Who would study psychology if they didn't have some kind of problem?

Chapter 139 Efficacy of the Medicine [You may want to review Chapter 98 before reading this chapter]

Nan Zhuren was unaware of what had happened in Weng Pingting's office.

But he could tell that when Weng Pingting agreed to "ask her friends," her expression was very serious.

It wasn't the kind of perfunctory treatment a superior gives to their subordinates.

At the same time, Nan Zhuren also believed that given Weng Pingting's professional ethics, she would not ignore this situation.

Therefore, he only needs to wait for the result.

Now, however, Nan Zhuren has something even more important to do.

Nan Zhuren entered the consultation room, sat on a single sofa, and tidied up his appearance.

After hearing two "knock" sounds at the door—

"Enter."

Hearing the greeting, Li Minglu opened the door, forcing a faint, stiff social smile.

"Hello, Teacher Nan."

"Long time no see." Nan Zhuren extended his right hand in a gesture of invitation, and said, "Please sit down."

……

Nan Zhuren looked at Li Minglu.

It has been a week since the last consultation.

Li Minglu was a client transferred from Lin Lilin's psychological clinic, and many key parts of the transfer documents were vague. Nan Zhuren had thought that this week of field investigation would allow him to gain a more detailed understanding of Li Minglu's situation.

However, things didn't go as planned. It now appears that Nan Zhuren still hasn't gained much that can be applied to consulting.

Nan Zhuren was certain that Lin Lilin had no good intentions in transferring Li Minglu over.

However, in Nan Zhuren's own assessment, Li Minglu's condition, as a "recovering patient with depression," was quite normal.

In any case, as a counselor, counseling is something I cannot refrain from doing.

In this situation, I can only rely on my solid consulting skills. I'll deal with whatever comes my way!

Nan Zhuren refreshed himself, and his brain began to work at its highest speed.

“This is our second consultation.” Although her mind was racing, Nan Zhuren maintained that standard social smile. “Last time, we briefly discussed your past treatment and intervention history and did the House-Tree-Person drawing test for you.”

After the first consultation, each subsequent consultation should begin with a proper review of the previous session.

“Yes.” Li Minglu nodded, pretending to recall as he followed Nan Zhuren’s comb.

“I must apologize to you first. Because when we were sorting through the data afterward, we found some oversights that we did not ask you about in detail during the last consultation,” Nan Zhuren said. “For example, your history of drug intervention.”

After the last consultation, Nan Zhuren sensed a problem with Li Minglu's medication. He immediately had Shen Bing communicate with Li Minglu's family to obtain the prescription.

Unfortunately, it's clear that Nan Zhuren didn't get what he wanted.

This is one of the reasons why he took a series of risky actions afterward.

Li Minglu was unaware of Nan Zhuren's inner thoughts, and simply apologized, "My wife told me, but I'm so sorry, Teacher Nan, I really don't remember what medicine I took before. I changed those medicines several times, and the dosage of each medicine also changed. The clinic didn't give us any invoices... I only kept a few medicine bottles, and I took pictures of them and sent them to your assistant."

It's not entirely unexpected; this is likely a confidentiality measure taken by Liu Lin's Psychological Clinic.

Nan Zhuren could only reassure her, "It's alright, it won't have a significant impact on our consultation. It's best if it's there, but it's not a big deal if it's not; it's just some paperwork."

Nan Zhuren couldn't openly say yet: "There's a problem with the medication at Liu Lin's Psychological Clinic, but you don't seem to have any problems either, which makes me a little nervous—how about this?" However, since the topic had already been started, Nan Zhuren continued, "After you took the medication, did you experience any difference in your feelings compared to when you didn't?"

Li Minglu blinked, his gaze lowered, and he began to recall.

"Before taking the medicine, I felt really uncomfortable. It was especially uncomfortable when I was drawing. My mind would wander to all sorts of things that had nothing to do with drawing. Sometimes I would suddenly cry, and I would beat my chest and head in discomfort. The worst time was the one I told you about before—I was so uncomfortable that I rolled on the ground."

"After taking the medicine..."

Li Minglu's throat trembled a few times: "I didn't feel anything at all."

Nan Zhuren thought for a moment and then offered an explanation: "Numb?"

“Yes.” Li Minglu felt that Nan Zhuren’s description was very apt. “It really is 'numb' in the literal sense… I didn’t feel uncomfortable, but I didn’t feel happy either. Originally, although I felt uncomfortable when I was painting, I could still feel a sense of relief after I finished, and I would also be happy when I played with my son and daughter.”

"But after taking the medicine, I couldn't feel anything..."

Nan Zhuren nodded.

Antidepressants are essentially like artificially triggering the body's circuit breaker mechanism.

People with depression are prone to self-harm or even suicide because they are constantly immersed in a depressed mood.

They were as if they had fallen into a dark, bottomless abyss, and were constantly sinking.

And at the bottom of the abyss lies "suicide".

Antidepressants work by regulating hormones and other physiological indicators to kill the feeling of "pain" in a short time, preventing the patient from being harmed.

However, this drug is "indiscriminately killing" in the human body—it kills not only "pain," but also all emotions, including pain.

It suppresses all emotions in the body, like adding a dead tree in the middle of an abyss. It can hang the sinking patient on it so that they don't fall any further—but it can't send them up.

The role of the medication is merely to prevent the patient's condition from worsening and to prevent the patient from self-harming or committing suicide.

In Nan Zhuren's personal opinion, the purpose of medication is, on the one hand, to "freeze" the patient's condition, giving the psychologist and the patient's family a chance to breathe—the doctor takes this opportunity to understand the patient's situation, develop an intervention plan, and lay a good foundation for counseling; the family also takes this time to accept reality and learn how to care for the patient.

Once they are all ready, the patient will be gradually "thawed" and then the intervention will officially begin, attempting to pull the patient out of the abyss of depression.

This is one aspect.

On the other hand, the role of medication is also to put a "valve" in the patient's body, so that the patient is not overwhelmed by emotions all at once; by gradually reducing the opportunity to take medication, the gate is opened little by little, so that the patient can eventually adapt to and cope with emotions independently.

The premise is that medication is used rationally.

Nan Zhuren further inquired, "So how did you stop taking the medication?"

Li Minglu pursed his lips.

"After taking the medicine, I couldn't paint anymore and couldn't continue working, so I stopped."

……Um?

"It's stopped already?"

This answer was somewhat unexpected for Nan Zhuren.

“Yes.” Li Minglu nodded without sensing anything amiss. “In the beginning, even when I lacked inspiration and didn’t want to paint, I could still use formulaic methods to paint some rigid things; sometimes, I could even express my distressing emotions in my paintings, and some buyers actually liked those kinds of works…”

“After taking the medication, I couldn’t even draw those formulaic paintings anymore. If I don’t paint, I can’t support my family… so I stopped taking the medication.”

(End of this chapter)