Psychologist: going for the first time

[Typhlosion]

[-]Note 1: I'm going Friday morn' so I'd appreciate some quicker answers! :)[/-]
Note 2: I have no idea where this fits :whoops:
Note 3: The appointment was rescheduled for the next week.

So... yeah. I guess some backstory helps. As you guys know, I study in College/Uni in another state because I wanted to avoid home; the first semester I lived in a frat and was subject to hazing, and in the second semester I'm living with a roommate by a woman who provides housing for students. Because I had extremely low grades in the frat (which, truly, was partly hazing's fault) I got moved to my current residence.

And... that didn't help at all. Socialization was no longer mandatory, so that fell, I didn't always have enough to eat, I was fighting home, and Cuzco came in and messed up my schedule - adding with already self motivation issues - yeah. I haven't had much joy these last months.

So I called my mother Tuesday pleading for help (for the record, that's the first time I did that in my whole life) because I'm really in the dumps and need help. Living with them didn't work. Living on my own wasn't anywhere productive. I needed a third party. I was asking to move all my stuff back home the same day.

Because my father had a meeting, he couldn't afford a 7 hour trip. So my mom came to talk instead. My parents are most worried with grades, by the way. And we found out that my university has psychologists available for the students. So she signed me up for an appointment Friday 11 A.M.

Erhem.

Tl;dr: I'm going to the psychologist for the first time, with a lot of issues on hand. What will happen? What should I say? Should I say everything at once or should I go little by little each session? What feedback will I be receiving? What next? Should I mention VT?

I've been:
- Bummed out, to not say depressed
- Having, since day one, anger issues
- Low motivation/easy distraction
- Social avoidance/not making acquaintances by my own will
- School problems
- Personality and identity issues (not being who I am/mimicry)
- Hating the house/parents environment
- Some gender (but not sexual) thoughts that are becoming more common (I have an old post about this here (http://www.virtualteen.org/forums/showthread.php?t=201302) and my thoughts have matured a lot since)

While I'm not making this up, I am aware that I'm probably not too bad in any of them.

It might also be interesting to notice that it is quite unlikely that I stay @ UNIFEI for another year.

[Melodic]

First visits are usually more of them getting to know you. Each visit you'll get more comfortable and open and share a bit more with them so don't worry about finding the right words to say. It's just like having a conversation with the person closest to you. You just need to be totally honest with them. As for mentioning VT, that's honestly a personal thing. I mentioned VT to my old therapist.

[James Dean]

It depends on the therapist. It's a very confidential and personal thing to go through. What you discuss is your business. Usually it's for you to bring up discussions and if you are struggling with a certain issue or recent problem, they will give you help on how to approach it or comfort you. By discussing it with them, you both come to a resolution with how to deal with things and they listen to your issues.

They each have different methods of how they deal with their patients. If you don't talk about it, they can't help you with it. If it helps you can just mention the minor stuff for now and as you get to know them more, confront some of the more difficult events. I know there may be activities and homework they might ask you to do. Some give you a piece of paper and ask you to draw a bunch of events that happened since your last visit, then based on what you drew, that's discussed during therapy. It's up to you if you want to mention VT. I don't see where the problem with discussing it/not discussing it is, but I understand if you do/don't.

Don't worry about it at all. It's going to be fine. :)

[Zachary G]

your first visit will, most likely, be a fact finding/getting to know you session. i would go in and lay out what issues you have and then you can talk about which ones have priority that need to be addressed right off. though the psychologist is there to help you, you will pretty much be in control of how things go and what you want to talk about.

[queenofcontrariety]

I can really only talk about the first appointment being that my second isn't until next week, but it really isn't as bad as it sounds. The more open you are to it, the better it'll be for you. Basically you sit there and talk a little while they occasionally ask a question trying to figure out where your issues lay and what you can do about them. They are not authorized or have the knowledge to describe meds so don't worry about that. Just let yourself be and open book as much as you're comfortable and see what happens. The only reason I can see you mentioning VT is to verify your motives, but seeing that you're going voluntarily it isn't really necessary. Best of luck, it's really a great resource if you're willing to use it.