Summary: Why should I go to inpatient therapy at all? You should be very clear about your needs and your topic. Here you can find out how to specify your needs and thus find your motivation for a stay in a clinic.
The first time I went to a clinic, it was about anger. The second time was about grief. And the third time it was about trauma. These were the specific issues that preoccupied me in the phase before I went to the clinic.
All the topics could be further concretized – and each time the occasion became all the more vivid for me, because the respective therapy experience I had had up to that point was incorporated into the decision for the clinic.
When it came to anger, I was just discovering this topic. Rediscovering my own feelings played a major role. I wanted a safe space so that I wouldn’t be afraid of “discovering” anger.
When it came to grief, my mother had taken her own life four years earlier. Now was the time for grief to take its course. I wanted a protected space for this too. Part of it was that I didn’t know how to cope with everyday life because I was constantly crying.
The third time, I was very focused on the topic of PTSD. I recognized connections between my poor sleep and the background that made it difficult for me to go to bed feeling good in everyday life.
Clarity and Motivation
The clarity about my own issues made it very easy to motivate myself to go to the clinic on my own initiative.
So why do I go to a clinic? Because I hope to get better. Because the level of suffering is too high. Because I feel bad. Because I want to work intensively on myself. And perhaps because someone – my doctor, a friend, my partner – has advised me to do so.
These are also reasons for a stay in hospital, but unfortunately not very good ones. Because they are not really concrete. Having as concrete a reason as possible for a visit to the clinic is not only helpful in terms of motivation, but also because it can save time “arriving” at the clinic.
The therapists will certainly help you to find your own topic, but it will also be easier for them to get started if you are largely clear about why you want to go to the clinic.
This also means that – in the best case – you have already done (a lot of) preparatory work, i.e. you have already done a lot of reflective work so that the central reason for your stay is clear to you.
Too many topics are not good either. If you can give a whole list of what your topics are and you can’t decide, then that would be more of an indication to me that you don’t yet have the necessary clarity.
Emotion Guide
Emotions can also help as a guide. In other words, all topics that are more factual, even objective in nature, tend to lead further away from the actual topic. For example, the death of a father, a conflict with a boss or the difficulty of forming relationships are all important issues and some of them are also good reasons. Nevertheless, it is worth looking at these issues from an emotional perspective. They often become topics such as
- the grief over the loss of the father
- anger towards superiors or
- anxiety in social relationships.
It also makes sense to focus on your own issues because you can’t work through too much in a 12-week stay in hospital. Imagine how much you have changed over the years and how quickly this change has taken place. And now this something, for example this fear in relationships, is supposed to disappear completely within a few months?
Subdued Expectations
Especially if it is your first ever contact with psychotherapy, it is a big challenge and the successes will be rather smaller. It is then up to you to gain more clarity about your issue during your stay. So if you feel the desire to go to a clinic, you should pursue this and not make it dependent on whether you have a clear topic.
At the same time, the real work doesn’t start until after you’ve been discharged, because then you still have to cope with everyday life – but we’re not there yet.
Furthermore, you should not forget: Your reason may change in the clinic. This in turn is related to another important aspect, namely openness to treatment!
This article is part of the in-depth coverage of the overview article “Inpatient therapy – why, how and where”.
