Venting Therapy hasn’t done anything

[FadingSunshine]

Therapy is always held to this golden standard, like it fixes every problem and if you have any mental issue therapy will solve it. It seems like people just use therapy to offload your problems, like I've told people about my thoughts and instead of actually providing advice or helping, they reply with 'maybe you should talk with your therapist about it'. Like I get they might be overwhelmed and they aren't my personal therapist, but I didn't tell them these things in a mentally unstable situation of immediate danger and I guess if I were in their shoes I would try and say something meaningful to them to let them know there's things worth sticking around for.

I think therapy can be helpful, but at least for me I can't share anything meaningful while knowing they are a mandated reporter. If I let one of my true thoughts slip, I'll end up in a psych ward. This makes this unhealthy relationship where I'm lying to my therapist about things I should be able to talk to them about, but I can't.

I feel like proper therapy could have been really helpful earlier in my battle against mental illness, but it always felt like a burden and now I don't think therapy can help me because I'm so devoted to the idea that nothing I do matters.

Edit: coming back to this I realize this is very specific to MY thoughts and I'm aware (and happy!) that therapy is effective for others going through different situations, I just think it's counterintuitive that I HAVE to lie to my therapist and I don't like how therapy is seen as this perfect solution when it isn't.

 

[saddestbunny]

therapy basically tells you to self reflect and change yourself. and they teach you how to work around the problems and "deal with it" for the rest of life

I just kinda don't want these mental problems to exist at all but apparently there's only one solution for that

 

[Praestat_Mori]

I feel like proper therapy could have been really helpful earlier

Yes therapy may be able to help in very early stages.

My opinion is unless the reason and the source that causes the mental problems cannot be eliminated and in most cases this may not even been known by the patient and not by the therapist what's really behind it, then what would you want to cure and how if you don't know what it is.

Unless you know what's causing you the mental problems it's difficult to nearly impossible to recover. Knowing the causes would at least give a chance to try to eliminate them.

 

[lachrymost]

Yeah, therapy not working is normal. That means you just have to go to the eleventh therapist and try the twentieth modality and open up more and "do the work" and touch grass and change your thought pattern and brainwash and gaslight yourself harder. Rinse and repeat.

 

[FuneralCry]

I find it insulting when suicidal people are told to just go to therapy, it's like many people don't wish to accept that wanting to die is a valid and logical way to feel, words cannot take away the fact that existence is filled with suffering, to me anything like that is just a way to profit from suffering people, people like therapists only care about money.

And it's like they are waiting to lock suicidal people in the psych ward where the person will just suffer more and more, I hate how we exist in a world where suicidal people are punished simply for wanting to die.

 

[Professor K]

you know, this reminds me of when people refer to SaSu as a cult where sickos lead minors and vulnerable people to death. in reality these people are also apart of a cult but they don't realise it...cults are everywhere with the only difference that the pro life beliefs are popular enough not to be seen as one.

most therapists from todays public medical system are no different than secularised preachers of some sort. therapy is great and helpful only if you allign with their cult as well.
if your values/opinions openly deviate from their pro life, pro meds, pro therapy dogma then your experience will be much different. you will be forced into changing your mind otherwise they will coerce you to. it is no different than conversion therapy against gay people.

the good news is that there are private therapists who aren't that way and might have ideas that allign more with what you value which will be much more effective although you will never find an anti life medical professional for obvious reasons.

 

[bedhead_baby]

Therapy can only do so much when the second you leave you're bombarded with the same depressing rhetoric and bullying as usual. No amount of self reflection will keep others from insisting I look disgusting, and that no one could love me.

I've done the work already; I don't find myself ugly, and I don't think I'm disgusting or incapable. But that will never change how others view me. What is a life where I'm the only one that loves me?

 

[eve2004]

Therapy (with the right professional, some are incompetent assholes) worked for me and I actually dared to try stuff to improve my life, but I have severe trust issues and now my therapist is retiring. So I back here...

 

[Baron]

I went to therapy for a few months and it was unbearable. I always had to talk about my feelings and my past and I fucking hated it. In the end all I did was pretend to be someone else in those conversations. I was too afraid to convey my true feelings, since I would probably get in trouble. The only reason I could quit after a few months was because I didn't say anything too alarming, even though all I have is those alarming thoughts. In the end my therapist even told me to go to a mental hospital of my own free will or take drugs, because she couldn't force me to, since I didn't say what I truly thought. It just made me feel even more isolated, knowing that even those who are there to help, don't actually give a shit. Since then I haven't talked to anyone about anything regarding that topic. This forum gave me the opportunity to talk freely and I am truly grateful for that.

