Dr. Paul Conti

You're telling me about a person, you, who's had a lot go on in his life, and because of all the stress and responses to that, then you get your mind pulled off into some aspect of unhealthy behaviors or thoughts or conceptions of self.

Of course you're going to have a low-grade, low mood.

It's not that thing dysthymia is meant to capture.

But now someone gives you that diagnosis as if somehow that tells us anything.

It doesn't tell us anything.

And I think it leads us astray because now you probably felt worse.

Okay, you have low mood.

Let's give you another number.

And you realize this isn't helping me at all.

And instead of thinking about what's wrong with me, that wasn't helping you, right?

You got a lot of numbers that told you that, right?

What you said is what's going on inside of me.

You made the gigantic leap across the chasm right here.

The chasm comes from the position, the place that modern mental health is at, which is not a healthy one, right?

So you cross that chasm of being curious about yourself, of doing something the system didn't invite you to do.

How about why don't we get curious about you?

Why don't we, the system or the treaters, and you collaborate in a way that says, let's get curious about you and what's going on inside of you.

Were you like this when you were younger?

Okay, you had some childhood trauma.

Do you remember before then what your mood was like?