This week licensed therapist Kati Morton dives into negative thought loops and ruminating thoughts. She explains why we can get caught up in them and what we can do to pull ourselves out. She also discusses whether or not we have to dive into the reasons behind our mental health issues to heal, and how to get to a place where we can talk about our past trauma with our therapist. She dives into the ways she knows a patient is dissociating, and how we can have healthy relationships with people who have a mental illness. This and so much more in this week’s episode!

Questions for episode 183 of the Ask Kati Anything podcast

1. What makes someone a “complex” case in therapy? Is it a specific diagnosis or cluster of diagnoses? Or is it dependent on how the client presents?

2. My question is about ruminating thoughts and negative thought loops. I constantly find myself in this thought loop in which I’m convinced that I’m lying about my problems to my therapist. I have to then tell myself the facts and use evidence to...

3.Can true long lasting progress be made without talking about the underlying problems that lead to my depression and anxiety? I have been in therapy for a few months now and each week all we discuss which skills or...

4. Do you have any tips for sharing traumatic memories or details (like childhood sexual abuse) with your therapist for the first time?

5. How can you tell if a client is dissociated in session? Like can you see that? And what do you think of the term high functioning anxiety? Can someone with this also dissociate?

6. How do I know whether the way I feel classifies as "depressed" and "anxious" or whether this is just what life feels like for everyone? Maybe living life is just hard, exhausting, and having to fight to get through your days is normal?

7. What's the difference between having social difficulties because of social anxiety and having social difficulties because of ASD and how would I differentiate between just needing to expose myself to social situations and pushing through the anxiety...

8. I wanted to know about how to leave my therapist without her bursting into tears. She has been under a lot of stress lately and has been canceling my appointments. I really need to...

9. How do you maintain friendships with people with mental illness, without it turning into a helping relationship? I have ended friendships simply because it was taking a toll on my mental health as I get texts and calls on...

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