What does therapy feel like for you?

13 comments

1. kinda shitty tbh — when i first went it was bc i was going through some eating issues (5 years ago). and honestly, therapy seemed so stupid to me, bc no matter how many sessions i went to, it’s not like the therapist could lose the weight for me. so i kinda haven’t gone since.

2. Waste of time and money

3. It felt emotionally exhausting but good.

   I had a specific issue I was grappling with that was impacting my relationship. So I decided to seek a relationship therapist individually with the understanding that my H and I might go together (to a different therapist in the same practice) later if the problem wasn’t resolved

   I saw her 4 times online (which I think was actually nice). I cried a lot, I stared at the floor a lot. I made myself say out loud a lot of things I’d been holding in because they felt scary to say.

   She had me journal my feelings. I started tracking almost hourly how I felt and what triggered that emotion. I started to see patterns. We discussed that in therapy.

   She validated a lot of the things I’d been unsure of. Saying things out loud to get started to make it easier to process my feelings & be less shy.

   The 4th week she said, “ok. Anything else to talk about?” I realized the answer was no. She congratulated me, said that’s how most therapy works, and that if my issue resurged or something else came up to call her.

   It was a very positive experience

4. it was amazing.

   I was going through awful PPD/high anxiety/OCD etc and holy shit, going to therapy was that glimmer of light at the end of a very dark, very deep tunnel.

   The key to therapy is to find one that works for you/you feel comfortable with, being totally open and honest with your therapist and also having that drive to get better. Your therapist (and meds if necessary) can only do so much; you have to also put in the effort to make things better for yourself.

5. At first, it felt like paying to have someone pull off my skin and douse me in lemon juice. Not good times at all. Once I accepted that things might feel worse before they feel better, I just sort of pushed through it. More towards tolerable times now. These days, it’s not bad at all. Therapist is a sounding board for whatever is happening in my life. I can say the absolute shittiest things, be angry, scream, cry, doesn’t matter. They don’t take it personally and don’t try to stop me. When I’m ready, they help me work through whatever has me so bothered. I had to get past being afraid of the pain that might occur when working through past trauma.

6. Definitely a process, finding the right therapist is important but I don’t always need to talk so during a “crisis” definitely going more and now down to once a month for maintenance. But a lot of it is self reflection which can be hard and being extremely honest with yourself and also the therapist, it doesn’t do any good if you’re lying to them or yourself. But also a lot of work on how to set boundaries, why I need them (reinforcement of that), coping mechanisms for my anxiety things like that. Also part of it for me is being able to discuss certain things that are painful or stressful or scary with an uninvolved third party and have them hold that space in a safe way, for most of us our loved ones are either included in that issue or love us so much that they are clouded and not always the most reasonable so a therapist being an outsider helps a lot.

   Sometimes it’s really hard and I cry the whole time because it’s a safe space to let go emotionally especially because my job requires me to be very emotionally stable and help regulate others emotions. So it’s definitely a release, sometimes it’s sitting with those ugly emotions and feeling them all until it’s over like a wave crashing on you and my therapist just holds that space for me, walks me through it, feels it with me when I definitely tend to keep that kind of stuff bottled up. Those days are hard and I’ll be really sad or down and exhausted after or sometimes feel better or lighter just depends. You never know what you’re going to get really.

7. Very positive. It was liberating to talk about things with someone who didn’t have an agenda. They weren’t going to say “No that never happened” or “you’re making that up” or “you caused what happened.”

   It wasn’t fun to talk about those things, but I walked away with healthier coping strategies.

8. It was very hard at first. I went to therapy for what I thought was one specific thing (the sudden death of my little brother), but discovered that there were more things about me that I needed to work on, like my imposter syndrome, my need to control things, my difficulty in telling the truth. I did cop to the last one though, straight up told my therapist “I have lied to every therapist I’ve ever been to and I’m going to try to not lie to you but if you think I am please call me on it.” And she did.

   Being honest was super difficult, because it felt like I was opening myself up for judgement. But if you have a good therapist, there isn’t any, just gentle questions guiding you along the way. And that’s what therapy has felt like for me…guidance. And to hear another person say “but why do you feel that way” and not letting me get away with “because I do” has been really helpful. It helped me realize I was bipolar and in deep, deep, deeeeep denial about it even though I’d seen the signs myself. It helped me see things about myself that I didn’t like to see but also helped give me tools to improve those things. It helped me realize that I don’t need to present some perfect picture of myself to the world for people to accept me…they do or they don’t, but I can’t control that by lying about things.

   On the whole therapy has been a super positive experience and it works as long as you work it back.

9. I’m a verbal processor. When I am in crisis or dealing with something hard, I want to talk about it. A lot. Until I’ve settled it or come to terms with it or whatever. The problem before therapy was that I was using my husband (who was usually dealing with the same crisis situation) or my friends for that. My husband would get frustrated with the constant ruminations and my friends were also emotionally exhausted. Therapy has helped me discuss and talk about my concerns in a safe environment with someone who knows how to ask the right questions to get me out of a cycle of needing to talk about it all the time.

10. It just feels like venting right now. My current therapist is meh. She’s not good at reigning in the conversation and I am a talker. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that our sessions are over the phone. I miss my old therapist. I do usually feel better after I talk to her though.

11. A time I can just ramble and say what’s on my mind.

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13. Absolutely exhausting and I always feel like I’m being fake or lying even when I’m not. Feels like my brain is holding a 15lb kettlebell. I don’t ever enjoy it, maybe some day I will though!