Therapy.... Thoughts?

[Soulless Angel]

Does talking therapy actually work, I am not here asking advice, I want to know if there is any truth into it, or is it just something else that is forced upon many mentally unwell people as society believes its a cure?

How can dragging up a trauma ridden past and making you relive it over again, help you understand it?
It doesn't change it, nor does it remove the pain,

I had shit as a child, I still have shit to this day, but I don't understand how talking will help? I find talking embarrassing, I loathe watching other peoples false expressions when they may hear a snippet of my life,

Is therapy worth it? I want to hear both sides

 

[redbathingduck]

Honestly I think it comes down to getting lucky with a good therapist. Right now I have a good therapist and we've been going over my trauma little by little, and though often confronting or upsetting, it has also made me feel validated and heard. I often told myself that I was just weak for what happened to me or that things weren't as bad as I made them out to be. I guess for me it helps to find out that I wasn't crazy and that it was not my fault. My therapist is compassionate and often explains certain behaviours in depth, from either me or abusers. I follow schema therapy so it also tries to make me able to put trust in other people again and just not be hindered as much by what happened in the past and how I grew up. Though to be honest that part hasn't helped much yet

I have also had experience with bad therapists that didn't really offer anything and even got upset with me when I was venting my heart out or getting emotional outbursts. It made me feel terrible and wrong for showing emotions at all, as stupid as it sounds. They just basically listened but had nothing to say about it or just briefly repeated things before giving mundane advice like breathing exercises or taking walks, like??

So yeah I would say it can be worth it but sadly it really depends on what kind of therapist you get and that's often out of your control due to not knowing beforehand

 

[jdog2498]

Not sure. My therapist told me to stop using these websites but here am I. I think, it's better than nothing, but wow is it painful. I also think it depends on therapist. I have found the more patient the therapist the better. Some therapists I wouldn't let do therapy with my dog. If you notice any red flags with your therapist I'd take them seriously. There's not really any accountiblity for private clinics

 

[Sulyya]

Some people really want to get it all out and feel heard by another person, in a way that online doesn't satisfy. Or have no idea what to do and need advice. I haven't been (in a long time/voluntarily) but if it didn't cost so much I might try it again.

 

[OblivionOmitted]

I feel you completely when you mention loathing talking to others about your feelings. My gut simply isn't built for that. However I think therapy does help in certain cases, like the only period in my life where I went to therapy was when I had really bad anxiety that prevented me from leaving my room, and made me unable to go to school for like 4 months or so. I'd constantly have this feeling that I was right about to faint, and it would only get worse and worse. This thing had my sleep schedule completely fucked up and made it very difficult for me to do literally anything. I went fucking 4 weeks without showering.

Originally I applied for "help" from the commune that I live in, but that help was fucking useless and it took them forever to reach out to me. It also involved them telling my school and wanting me to have meetings with a bunch of people which I very clearly wasn't able to do. To top it all off they offered me family therapy for my... fear of passing out all the time? Complete bullshit lol. Quickly realizing it was never going to go anywhere, I turned them down and then went to private therapy, and that proved to be a really good decision. My therapist was an older guy, who clearly knew what he was talking about, and he even went to my home for the first couple sessions because he knew I was in such a bad state. I could tell he actually cared about helping me, and it didn't feel forced like I had originally expected it to. He wasn't like super easy on me either and he did treat me like a normal person and not like somebody struggling badly from a mental illness. After some time he taught me how to deal with it, shit like distracting myself from my anxiety and taking back control by counting the amount of blue things in my room, or thinking of every animal beginning with a certain letter. It didn't take long before I completely recovered, only like 2 or 3 months or something, and only because of him I was able to graduate.

TL;DR fuck government/state therapy, but private therapy is good and worked out in my experience.

 

[ptolemaea]

it can. talk therapy isn't your only option. i'm starting cognitive behavioural therapy, although it's too early to tell if it'll help at all. you do have to be willing to meet your therapist halfway, though. if you have no interest in being helped, or aren't willing to do your part, therapy won't be helpful. part of it is also finding the right therapist. after three months of sessions with my previous therapist i had made no progress. my current therapist has been wonderful so far. i don't think there's any harm in at least trying therapy

 

[LaVieEnRose]

From my experience it wasn't worth one single cent. But that's my experience which doesn't necessarily have any bearing on what it could do for you.