A few questions concerning seeing a therapist...

[justaglimmer]

So after much debate, I've decided to give therapy a try (along with other things) to try and tackle what may be a mild form of depression. I have my very first therapy appointment in a few days and I just have a few questions first that maybe some of you can help me out with.

 

First (and I know this is the most common question and can vary), did you find it was honestly worth it? It is very expensive and I'm already stressing about that factor alone.

 

Second, because it is very expensive, I was thinking about only going to therapy once or twice a month until my situation improves. Could these limited sessions still be beneficial or is it probably a waste of time unless I can go at least once or twice a week? How many times per month or week did/do you see your therapist?

 

Like I said, I don't think I'm in "extreme" depression but rather been through a lot and could maybe use a helping hand with processing it all.

[Guitarguy_82]

I've been in counseling before and honestly it didn't help much with the overall outcome of what I was going through. Granted in my particular situation I wasn't very good about following advice at the time (when I was younger) and feel like the person I was talking to was just agreeing with whatever I said...

 

Now that being said, you might have a completely different experience. It all depends on how comfortable you are with opening up and sharing what you feel the big issues are with the person in the room.

 

My question to you though is this: have you already talked with family and friends about your situation? That was my first method of "therapy" after dealing with a recent BU (which I am still going through and now on anti-depressants for), but they will only give you so much perspective and advice before they flat out get tired of hearing about it. At one point I had talked so much to my sister that she actually suggested that I go see a professional so that a neutral party could better guide my conversations and thoughts. Family and friends will support you but they can only do so much.

 

As far as costs go...do you have medical insurance? Most should cover mental health visits to some degree...so that could be an option if it is available. If you are in school at all (which is where I had my counseling) they should offer a free session as long as you are enrolled.

 

My suggestion is to explore your options and if you feel like you need a fresh perspective on things, then give therapy a shot. Take everything with a grain of salt and most importantly be honest with yourself.

 

Also, speak with your doctor about any medications you might take to help with depression. I was hesitant at first and still am...but nothing else was working and so I decided that I should at least give it a shot. I'm on day 1 of this medicine (celexa) and I feel "okay"...which is a heck of a lot better than I've been in the past few weeks.

 

Best of luck!

[Di84]

Hey. last year I decided to seek therapy because I was tackling my first depression ever. I wouldn't say it was mild but it wasn't severe either. The first psychologist I saw was proven to be absolutely useless in helping me. She was the type of psych that didn't give me much input and would just say "how does that make you feel"? rather than really helping me and when the hour was up, she would just end our session. I then went to see my GP and she referred me to another psychologist that was a MILLION times better. I was seeing this woman about once a month, however I probably should have been seeing her twice a month. I do really believe that seeing a psychologist helps you.. but you really need to find the right one for you. Don't forget; money spent on your well being is never a waste of money. If you cannot afford so much therap and you do not have it covered at work, then only see your psych once a month and take it from there. You will know whether or not you need more. But really, just give it a try and see how you feel about it. So after a year of seeing this psychologist (a lot less now..maybe once every 4 months) I do believe she was a great help but only because I wanted to help myself too - if i didn't want to help myself, she would have been useless too. HOpe this helps.

[abitbroken]

I think that you really need to go for a couple sessions in a row to get used to the process and to get you started, then you can go down to twice a month. You won't feel you are starting over and by the time you twice a month, the therapist will know enough about your situation. Some therapists are psychologists and some are psychotherapists or psychiatrists that have a medical degree who can dispense medicine or refer you to other physicians.

 

I think that talk therapy helps because you are verbalizing things to an impartial party - sometimes by doing that creates breakthroughs, but you are talking to a person with advance training in these issues taht can give you really good pointers on things that work.

 

I recommend that you also in tandem with this see a nutritionist. Some minor forms for depression can be benefitted greatly by tweaking your diet. I also recommend that if you wind down with the therapist that you also seek out support groups or other resources also.

 

A therapist might also direct you to other reading material as well.

 

For me, therapy helped - I was at a loss at what really to do to change things at the time.

 

I do see benefit of continuing with the same therapist. I was under the impression that because i didn't want to do therapy i knew all about my condition and situation. and it wasn't a good fit. Boy, I was kidding myself.

