How psychotherapy affects you?

[TheBestFisch]

Does it help at all? Is it brainwashing? Share your opinion.

I went for two years. It ended with me saying, "I think you need medication." So, the effect was what it was. But to the point,

Despite my hard work, it didn't work. I didn't become more confident or sociable, and I still can't feel what it's like to be a person with dignity. I just learned to talk about my problems better. 52 weeks times 1 hour times 2 years equals 104 hours of talking about problems.

I think it works on the principle that if you believe it, you go there and convince yourself it's better, even though it's not. I was beliving it. Seriously. paying a lot of money every week. i was brainwashed. A lot of brainwashed people believe that if there are no results, you have to try harder. You can always blame the client.
Maybe people want to believe this because there's no other, more popular method of help? What's most intriguing to me is that you can believe in this method despite the lack of results. It's like acting with a future profit. Except that this profit isn't actually in the future.

Okay, maybe more later, what do you think?

 

[dust-in-the-wind]

I'm 56f. I've had a lot of therapy in my life. Never worked for me. I'm actually worse than ever. It does help some people. I think I was just too far gone to start with.

 

[mlb]

I think the idea that therapy can help everyone is a lie. It's not for everyone. "you go there and convince yourself it's better" is literally what it was for most of my time in therapy as well.

My experience is over a year of some autism oriented therapy, few weeks of crisis team, few weeks of CBT. Doing trauma treatment inpatient in a bit.

It has been beneficial to have some more knowledge about the field as a whole, and hearing about other cases and how a therapist interpreters them. For me, it's a miss for chronic suicidality entirely, they can't really do anything if you desire to die and have reasoning behind it and it's not because of some chemical imbalance, but suicidality is such a personal thing that i can't say whether it would help you more in the future or not.

A lot of my therapy was with the intent of "going back into the society", and i think that was pretty poor. Later on it moved onto discovering more about yourself and leaving some of the triggers out of your life and having an environment with less stressors.

If i knew it was like this, i wouldn't have spent my time there.

 

[SackOfCrap445]

I'm 56f. I've had a lot of therapy in my life. Never worked for me. I'm actually worse than ever. It does help some people. I think I was just too far gone to start with.

real as fuck. the grim truth is that personality traits are roughly 50% genetic. if you are fucked mentally, theres a good chance you were predisposed to this shit from the start. nature is a cruel heartless whore, and ill always loathe my existence

 

[moon2bright]

I've generally found it helpful, though the rapport you have with the particular therapist determines a lot of how helpful it is. It's been less helpful over the past several years because my main stressors have been large-scale things -- encroaching fascism, Palestine, climate change. Therapy just isn't made to address anything beyond the individual, so it's of pretty limited usefulness with global circumstances, even if your therapist is sympathetic to your outlook.

 

[hizuchan]

It doesn't. If anything, it does only negatively.
It gave me false hope that I could change anything about my life, plus the practice feels super scammy and exploitative. When it comes to CBT it's easy to find a therapist that will drain your wallet while not giving you any directions at all, it's just some vague "let's talk about your life an hour a week" type bs that doesn't get you anywhere. I'm aware there's a lot of forms of therapy and not all therapists are like scummy like that, but I'd rather get some actual social training or resources that will help me function better.

 

[TheBestFisch]

I'd rather get some actual social training or resources that will help me function better.

I once thought about something like that, but I don't think anyone invent it.

An hour of conversation is fine, but afterward, you return to the same environment where you have to act alone, you have the same mental, and you don't really know what to do. The environment is not as understanding as the therapist. i felt that my therapist wanted help me, but, it doesn't work. Working with a therapist and reality are two different worlds, I think that's why it doesn't work. I don't think therapists are frauds but the results...

 

[moon2bright]

I once thought about something like that, but I don't think anyone invent it.

An hour of conversation is fine, but afterward, you return to the same environment where you have to act alone, you have the same mental, and you don't really know what to do. The environment is not as understanding as the therapist. i felt that my therapist wanted help me, but, it doesn't work. Working with a therapist and reality are two different worlds, I think that's why it doesn't work. I don't think therapists are frauds but the results...

Ideally, your therapist would work on skills you can use in your everyday life -- DBT, for instance. But therapists aren't mind-readers. If you're not getting what you want from your sessions, say something. If your current therapist doesn't think they're properly equipped to help you in the way you want to be helped, they'll refer you to someone else. If you don't tell your therapist you want to work on practical skills, they won't focus on that.

 

[TheBestFisch]

Ideally, your therapist would work on skills you can use in your everyday life -- DBT, for instance. But therapists aren't mind-readers. If you're not getting what you want from your sessions, say something. If your current therapist doesn't think they're properly equipped to help you in the way you want to be helped, they'll refer you to someone else. If you don't tell your therapist you want to work on practical skills, they won't focus on that.

Thanks for answers, but you missed my first post. I resigned from therapy despite the fact, therapist wanted help me and i wanted work with that. I changed my mind about psychotherapy after this time. I stopped beliving in all process AFTER 2 YEARS BELIVING

 

[moon2bright]

thanks for answers, but you missed my first post. i resigned from therapy despite the fact, therapist wanted help me. i don't belive in all process

With all due respect, it sounds like you didn't give it a fair shot, so you really have no basis criticizing it.

 

[Hystearical]

Badly. It affected me badly.

 

[ifihadnever]

Well I just got brutality dumped by my long standing therapist. The pain is unbearable. Completely out of nowhere. On an email and wont let me email or speak to her.
Not great for someone with trust and abandonment issues.

I lacked faith in the industry. but the harm that shes done cant be undone

 

[TAW122]

As someone who has been through dozens of such throughout my life, from childhood to adulthood, no it doesn't help me, and sometimes even put me at risk of being detained, locked-up, and such. I am not playing 'walking on eggshells, verbal tightrope, etc.' and even if there was no real risk of having my autonomy restricted in the name of 'safety' and whatever reason they may have, it doesn't help my situation. Whenever people (both those who know me and those who don't know me) suggest or even push the idea of 'psychotherapy', 'counseling', 'therapist', etc., I get offended because it is just a cop-out, dismissal of my issues, and downplaying the severity of my suffering, though I digress..

I know what I want and hope to get, and if I cannot get it, then it doesn't make my life (for me and speaking for myself only) not worth living. In other words, it doesn't help, and if people don't know what to say or want to help, then they should not interfere or impede my freedom of self-determination.

 

[MapleS]

medication stabilised me enough for therapy to work
It made me realize some things, became a better person so i hurt others less, realize that I'm unaware uf some of my emotions and how they affect me. Why I get suicidal and when, how to deal with it. How my emotions affect my wiev on world and stuff

Therapy made me realize and undetstand myself and the world

but not every way of therapy is good for everyone.
Some people need to just talk about problems and some need to hear what they can do (usually therapist try to make you realize what you need not tell you)

 

[BrokenByTheSystem]

I'm an extremely lone piece of shit, don't talk to anyone the entire week, so it makes me feel less alone having someone to talk to once a week. But I don't pay for it, it's from government social programs on my country.

I'd never pay for it. Pay money to talk to someone is just bizarre, there's too much interest on it to it work properly. What if the client gets better? One less client? How do we know the therapist isn't trying to make things last longer to earn more money?

I only do it because it's free.