I’m thinking of seeing a therapist online, but I fear that I will just waste money I don’t have. They diagnosed me with this sickness, but it looks like they don’t know much about helping after the diagnoses. They acknowledge that something is wrong but can’t help. Any advice?
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I’d see a therapist in person.
Face to face is better because your therapist can see any tocsin and movements that can point to anxiety and more. A good therapist can interpret body language and incorporates their observation into therapy.
Therapy doesn’t cure anything but it gives you a place to vent and learn coping skills.
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My daughter tried online therapy and said it didn’t help her with her issues. However, she only tried one therapist. Thing is, not every therapist is good for every client. You have to shop around sometimes until you get a good fit. I’ve been helped by therapy in years past.
I tried online therapy, and it was useless.
I have had to date a million therapists to finally find one who is amazing. It takes time and a lot of effort, but I find it worth it.
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Therapy is not a waste of money if you have the right therapist but if you have the wrong therapist than it could become a nightmare.
Make sure you don’t stick with a therapist who is the wrong fit.
Shop around.
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It depends for what you need therapy. For my sz positive and negative/cognitive symptoms it was useless. I called my pdoc clinic and asked for a psychologist, they said its free.
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I disagree. There’s behavioral therapy you can do for this. It might only make a tiny bit of difference, but it can help. Can also just help to have someone support you and understand your situation, someone you can vent to.
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All my healthcare is free for one more year on medi-cal. After that I will be eligible for medi-care. So I will have to pay for services like therapy. When that happens I will definitely consider if it’s worth it. Right now it is helping me a lot.
@aziz Therapy is very helpful especially for me. My negative symptoms are so bad. My therapist is the only real person in my life I talk to. That human connection as little as it is helps me immensely. The homework is hard but she holds me accountable whether I succeed or not.
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I am just stating my experience, I tried it and it did not help.
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Right. And my experience is that it does help.
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@aziz. I did not like it at first. I went through multiple therapist. Had arguments with many til I found one that understood my needs. She knows my negative symptoms can’t be cured. She helps me emotionally and helps me to be positive when I go to dark places.
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I do think many therapist don’t understand how to help us. The ones that truly unferstand our condition are very helpful. My case manager too who has many sz patients is incredible.
The worst is a bad therapist.
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My local clinic is having a hard time finding and keeping therapists employed. I went thru 4 therapists in 2 years. They were getting ready to assign me a new one yet again and I just told them that I didn’t want therapy anymore, to just keep me on med management. I miss some aspects of therapy but I got tired of being shuffled around to new people that I didn’t choose to see. I’m doing okay with it for now.
No, I got to stare at my beautiful, sexy Indian therapist once a week for an hour for a year. I think she used to say words too, but I wasn’t really listening.
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I trained as a therapist, and had therapy myself.
I would say that it ‘can’ be a waste of money, but usually isn’t. It rather depends what you expect from therapy and how much effort you are willing to put into the process.
I know someone with BPD who has been in therapy for 10 years with little progress. She wants a therapist to ‘fix’ her, and she’s not willing to do the work herself. She tried CBT/DBT but didn’t actually make the changes she needed to make. She said it was too hard, but argued that she wasn’t to blame because she had tried. The reality was she didn’t try very hard.
CBT etc, require you to change the way you think. So for example, if you have an obsessive thought you might be asked to dismiss that thought, and meditate instead. It can require a lot of time and effort to make effective changes.
Some other forms of therapy are ‘person-centred’, and ‘psychodynamic’. The former requires you to explore your emotions and relationships, which can make you feel very sad and distressed. If you hide your true feelings and thoughts then it is probably a waste of money. The latter is similar but delves more into hidden meaning and unconscious motivation. This can be very revealing or it can be a complete waste of time, as it includes things like dream analysis which I personally find quite useless, but it does work for some people who find it hard to communicate openly.
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Not for most people and not for me.
Maybe a waste for some ppl tho
I see a therapist once a month, so I can keep my driver’s license. Just a check in. They can do stuff like that, but most of them are wrapped up in either a religion or philosophical materialism around here, so they are useless for a majority of what I experience.
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It’s not a waste if you have a good therapist I’ve had a bad therapist before and that was a waste of money.
I went through 4,5 years of art therapy. it was extremely good for me.
I’ve been to traditional therapy, but art therapy was the right thing for me.
it might be waste of money if you have the wrong therapist or therapy orientation. choosing the right therapist carefully is important. if your chemistry doesn’t meet, it’s waste of money and could be dangerous.
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