Is the mental health system helpful?

[Gloomislost]

I've been thinking about starting therapy but I'm not sure if it'll be worth it. Like, what if it's just a waste of money?
Did it help you or make things worse?

 

[Aizwrath]

I've been thinking about starting therapy but I'm not sure if it'll be worth it. Like, what if it's just a waste of money?
Did it help you or make things worse?

I felt the same way not too long ago. But as things got worse, I figured what's the point. I'm going to be trying therapy for the sake of just giving it a shot in the near future.

 

[Gloomislost]

I felt the same way not too long ago. But as things got worse, I figured what's the point. I'm going to be trying therapy for the sake of just giving it a shot in the near future.

Idk I feel like it's my last hope before ctb? I feel like I should give it a shot but if it's not gonna help then why bother.

 

[strawb12]

I've had TONS of therapists & psychiatrists. I've had one or two that were genuinely pretty helpful but I've had wayyy more that didn't help me at all. If you really want to get better & are committed to it then finding a therapist you're compatible with shouldn't be too difficult but if you're not sure you even want to get better or don't want to put in the effort then you better find a reallyyy good therapist to help you.

 

[Scythe]

Good luck with therapy! It's not for everyone and certainly not the end all solution the media want you to believe. Some do enjoy it, but it's accessibility is questionable in some places and the possibility of being thrown into a ward is there as well so you need to be careful what of you say.
Something I suggest to keep in mind going to therapy is : "Your therapist is not your friend, just like a bank accountant is not your friend. They are there to do business and you are paying them." Some here might disagree with my prespective, and I don't mind, just personal opinions.

 

[Aizwrath]

Idk I feel like it's my last hope before ctb? I feel like I should give it a shot but if it's not gonna help then why bother.

That's the same mindset I have. One last ditch effort.

 

[Gloomislost]

Good luck with therapy! It's not for everyone and certainly not the end all solution the media want you to believe. Some do enjoy it, but it's accessibility is questionable in some places and the possibility of being thrown into a ward is there as well so you need to be careful what of you say.
Something I suggest to keep in mind going to therapy is : "Your therapist is not your friend, just like a bank accountant is not your friend. They are there to do business and you are paying them." Some here might disagree with my prespective, and I don't mind, just personal opinions.

That does help put things into perspective for me, thank you!

 

[Aizwrath]

"Your therapist is not your friend, just like a bank accountant is not your friend. They are there to do business and you are paying them."

Couldn't be more true.

 

[TransilvanianHunger]

It's been very helpful for me, though I was very lucky to quickly find someone who was about as close to perfect a fit as I could want. Finding someone who's a good fit for you can take a while, and it's not exactly fun to do. But therapy in general is not meant to be fun—it can be bloody uncomfortable and painful at times, because you face many difficult things about yourself, your life, others, your relationships, and the world in general.

If you do give therapy a try, I'd suggest looking for someone who's trained in psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapy, or depth psychotherapy in general. Those modalities are quite different from the standard "teaching coping skills" approach that is so common nowadays. If you break a leg, you don't go to the doctor to learn how to cope with a broken leg, you want to heal the fracture. Kind of the same thing applies to therapy.

 

[LuckyAutumn]

Personally, I've burned through about 4 or 5 different therapists, and around 6 different medications, and none of them were helpful. I only ever found myself being punished by speaking out about wanting to ctb by being thrown in an overglorified prison. If you're not confident in whether you want to ctb, you should probably wait until you are confident in it instead of acting impulsively, just be careful about what you disclose with your therapist if you do end up getting one.

 

[aiki__0]

I've been thinking about starting therapy but I'm not sure if it'll be worth it. Like, what if it's just a waste of money?
Did it help you or make things worse?

I'm only going speak for my experience and mine only, cause others might've had different things happen to them that helped or something
My mental health journey started when I was 13 and I was rejected from CAMHS (UK mental health service) as "my problems were not serious enough for them and I need to speak to a school counsellor" (not their exact words but you get it). I was diagnosed with BPD at this point and was attempting multiple times, taking pills every day before school until I was 17. That's when I got my first therapist after being on a waiting list. She would only give me 40-minute sessions and would basically threaten me that the crisis team would be knocking on my door if I attempted again. She constantly used scare tactics to stop me from attempting, making me hate her a lot. She would also take vacations constantly and miss our sessions multiple times in a month. After begging for help, I went to see my doctor and was put on sertraline. Sertraline fucking ruined my life. It gave me permanent memory loss, fucked up my teeth from grinding on them constantly, made me gain 10kg in 2 weeks, made me pass out everytime I would stand up, I genuinely thought it was some sort of plan to fucking finish me off
I have given up on mental health services. They only care about getting paid at the end of the day

 

[Praestat_Mori]

I've been thinking about starting therapy but I'm not sure if it'll be worth it. Like, what if it's just a waste of money?
Did it help you or make things worse?

This is my personal opinion.

It depends whether your mental problems can be treated with therapy and/or meds or not. This is trial and error. You would have to know what triggers your mental problems and if you don't know what it is your therapist has to find out the reasons. Unless you know what exactly must be cured to improve your mental health therapy is a waste of money.

