Has psychotherapy helped you?

[Cristiano599]

Has psychotherapy helped you?

 

[unluckysadness]

It helped me a little bit when I was in my 20's because of my agoraphobia, but I lost a lot of money and it was quite intensive sessions for years. And now I'm 43 and my life is ruined because other trauma happened and I'm disabled.

So my opinion about psychotherapy is :

PROS :
- if you have enough money, why not (for young people, try to ask your parents to pay it) or maybe in your school you have free therapy
- it's always good to talk face to face with a good therapist
- you can discover things from your past and work on it (you realize things from another angle)

CONS :
- it costs a lot of money if you need a long term therapy
- you don't have a guarantee it will work
- you'll need to talk about your traumas and you'll cry sometimes

If I had an advice : try 1 or 2 sessions with the same therapist, and if you're not comfortable with him / her, change for another. Good luck !

 

[bpdwriter]

Yes and no.

I don't think it's a magical fix, but it's incredibly helpful for "perspective". When you're depressed or have other mental illnesses, they often distort your view on things. Therapy has helped me look through my life and situation with a more objective lens.

That being said, it's only because I have it covered by insurance that I go. Otherwise it would be too expensive.

 

[divinemistress87]

Not really. But it is nice to have someone to talk to

 

[rainatthebusstop]

Well, I tried. Can't say it did anything

 

[PI3.14]

Unfortunately not.

 

[flowerbomb]

yes. not with everything but at least it made things more bearable.

 

[http-410]

I've received several psychotherapies.

At best, they didn't help at all. My last therapy worsened all my symptoms and made me suicidal. Then my therapist dropped me because my case was too difficult. Choosing this therapy was the worst decision of my life; I don't think I would have ended up here if I hadn't started this "treatment".

But I don't think this is a common situation.

If you still have hope, give it a try. Ask your therapist about side effects, as psychotherapy can have these too. Don't torture yourself with a therapist you don't feel comfortable with and get another therapist. If you want to talk about suicide, it might be a good idea to ask beforehand how much you can say without them having to call the authorities. Good luck.

 

[KuriGohan&Kamehameha]

No, but I have an unusual situation so I think one's milage may vary. I think therapy made me feel worse about myself, because it's always been apparent that the therapists I have dealt with don't really understand PTSD, and at best can only pity me. When you have severe consequences in your life due to abuse, I think merely talking for an hour every week and looking at coping skills worksheets or breathing exercises, being lectured about cognitive distortion, etc, just doesn't cut it for a person like me.