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.
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.