Is therapy good?

[miyuki]

I have been hearing bad shit about therapists like "therapy is listening to a woman tell you, you are trans for 1 hour" So is it really that bad? I personally don't need to go to therapy rn

 

[DankSmoker]

Physical therapy is nice for old folks, speech therapy is cool for kids that get bullied for talking funny, addiction therapy is sweet relief for junkies. But if you've just got some personal issues you haven't worked out yourself lmao kys

 

[dick brain]

It kind of helps. It's like having a personal trainer at a gym. You're still the one doing the work, they just hold you accountable and help you get toward your goals, in theory. In practice they're more like telemarketers, they have their little script and they're helpful as long as your problems and goals are in their little script, but inevitably you reach a point where your experience or goals deviate from that and then they become a detriment because you no longer have the same expectations.

I've seen a handful of different mental health professionals because I'm fucked up enough to need to, and the one common denominator across all of them is that they don't fucking get it. It seems like they operate with a blank canvas of a normal life and then mark down the areas in which yours differs from that, but don't really grasp that in many cases the abnormality is so deep and pervasive that you could talk for days and not exhaust all the normal things other people were afforded that you weren't, or all the abnormal things you have to deal with that other people don't, so they're always operating with an incomplete picture and only really able to help you with the most obvious problems, which are probably the ones you don't need help with. But beyond that, they don't fucking get it, nobody does unless they've lived through whatever you're going through.

It can be helpful if you bear that in mind though. I don't regret going, and I don't regret stopping.

 

[parsnip]

It's really good for people who have disordered thinking patterns, like incels who have all their "truths" about how the world works, or people with low self esteem, or catastrophic thinking etc. It only works if you work with the therapist though. I will always be of the opinion that people with severe anxiety or depression should be on medication as well as taking therapy. Sometimes therapy just isn't enough.

 

[DankSmoker]

It kind of helps. It's like having a personal trainer at a gym. You're still the one doing the work, they just hold you accountable and help you get toward your goals, in theory. In practice they're more like telemarketers, they have their little script and they're helpful as long as your problems and goals are in their little script, but inevitably you reach a point where your experience or goals deviate from that and then they become a detriment because you no longer have the same expectations.

I've seen a handful of different mental health professionals because I'm fucked up enough to need to, and the one common denominator across all of them is that they don't fucking get it. It seems like they operate with a blank canvas of a normal life and then mark down the areas in which yours differs from that, but don't really grasp that in many cases the abnormality is so deep and pervasive that you could talk for days and not exhaust all the normal things other people were afforded that you weren't, or all the abnormal things you have to deal with that other people don't, so they're always operating with an incomplete picture and only really able to help you with the most obvious problems, which are probably the ones you don't need help with. But beyond that, they don't fucking get it, nobody does unless they've lived through whatever you're going through.

It can be helpful if you bear that in mind though. I don't regret going, and I don't regret stopping.

Couldn't you just talk to a friend or family member about your issues? Shit, talk to your dog about your troubles even.

It's really good for people who have disordered thinking patterns, like incels who have all their "truths" about how the world works, or people with low self esteem, or catastrophic thinking etc. It only works if you work with the therapist though. I will always be of the opinion that people with severe anxiety or depression should be on medication as well as taking therapy. Sometimes therapy just isn't enough.

Medication being peddled out to resolve anxiety and depression is meaningless when there is always alcohol to remedy those problems.

 

[dick brain]

Couldn't you just talk to a friend or family member about your issues? Shit, talk to your dog about your troubles even.

They don't get it either. Neither do you. There are problems that you just need to talk about, and then there are problems you need to fix, maladaptive behaviors and coping mechanisms that you develop to survive a deeply fucked up situation which are not only unhelpful in the "real world" but actually counterproductive, things that once kept you alive become obstacles, something you have to learn to even recognize, let alone figure out ways to counteract and unlearn, and find healthy things to replace them with.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, good. I'm happy for you, and you should be too.

 

[DankSmoker]

They don't get it either. Neither do you. There are problems that you just need to talk about, and then there are problems you need to fix, maladaptive behaviors and coping mechanisms that you develop to survive a deeply fucked up situation which are not only unhelpful in the "real world" but actually counterproductive, things that once kept you alive become obstacles, something you have to learn to even recognize, let alone figure out ways to counteract and unlearn, and find healthy things to replace them with.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, good. I'm happy for you, and you should be too.

Alright man, I still think talking to a dog would help.

 

[Sparkletor 2.0]

I went to a therapist one time and I told her how I was feeling depressed and hopeless because I try to do my best and put forth effort and when I look around I see people who half ass everything and put in the least amount of effort and they get the same results. How come I come to work on time everyday and do my job and Joe comes in late every day and does nothing and we get treated the same. It's just so disheartening that it makes me not want to even try any more if nobody cares.

She was like, "If you feel that way, just do less work. Just half ass everything like the other people. Then you won't feel bad about doing more work than them."

I didn't like that solution and I didn't go back.

 

[DankSmoker]

I went to a therapist one time and I told her how I was feeling depressed and hopeless because I try to do my best and put forth effort and when I look around I see people who half ass everything and put in the least amount of effort and they get the same results. How come I come to work on time everyday and do my job and Joe comes in late every day and does nothing and we get treated the same. It's just so disheartening that it makes me not want to even try any more if nobody cares.

She was like, "If you feel that way, just do less work. Just half ass everything like the other people. Then you won't feel bad about doing more work than them."

I didn't like that solution and I didn't go back.

I feel like consulting a female about the drive to work might be the wrong choice.

 

[Your Starter for 10]

The band? No, they are faggots.

 

[TroonsDid911]

Jordan Peterson is a therapist and he got addicted to benzos and cries constantly on TV. I think therapy is mostly useless unless you have someone with actual useful advice on how to solve your problems with thinking and behavior, not a life coach or $200 an hour shoulder to cry on.

 

[pentangle]

It's bullshit. I saw a few different ones during a tricky period in my life because almost all of my friends were seeing them and kept shilling how useful it was. It involved me (or rather my insurance plan) shelling out $130/hour to have someone basically constantly circlejerk and validate at me at every turn. Even if I tried to gesture towards any kind of self-reflectiveness or accountability for my shortcomings they'd find some way to frame everything as the fault of other people. It really did just feel like weird social/emotional prostitution. I genuinely think the kind of people who like it are 1) wildly self absorbed and 2) would probably get tricked into thinking a prostitute's "orgasm" was real.

I also lowkey think they gently coerce/encourage you to cut off your personal relationships or engage in them with less openness/intimacy so you get more dependent on the therapist for those sorts of things. It's pretty insidious. The fact that my sanest friends don't see therapists and my biggest basketcases are the ones who see them the longest is very telling, I think.

 

[Pruto]

Say or think whatever you want, you're still trans tho.