Opinions on therapy

@Creamyyy

attempted many times never found the right fit or a person i clicked with.....

i guess since many do online visits now easier to try different styles as when i did in person finding appointments and near by was almost impossible in my area.....

the last time i set out my criteria to the person making appointment guess it was a hit with the office as the therapist i ended up with had it written down to discuss.......

Now a friend recently is started online found someone but IMO seems to be directing him as opposed to being a sounding board and making his own path so i am not impressed with his experience told him but he does not see it yet ........

based on the nature of therapy what is a great person for one often is not for the next person ...... i feel many give up on the search settle with someone or figure it is all not needed....... I sincerely hope you can find something that works for you.

@Creamyyy I have had a few therapists in the past but after a 7 year break I ended up needing one recently and I found one I liked. He was actually spot on with my depression and anxiety. We not only discussed the things going on with me but he talked about how depression and anxiety works. I think you just have to find the right one that works best for you. It might take a couple tries.

@Creamyyy I have had a few therapists at different times in my life. I think they can be really helpful but a lot depends on the therapist, the issue they are treating, their school of thought, and how well they fit with the client personally. I “try” a therapist for awhile and evaluate if it’s is a good fit and if it doesn’t seem like they are helping I find someone else. The therapy has to make sense to me. Some schools of thought wouldn’t be a good fit for me and some therapies I find questionable. A Jungian therapist wouldn’t work for me because I think their ideas are silly. I research the type of therapy that is being offered and if the scientific community is saying it’s questionable, I’ll either not use a therapist who practices that or I’ll tell my current therapist I don’t want that type of therapy. When a therapy that I’m not familiar with is proposed, I ask questions, including how long the therapy will take. Some therapies like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can be helpful in just a few sessions. Some other types of therapies take longer.

A lot of therapists push anti depressants like they are candy. I never trusted these drugs. It’s inconceivable to me that the medical world would think that just about everyone with problems in life have a “brain imbalance” that needs medication. Most of us are troubled about REAL things in the real world that would make anyone faced with the same things depressed. I grateful that I found CBT as an alternative.

So yeah, therapists can be helpful. I think it takes an open mind to try several therapists and therapies, and ask lots of questions.

@Creamyyy

Therapy can be a vital part of ur mental health treatment. That said, it can also be a detriment to it, as well. Essentially, the outcome generally depends upon ur therapist. It's vital to find a therapist that u like (not like as in would be friends with them, but like as in u don't daydream about taping their mouth shut when they are talking basically u like them in the general sense that u don't think they are terrible people and believe they are genuine in wanting to help). Trust is also important because if u don't feel like u can be honest without being judged, u won't open up rendering it a waste of time for both of u. It can be hard to find someone who is a good fit (I started therapy at 16, but didn't find a good fit until I was 24, but I saw her for 11 years until she had to leave because her breast cancer came back and had spread everywhere making her terminal).

Assuming u find a good fit, the type of therapy u need is based on ur diagnosis and why ur there to begin with. CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) is the most common and helps with most mental health disorders however DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy) is more beneficial than CBT for borderline personality disorder. Hypnosis (and CBT) is helpful for phobias and addiction. Ur psychiatrist can recommend the best therapeutic approach for u.

I think in some ways almost everyone could benefit from therapy, but it's something u have to be open to or it won't work. I personally found it to be helpful after I found the right therapist, the previous ones were basically a waste of our mutual time. I tried to give them a chance despite knowing almost immediately they wouldn't be a good fit for me (that's true with all of my relationships-friends, husband, doctors, neighbors, etc-and I'm rarely wrong) and I became less open to therapy with each appointment and just didn't show up or call a lot of times. I was expecting the same outcome at my first appointment with my last one whom I lost, but it never happened. I knew immediately that she was a good fit for me and I couldn't have been more right. When I lost her I had a hard time because it was unexpected for her even, sudden, and devastating. The grieving was awful especially because I would've normally made an appointment to see her if someone died and I was struggling, but I couldn't do that so I decided to grieve and continue seeing my psychiatrist, but not rush myself to find a new therapist which my doctor, who was her close friend, agreed with. Also, I decided 13 years or so of CBT was definitely enough of that approach. Now that I've had enough time to process and grieve and everything I intend to resume therapy. This time the approach needs to be DBT, I have borderline personality disorder and that's the approach proven to be the most beneficial for it. I need to find a therapist trained in it that's also a good fit which hopefully won't be too difficult, but I can't settle for a therapist just because they are trained in DBT, settling isn't an option when it comes to finding a therapist. Settling means u won't necessarily get everything out of ur sessions that u otherwise would have gotten if u hadn't settled.

Good luck, I hope this helps 😊

Therapy has really helped me as long as it is the right fit. Sometimes you need to switch around a bit. I also have come to realize that the sessions themselves are pretty hard but I usually feel better a few days later. @Creamyyy

@Creamyyy I've been going to counsellors for the last few years, approaching each of the 3 I've had with different core issues (I believed those were the core issue at the time, but turns out they're all just parts of a bigger problem), and by scrolling the directory I basically picked them off the premonition they looked nice and i've done alright with them.

You may not click with someone, and don't be scared to ask them as many questions as you want. If, after a few sessions even, you find you're not comfortable or don't like how it works, then you're at liberty to stop or say so.

I've found it helpful and yet also not in some parts. The great thing that's come from it is that I now know where from and why I have a lot of the problems I do. The downside is, I want solutions because I have logic brain and therapists are supposed to incite answers out of you by getting you to understand stuff instead of giving you the answers, so for me it's a bit frustrating that people can't tell me what to do. And I also know a lot now of what I'm supposed to try and do but it just doesn't work or I struggle to sustain it.

I've found it helpful to sift through whatever tf was going on in my head because I had a pretty explosive slide down into the rabbit hole of bad thinking because everything just built up and talking through stuff helped me separate the layers of the problem lasagna a bit better. An outside perspective can introduce you to things that seem obvious after you're told but you just don't figure out of your own accord.

I'd recommend it to anyone that hasn't tried it before, and would say at least try a few attempts if the first one doesn't fit because it could just be a personality thing or you don't like their style.