I went to a therapist a few times. I think it was good to talk about shit in a way that was more structured, with a person who didn't know me.
I'm not sure it would have been extremely useful to keep doing it continuously.
She was nice, though. Not really a super pretentious, new age type.
Therapy can be good, that said it is also good to talk about stuff to a friend or some anon on the internet.
The difference being in the effectiveness of each method but generally just talking about stuff will generally improve your mental state.
Just be careful not to get caught up in a echo chamber that makes you believe that you don't have a problem and you're good.
With all that a therapist who is very good might be a lot more effective that the other methods, emphasize on the "very good" part but they also charge for it and a bad therapist can also be far more damaging.
Think of arachnophobia - exposure therapy works great for that. You might not learn to love spiders and like them crawling over your body, but you will learn to get near enough to them that you can kill them.
I would assume that it helps people with social phobia the same way.
Then I believe in "crisis" therapy. As in you encountered a bad event in your life and you can talk through it with a therapist. Good therapists will not direct you to anything, but help you sort your own thoughts.
What I don't believe in is this "1 session / week for years" therapy in cases like trauma / depression. Therapy needs to be goal oriented and needs steady progress. If you don't have any progress and just visit your therapist once a week and that's it - basically treating them like a person who you just talk to, who doesn't challenge you, ... then it's a waste of time & money.
A good therapist though will tell you that and maybe offer to refer you to another therapist.
Only if if enables you to take action in some way.
If your life sucks and you're not sure why it might help you understand why you're having the problems you are. Identifying them allows them to be solved.
Its like chiropractics and massages, 90% of them are grifters who make money on feel good placebos. And I say that as someone who is just a test away from being a licensed one.
Its when you find the one who actually is interesting in fixing people and gels with your mind/personality (this is key, most people just pick the first one they find and fail miserably because of it). This includes which discipline they believe in. Psychoanalyists are gonna do things very different from CBT proponents and pro-psychiatrists types.
Heck the "hobby" therapists are a growing field in the last few years and they are leaps and bounds above the old way. Magically, talking about your problems while doing shit like kayaking or cooking goes way further than sitting on a couch.
Therapy isn't bad, but it is being used incorrectly. A lot of rich people use it as a means to show their wealth. That's why Freud would analyze that a rich woman had memories of masturbating as a child and needed cocaine to deal with it all. He knew it had nothing to do with actually helping.
There are tons of people who sell cosmetic psychotherapy and then people promoting it as what is needed. They are the major paradigm even because most people don't need it.
It has caused a bit of damage. The autism rate has gone way overboard because parents/teachers want their kids to be special. The same can be said for a bunch of other fad mental illnesses. There are now therapy groups to deal with the false therapy of a fad therapist. It's a bit insane.
I've debated that a fair bit, I've been half-thinking a lifecoach might be more productive and proactive, since a fair bit of the challenges that people might have is just making solid decisions and getting their shit together.
A little outside feedback with good advice can go a long way. And while friends can sometimes cover that role, sometimes you need to look a little further to find some helpful guidance.
Yes, and I speak from experience. My mother was (and still is) huge on therapy and made me do it a lot as a kid. It didn't do jack shit for any "problem" I had. At least she eventually found a play therapist so it wasn't miserable for me. I don't discount the possibility that it might help for some niche issues assuming the therapist isn't woke but it's at best a very specific solution for a very specific problem. As usual the progressives have no idea what they're talking about. As another poster stated therapy has become a holy sacrament for the woke religion along with sucking off troons and touching children.
I saw a therapist for some months about ADHD related issues.
It was useless.
The gist of her advice was (translated from therapist to english) to just abandon personal responsibility, blame all my problems on ADHD, give up on improving myself or doing better, and be a happy helpless victim with no expectations.
Honestly it made me kind of angry.
I think it’s safe to say that therapy offers nothing of value to most men. You are far, far better off hitting the gym than blabbing endlessly about your problems to some radical feminist (95% of therapists) for hundreds of dollars a week the rest of your life.
I went to a therapist a few times. I think it was good to talk about shit in a way that was more structured, with a person who didn't know me.
I'm not sure it would have been extremely useful to keep doing it continuously.
