Are you in therapy? How has it benefited you?

12 comments

1. I learned to stop blaming myself for everything.

   Other people being shitty to me isn’t my fault.

2. therapy doesn’t fix anything. but it can give you some tools you can use to help or make things better for yourself. it helped me stop caring so much about other people and comparing myself to them in a jealous way. seems small but this kind of thing adds up.

   one thing i will say about therapy: it’s not something like the dentist where you just go and sit there and they work on you. therapy you need to do work. and if you don’t, then you’re just wasting your time and money.

3. I tried and it didn’t benefit me at all. I learned on my own to control what you can and to accept what you can’t and do your best to work around it. Once I came to that realization and truly accepted it, my mental health significantly improved.

4. I finally have someone to talk to about things like emotions and fears and them being a professional is another big plus

5. Yes. It reducing the level of anxiety and I am close to fully accept my true sexuality. Also helping me to understand myself and my dreams.

   I can agree with that the patient must work, the therapist can “only” help and guide. Therapists like the man, who is selling water beside the river. Go, drink your water!

6. Not anymore, because I realized talking to a stranger about my problems didn’t fix them and I got tired of being accused of being a victim of rape and/or sexual assault

7. I am.

   It’s given me some tools that have really helped me understand myself and more authentically evaluate the thoughts I have.

   One of the biggest things I came to realize in therapy is that the thoughts I have aren’t necessarily “Me”. They’re just thoughts… they fall into your brain unbidden. What makes “You” are the thoughts you internalize. Learning to catch these thoughts and *choose* to internalize or discard them is powerful and gives you more control over your own headspace. It helps prevent the aggressive nature of negative thoughts.

8. I’m an extreme case, but counseling didn’t help. Drugs didn’t help, ECTs only helped temporarily. I’m on a bunch of vitamins and supplements that seem to help (as much as the ECTs). I was looking into TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation), but I’m not a good candidate. Ketamine or psilocybin would be my next step. I’m encouraging people to try things until you find something that works.

9. The first help I got was meds. I was really at the bottom… Having daily panic attacks and being hypochondriac at a point where I could go twice or more to the ER every month because I was sure I was going to die.

   Then, when my mental state got stabilized, my therapist and I started to work. We talked about what could have been the traumas initiating those panic attacks and then we started behavioural therapy. I’ve been in therapy for 3 years now and I’m way better. Still suffering from stress a little more than I should, but I haven’t had a panic attack in two years and I recently started to progressively stop certain meds.

   Therapy isn’t a sure success. Find a therapist with whom you’re at ease but also a therapist who challenges you. Trying to get better with someone who always agree with you won’t help. At least that’s what I felt. My therapist and I often disagree and it can sometimes become heated. But that’s how I change my behaviour : by having second thoughts about what she said and by standing my ground when I know I’m right even against someone with authority on the subject.

10. Yes. It helps me slow down and think my decisions though, plus it helps to have an unbiased 3rd party for some situations to give their opinion

11. I’m a drug addict. I start doing drugs heavily between 16 to 18. I got sober around 24. So for all those years I never really let myself handle any emotions. I numbed them. So now that I’m sober i have a really hard time processing and understanding my emotions.

    Therapy has helped me understand what I’m feeling and why I’m feeling it. At first I didn’t get anything out of therapy and I thought it was a waste of time. I had to learn that the therapist don’t fix you. You fix you they just give you the tools.

12. Therapy was awesome, although I worked at it daily inbetween sessions.

    Loosened up a looot of childhood shit that was haunting me daily and now I’m living completely free of it.