711–720 of 767 posts
He obviously serves as a cautionary tale as well. Not to suggest at all that you're suicidal, only to say that a little therapy is probably a good idea for everyone.
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It does not demonstrate the effectiveness of psychiatric treatment by any reasonable standard. The control group is corrupted, the control-treatment pairs for comparison were selected by the researchers, and the provided “psychiatric treatment” includes > In addition to weekly individual sessions the inpatient program at both groups contained two 75 min group sessions each week. In addition, VITA had shorter group me…
The very same Wikipedia article cited at the top of this thread includes links to several meta analyses demonstrating psychoanalysis’ effectiveness. The evidence is not conclusive, because it is apparently difficult to study psychoanalysis, but it falls on the side of it being effective. Very far from discredited, as you seem to want to claim (with no evidence). Difficult to study != disproven
Getting things done gives you more ideas, and sharpen your thinking, as opposed to sitting and thinking.
It is definitely hard to do so, _especially_ when you’re in an obscure situation.
But it’s the right thing to do, and you’ve got nothing to lose.
Commit to doing. Start even with something stupid, and you’ll get rolling from there.
It’s hard to see your future when you can’t tell where you are going, but typically you can take your next step. Focus on the next step.
My friend, you can have the best of your life starting now. I’m a decade further along than you, and I look back at my 43yo self with a mixture of envy and admiration. 43 is not too old. You have time, and talent, and some money. Time to shine.
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Jumping in here. I suspect that the number of people who could benefit from quality therapy, greatly outnumbers the amount of quality therapists that exist in the world. To the point where, I surmise, a vast majority of the world's population simply would not have meaningful access to it, due to location, finances, availability, introversion, etc. So for me, it's not that "get therapy" is bad advice. Good thing is go…
Honestly, echoing some of mancerayder's sentiment here - I actually think there's a ton of mileage one can get from a not particularly extensively trained listening partner - I think there are cases where you genuinely need a highly qualified therapist, I think there are situations where an under-qualified individual can do a great deal of harm when dealing with someone with particular types of mental issues, but I t…
1) what I refer to as "psychiatric" therapy, with a specifically "medical" way of doing things. It's based on diagnosis and pathology, with a focus on treating the underlying causes of mental health problems. This typically amounts to chemical intervention. The provider will always be someone with a medical license, typically an M.D. or PsyD, although it can also be an RN or PA; someone who can prescribe drugs. While not always the case, talking with them is generally limited in scope to what is necessary to provide a diagnosis and appropriate medication management. It's normal to have appointments on a monthly basis initially, often stretching to a brief visit every 3 months as one's condition stabilizes. You will need to continue to see them for as long as you take medication (although you can sometimes convince a primary care physician to take over medication management once an effective treatment regimen is established).
2) what I refer to as "psychological" therapy, this is often in the form of talk therapy, and focuses more on cognitive understanding and behavioral modification, and can even be as simple as having someone listen to your shit, put it into a reasonable perspective, and provide emotional support or even just providing human interaction. Often the provider will have a Master's or Doctorate in psychology, which is NOT a medical degree. While some psychiatric doctors will also handle this type of therapy, it's much more often they'll refer you to someone who does this. It's quite common to see this person for an hour each week, but can be more or less often and may also include group therapy. They focus on teaching coping skills and can provide CBT and the like. Some people may continue to benefit from this therapy and go for years, others may stick around just until they establish the coping skills needed for their situation.
I'm probably over generalizing, but it's uncommon to start out not knowing what to expect at all, so if even one person reads this and benefits, it was worth me writing this long post on my phone at 2 a.m.
I also have a bit of a warning, with either type of therapy, it's not uncommon for patients to think they should see results pretty quickly, and when they don't they will assume it's not working and discontinue treatment or assume their therapist is inept and jump between several in short order. Imo, this is the worst thing someone can do, it may take a few months for medication to show results and more often than not the first few tries can fail to help, and it can literally take years to develop behavioral changes and coping skills to the point they show real benefit. People that give up on therapy too quickly can end up losing all faith in therapy for the rest of their life, and losing that kind of hope can even worsen their problems. I struggled from my late teens and all the way into my 30s before I really began to really feel like I hit an appropriate balance in daily life, and that isn't guaranteed. However now if I fall apart, I can put myself back together in a matter of days instead of wallowing for years.
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> You need to see a therapist You should reword that. Otherwise how did humanity last this long? Psychotherapy is less than two centuries old. You should instead say something like, "One option is to see a therapist." There are friends, elders, books, and a number of other ways to climb out of a mental rut. Traipsing "Psychology Today" for a therapist who will charge the insurance $150 for 40 minutes of a session, th…
I recently looked into seeing a therapist for reasons similar to the OP's. I tried lyra. All the wording and questions ask screamed to me "these are not my type of people". I'm not going to go into specifics but imagine you walked into a help conference and every table had energy stones, power of pyramids, astrology books, etc... If you're anything like me you'd walk out. Once I made it past all that it recommended s…
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Why so hostile to therapy? I have a great supportive network of friends and family, but even so a few times in my life I have seen a psychologist that gave me actionable advice that really helped me deal with personal hardships. An impartial trained professional can often see much more clearly what you’re blind to; friends mean well but sometimes their intuitive advice is actually the opposite of what you need to hea…
An impartial, trained professional...in what exactly? Therapists / psychologists are glorified life coaches. "Psychology" is a mess. All therapists can do is act as a programming rubber duck equivalent. What makes the psychologist more qualified to give advice to you than yourself? Maybe the misconception comes from this "training" idea - people think there is some magical solution in psychology and it's not all a ps…
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> You need to see a therapist You should reword that. Otherwise how did humanity last this long? Psychotherapy is less than two centuries old. You should instead say something like, "One option is to see a therapist." There are friends, elders, books, and a number of other ways to climb out of a mental rut. Traipsing "Psychology Today" for a therapist who will charge the insurance $150 for 40 minutes of a session, th…
Yes, too often "You need to see a therapist" is just a euphemism for "I don't want to listen to your problems." This is an important data point and a general trend toward the cheapening of human relationships. Friendship means something very specific, and for a lot of people now it means only the superficial. Anything deeper than that is actively discouraged. I think of those surveys about friendship took this kind o…
I do agree that today's generations seem to be less deeply connected than older generations. Relationships take work and vulnerability, but today's distractions make everyone feel they are short on time and make us too absorbed with the perfection of the masks we wear. Its a shame, because deep friendships are truly something to be cherished.
"True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity, before it is entitled to the appellation." - George Washington
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Yes, too often "You need to see a therapist" is just a euphemism for "I don't want to listen to your problems." This is an important data point and a general trend toward the cheapening of human relationships. Friendship means something very specific, and for a lot of people now it means only the superficial. Anything deeper than that is actively discouraged. I think of those surveys about friendship took this kind o…
Sometimes that might be true, but let's say you have the option to talk to two people about a problem. Person 1 is your friend that you've known all your life. They haven't gone to school for this and have plenty of problems of their own, half of which you know about, the other half, you're a part of, so they're biased and on their side, and not your side. Person 2 is a licensed therapist, has a literal master degree…