe!) But they do work best when combined with some kind of talk therapy.

It really is a case of finding the treatment *and* the shrink that is right for you. Even the best theoretical therapy in the world will be fairly useless if administered by the wrong person. (See my experiences with CBT.)

My expeiences:

- I see a psychitraist (who I'm actually on hold with now) every 6-8 weeks for medicine mgmt. I would highly recommend getting your meds from a specialist rather than a general physicain. Any time I've gotten scripts from the latter it's been a disaster. They generally don't know enough about them to ensure you're getting the right mix. Although I am treated for bipolar disorder which requires a bit more complex cocktail of meds. A regular doctor might do okay with seeing you through a short-time treatment for unipolar depression.

-I also see a therapist (not a doctor) for regular talk therapy. I've done this pretty regularly for about 13 years now. I've found this is just as key to keeping me stable and depression-free as meds. Don't overlook this half of the equation.

As for short-term therapy, I do think this can be helpful. When I started teaching my EAP offered six free therapy sessions and I used them to cope with the new teacher stress. I think if you go in knowing you have only so many sessions and set some goals with your therapist, it can be beneficial.

good luck.