In the end it's up to you whether you want to give it a chance or not.

 

[Ashu]

I'm only going speak for my experience and mine only, cause others might've had different things happen to them that helped or something
My mental health journey started when I was 13 and I was rejected from CAMHS (UK mental health service) as "my problems were not serious enough for them and I need to speak to a school counsellor" (not their exact words but you get it). I was diagnosed with BPD at this point and was attempting multiple times, taking pills every day before school until I was 17. That's when I got my first therapist after being on a waiting list. She would only give me 40-minute sessions and would basically threaten me that the crisis team would be knocking on my door if I attempted again. She constantly used scare tactics to stop me from attempting, making me hate her a lot. She would also take vacations constantly and miss our sessions multiple times in a month. After begging for help, I went to see my doctor and was put on sertraline. Sertraline fucking ruined my life. It gave me permanent memory loss, fucked up my teeth from grinding on them constantly, made me gain 10kg in 2 weeks, made me pass out everytime I would stand up, I genuinely thought it was some sort of plan to fucking finish me off
I have given up on mental health services. They only care about getting paid at the end of the day

I'm reminded yet again of how lucky I am to have survived SSRIs apparently without permanent damage. They and the reptiles that prescribe them are a crime against our humanity, for which we alone are forced to pay.

 

[cosifantutti]

Idk I feel like it's my last hope before ctb? I feel like I should give it a shot but if it's not gonna help then why bother.

I don't know if you'll benefit. But if the alternative is to ctb then you can spend that money knowing you won't need it if the therapy doesn't help.

 

[backtoearth]

If you find a good person (which is rare in my experience) then they can really help you open up to new perspectives and options - no therapy can 'save' you though, more just give you another opinion and someone to talk things through that will be objective.

If you are ready to commit to recovery and do a lot of self-work and discovery then it can be really helpful and worth the money, I have had my perspective wildly changed and am still alive because of some of the people I have spoken to but you really have to be in the right mindset and willing to try things that may not seem like they will work or be useful. I hope this makes sense - I have very complicated feelings around therapy

 

[Unattainable666]

Great question! I laughed so hard I almost wet myself. I live in the US in a state where if you are not a certain race you get shit - seriously discrimination in the health care system is rampant. Therapists who ignore calls of desperation, it's hilarious. People think the US has such a great mental health and medical system. It's quite the opposite. It takes forever to see a doctor (whether you're close to death or not). It's the way of the world now - nobody gives a shit about anyone else. Like it or leave - that's the attitude. So, I'm leaving

 

[aiki__0]

I'm reminded yet again of how lucky I am to have survived SSRIs apparently without permanent damage. They and the reptiles that prescribe them are a crime against our humanity, for which we alone are forced to pay.

SSRIs are a scam, advertised as a quick fix. Its no different from a modern day lobotomy. They make you numb so you don't really feel depressed anymore, but give you a million other problems you need to go back to the doctor for. Money money money

 

[ButterToast]

I've been thinking about starting therapy but I'm not sure if it'll be worth it. Like, what if it's just a waste of money?
Did it help you or make things worse?

from what i've heard from other people, it's truly a mixed bag. Could be amazing, but I've heard enough horror stories to lose faith. This one friend went to a therapist, just to get refered to another one, and another one... and he didn't get help. He called a suicide hotline, nope, no one picked up. I feel like mental health is not being taken seriously enough, and too many people have too many misunderstanding on how it is. I'm not a psychology student, but I read books and papers on mental health stuff. I think that might be why people don't get treatment

 

[hevlalab]

Therapy is helpful yes, and I appreciate my therapist's efforts to turn my life around and get better. However, I still plan on ctb unfortunately. I'm pretty stubborn and once I set my mind on something it's pretty hard to change it

 

[QteStimBnnuy]

If you're gonna ctb anyway, may as well give it a try. Unfortunately there are quite a bit of psychologists that just really aren't brilliant, but the same goes with doctors as well n whatnot.

I'm in the UK, so things take a lot longer- though I'm not really paying for my appointments either. She's not the amazing psychologist I hoped for, but things are progressing slightly. I just fear she's really going to attempt to say I have no issue other than past trauma and growing up, when I know full well what my issues are close to and they do exist. Though I understand it can be difficult when a patient is self aware of their issues to a fairly high degree. Then there are those just trying to get pills or out everywhere trying to be quirky, so I imagine that would devalue what people think about mental health as well

I had an absolute ton of doubt in the beginning, she does waste some appointments by explaining things over again when she knows I can get what she's saying a lot quicker than average. But hey, there goes like 40 minutes of going on the same thing, just because I happened to say something related

As much of an annoyance the appointments can be, the fact I take stims just so I don't get immensely tired at bs (yet still do) throughout some appointments. It's essentially the only hope I have for being treated and to have any form of a future, therefore worth it. If I went to a private mh care or whatever, I'm sure it would have been significantly faster (fairly speaking) and I'd have been diagnosed. If you really do have an issue that really needs to be treated, you may as well go through the process. For most functioning people, you'll also have to put some effort in your end to get better. It isn't a magic process that'll instantly make you normal again