 

[JGT1]

I have been to therapy many times. I have been told not to beat myself up. I'm not doing that but I am an inherent social being and I reflect on what others think of me. Just because I'm not beating myself up doesn't mean others won't, and that it won't effect me. Most of the time I have to just skirt round the real issues since they didn't have a great understanding what I'm really going through.

Maybe you can talk to your therapist about it is just a lazy way of diverting

 

[SolomonKado]

I know the feeling. Therapy is used in a way to treat people a certain way. There is no room for different alterations. It is only useful to certain types of people. I've been doing therapy since I first went through something. So I've had the chance to experience it at the beginning and the end. What I wanted and what they gave me wasn't the same. Even when I told them of my thoughts they only brought up "why would you want to? No one knows what comes after anyways." Who cares I just want it to end. Too many people hurting others that there isn't enough good people and working at the place I did taught me that. That place was full of dirty people "above the system" and stomping on anyone who would threaten that.

 

[Wyldfyre4948]

Therapy didn't do anything for me, and the meds I was put on when I was in the hospital didn't work either. The hospital psychiatrist said I'm well spoken, considerate, and insightful. I never held back or tried to bullshit my way around things. First appointment I'd tell them I own my shit and don't try to pawn it off on something else making me do it. Tried to go in with an open mind and gave them a chance to help me. There's never been a need for me to get therapy because I know what's wrong with me and the sources. Unfortunately you can't go back in time and avoid what laid the groundwork for these issues.

 

[Red Moon]

I don't think Therapy will work for me. I will find it hard to open up to them and they only want money, I don't think they care and don't think they can fix my issues.

 

[FadingSunshine]

I don't think Therapy will work for me. I will find it hard to open up to them and they only want money, I don't think they care and don't think they can fix my issues.

It can help you think through inner problems. I know I made this thread but I think therapy did help me discover how to deal with my problems and helped me with the beginning stages of coping even if I didn't realize. And also therapists aren't just there for the money, that's a generalization on this forum, for example my therapist actually ended our sessions because he saw I was beyond my initial problems. You should at least try it before doing anything you can't come back from, no harm if you're gonna kill yourself anyway right?

 

[Holu]

Firstly, if I can ask, what type of therapy are you currently in. Sometimes, the practitioners method is simply not compatible with your needs, and as a result will fall flat. Some patients respond better to CBT and some to a more humanistic/person-centered therapy. It's also worth considering the amount of sessions spent, as it generally takes 8-20 to be successful. Finally, the therapist themselves can simply be a bad click, and too often can a shit therapist ruin someone's perception of therapy.

As to address therapy being the "golden standard" naturally from a general perspective it's easy to see why you would have this perspective. Therapy works for numerous reasons, be it actually effective, placebo, or the fact that people tend to go to therapy at their worse, and gradually through time return to their base happiness(hedonic treadmill theory if you want more info around this). Statistically, therapy is shown to work, and as a result is shoved down the throats of the mentally ill. The issue with this is that is the same with all surveys, be it liars or simply gathering information from a population of less severely troubled people. This is not me saying it's all lies, just that I think the population of this forum is a minority in the severity of their problems. Regardless, of what you believe, the important thing I want to talk about is the placebo element, which conversely can have the opposite effect. Should you hold a disbelief in therapy, regarding on how ineffective it will be for you, then you will experience an anti-placebo(nocebo) where It simply will always fall flat. Unfortunately, should you feel this way there really isn't an easy way to trick your mind out, essentially hindering the overall effectiveness of your treatment.

 

[Soulless Angel]

I didn't believe in therapy and in some ways I still don't for me personally, I don't believe talking week after week about your problems help, esp if you continue to have problems, then you never actually deal with the deeper issues as you are currently only ever working on the existing ones
Recently I learnt about RTT therapy and this is something I felt would help with my own issues, BUT then I looked deeper, RTT therapy works on finding out your root cause of your issues, and letting it go, and learning to move forward from it, as my root cause has been in my life my whole life bar a few short years, then I don't feel there is any point in therapy, until that root cause goes, but it won't as it wants me to have therapy, not realising and will never admit they are my issue, so i am stuck in a cycle I can't get out of!

So yea therapy can be right for the right person and the right situation, but other wise no!