She was nice, though. Not really a super pretentious, new age type.
Getting better isn’t the point of therapy. Like all snake oil salesmen, they just want to sell you more.
Therapy can be good, that said it is also good to talk about stuff to a friend or some anon on the internet.
The difference being in the effectiveness of each method but generally just talking about stuff will generally improve your mental state.
Just be careful not to get caught up in a echo chamber that makes you believe that you don't have a problem and you're good.
With all that a therapist who is very good might be a lot more effective that the other methods, emphasize on the "very good" part but they also charge for it and a bad therapist can also be far more damaging.
Therapy is working.
Think of arachnophobia - exposure therapy works great for that. You might not learn to love spiders and like them crawling over your body, but you will learn to get near enough to them that you can kill them. I would assume that it helps people with social phobia the same way.
Then I believe in "crisis" therapy. As in you encountered a bad event in your life and you can talk through it with a therapist. Good therapists will not direct you to anything, but help you sort your own thoughts.
What I don't believe in is this "1 session / week for years" therapy in cases like trauma / depression. Therapy needs to be goal oriented and needs steady progress. If you don't have any progress and just visit your therapist once a week and that's it - basically treating them like a person who you just talk to, who doesn't challenge you, ... then it's a waste of time & money.
A good therapist though will tell you that and maybe offer to refer you to another therapist.
Exposure therapy to humans in social situations will help me learn to get close enough that I can kill them? Where do I sign up? :^)
Only if if enables you to take action in some way.
If your life sucks and you're not sure why it might help you understand why you're having the problems you are. Identifying them allows them to be solved.
If it's not that, then probably not helpful.
Therapy is as valuable as the treatment goal. If the treatment goal is shit, like most medical crap these days, then therapy is shit too.
Its like chiropractics and massages, 90% of them are grifters who make money on feel good placebos. And I say that as someone who is just a test away from being a licensed one.
Its when you find the one who actually is interesting in fixing people and gels with your mind/personality (this is key, most people just pick the first one they find and fail miserably because of it). This includes which discipline they believe in. Psychoanalyists are gonna do things very different from CBT proponents and pro-psychiatrists types.
Heck the "hobby" therapists are a growing field in the last few years and they are leaps and bounds above the old way. Magically, talking about your problems while doing shit like kayaking or cooking goes way further than sitting on a couch.
Therapy isn't bad, but it is being used incorrectly. A lot of rich people use it as a means to show their wealth. That's why Freud would analyze that a rich woman had memories of masturbating as a child and needed cocaine to deal with it all. He knew it had nothing to do with actually helping.
There are tons of people who sell cosmetic psychotherapy and then people promoting it as what is needed. They are the major paradigm even because most people don't need it.
It has caused a bit of damage. The autism rate has gone way overboard because parents/teachers want their kids to be special. The same can be said for a bunch of other fad mental illnesses. There are now therapy groups to deal with the false therapy of a fad therapist. It's a bit insane.
I've debated that a fair bit, I've been half-thinking a lifecoach might be more productive and proactive, since a fair bit of the challenges that people might have is just making solid decisions and getting their shit together.
A little outside feedback with good advice can go a long way. And while friends can sometimes cover that role, sometimes you need to look a little further to find some helpful guidance.
Yes, and I speak from experience. My mother was (and still is) huge on therapy and made me do it a lot as a kid. It didn't do jack shit for any "problem" I had. At least she eventually found a play therapist so it wasn't miserable for me. I don't discount the possibility that it might help for some niche issues assuming the therapist isn't woke but it's at best a very specific solution for a very specific problem. As usual the progressives have no idea what they're talking about. As another poster stated therapy has become a holy sacrament for the woke religion along with sucking off troons and touching children.
I saw a therapist for some months about ADHD related issues.
It was useless.
The gist of her advice was (translated from therapist to english) to just abandon personal responsibility, blame all my problems on ADHD, give up on improving myself or doing better, and be a happy helpless victim with no expectations.
Honestly it made me kind of angry.
I think it’s safe to say that therapy offers nothing of value to most men. You are far, far better off hitting the gym than blabbing endlessly about your problems to some radical feminist (95% of therapists) for hundreds of dollars a week the rest of your life.