The Intensive Outpatient Period: my experience

I was supposed to make this blog immediately after the period, but I was really exhausted mentally because of the period and we also had Easter Holiday so I wasn't at home.

Anyway, as I told in my last blog, the period lasted for 2 weeks consisting of 4 days per week. Basicly the daily schedule was always the same. We started with breakfast and after that we had a morning and a group session. Individual meetings were either before or after lunch and in the afternoon we had workshop activities. The day ended with snack and summary of the day. We also had free time whenever there were not any activities.

When the first day came, my friend escorted me all the way to the door and I swear I have never wanted to escape as badly as I wanted at that point. If my friend wasn't there forcing me to go in, I propably would have ran all the way home and never went back. Thankfully she was there so I was able to win myself and get in.
In all honesty, the first day was hell. I was anxious for the whole day and I propably said 3 words that day. The second day was already a bit easier since I knew what to expect but I was totally convinced that the entire period was going to be torture and I was pained to go there. Well let's just say that I changed my mind. I started to talk more to the others and I actually had fun. For the rest of the week I was excited to go there and see what the day had to offer. (During the period I was most excited about the dessert, but don't tell that to anyone.)

In the group sessions we focused on a different theme each day of the week. We did exercises ranging from relaxation to arts to outdoors activities according to the theme. All of the things we did had a meaning. We didn't just paint random things with no meaning but instead we for example visualized our safe place on paper. The purpose of the groups was to increase our level of self-knowledge as well as give us ways to survive difficult situations.

In the meetings with my nurse, we concentrated on my strengths to boost my self-esteem and searched waysfor me to cope with my anxiety. I found the meetings really helpful because I feel that I'm now way more prepared and capable in case I get anxious. I think that having the clear goal during the meetings was really good for me because I tend to think too much so I was able to concentrate on the subject better when it was clear what the goal was.

The workshop activities were mostly crafty and since the Easter was close we did things related to that. The afternoon activities were all about expressing yourself and having fun with the task. The execution was completely free and you could just go with it. My favorite thing was this small resource book where we could write anything that we felt was a resource for us during hard times such as dreams, goals, positive sayings and so on. I really liked it, because it's something you can always carry with you and it is always there when you need it. I got quite attached to it because of how personal it was.

Overall I'm really happy that I had the courage to go and I didn't run away, because I had so much fun and I learned a lot. The period was truly a blessing for me and I'm really grateful that I got to go there even though I was extremely exhausted afterwards. I would definitely go there again if I had the chance. It was such a great experience for me. I don't really even have the words to describe it.