 

Therapy does not work for people who don't want help though, or think that they know everything or think therapists are using "techniques" because you won't get far. It is what you make of it and if you go in with a fresh mind you can see some results.

[justaglimmer]

Thanks everyone, your input is much appreciated and helpful. I'll keep my appointment and see what I think about it, and go from there.

[Marcopolo]

My two cents is that it depends. Depends on how you and your therapist connect.

About the cost? Investing in your mental health is a good thing - probably a better investment than most places we put our money. Well I'll speak for myself. Better than most of where I put my money.

And I've had very positive experiences with counseling.

I would recommend what abitbroken said and put in regular sessions before tapering down.

 

Glad you reached out to ask.

 

m

[Fun Boater 1]

I would exhaust all other options - friends, family, clergy...etc before falling into the therapy trap. I've never been, but I know a few people who have, and they haven't had good experiences. I have a good buddy of mine with some mental illness such as depression and various phobias. He's been in counseling with a psyche for 20 years - he doesn't get any "better". In my opinion it's highly over priced and geared towards keeping you coming back for an indefinate time period. Unless you have had some kind of super serious trauma in your life that might be causing the "mild depression", I would do whatever it takes to try and get through it on your own and with free resources before submitting to the head shrinker.

[Circe]

Psychology is just like any other profession - there will be excellent practitioners, good practitioners, average practitioners and woefully bad ones. With a good practitioner it can absolutely help (and certainly much more than seeing a friend/priest/family). With the wrong one - you are just wasting money.

 

It's usually better to have at least one session a week but once a month can be ok if your psych sets you "homework" and you do it conscientiously.

 

No offence, but situations like the poster above's friend should not happen. You'd hope that the "client" in this situation would have more sense than to continue to see someone for 20 years with no benefit to them instead of shopping around. Even if we can say the client is the "vulnerable party" here and thus not responsible for having some common sense - it's totally unethical on the part of the practitioner.

[Gracelove]

Hey There!

 

I think therapy can be really worth it. Sadly, there are good therapists, and really bad therapists, naturally they all cost money. I think you'll really feel a connection with a good therapist, I don't know, you can kind of just tell that they are interested in helping you solve your problems., or people in general.

 

I had one therapist that wasn't that good. She was sweet I liked her, but I felt like our sessions were kind of like entertainment hour for her. She rarely gave much feed back aside from the Oooos and ahhs. LOL! It was like she was watching television or something. She rarely said much at all. With her, I actually thought, "She must love her job! It's such an easy check. She just comes, listens to stories, gets paid, and goes home". Oh, she also didn't give a whole hour either, sometimes she'd cut it down to 50 or 55 minutes.

 

Here's the thing, I think that you should go with your initial feeling about the person. Once you continue seeing a not-so-great therapist, you may not want to leave, just because you feel uncomfortable doing soon. You can become attached to therapists because they know things about you know one else knows.

 

Oh, another thing, I think it's good if a therapist takes notes. Maybe not in all cases, but that's a good sign I think. You should also notice some improvement. After you have a session you should feel sooooo much better.

 

Therapists can guide you, and give you validation. You can run situations by them and get their perspective. It's like having a personal consultant.

 

It's really wonderful. Let me tell you, if I had a lot of money I might go to therapy again. It's such a release. You can say anything, and it's wonderful to get advice from a professional.

 

If you can afford it, I say, go for it!

[blueplanet22]

I really like and benefited from counselling at the end of 2010 beginning of 2011. With depression due to being single for a long time and having a very horrid childhood/teenage years.

 

I can honestly say it was great, you might not see benefit for a number of weeks but it has this way of getting you to view things in a different way and also digging deep and realising why we are how we are about certain things and then because they have been bought back up, helps you deal with them or get your anger/upset/frustration out and again think in a different manner going forward {donno if that makes sense?}

 

I also liked the fact of being able to talk about anything or anybody without fear of judgement or retribution. So you really can vent or get to the bottom of things.

[justaglimmer]

Thank you all for your help! You've given me a lot to consider and you've all been very helpful.

[Never2Late]

justaglimmer, I can't PM you 'cause your Inbox is full.

Delete some messages, please.