r/therapy

I have to preface this by saying that I don't believe in therapy, or at least, not for myself. Maybe it works for normal people who have the will, but I lack literally everything that would make it work...

No amount of talking would help my terrible impulse control or my total lack of motivation. We could frame it in a hundred different ways (tried it, actually), I'd still blow all my money on food I don't need, and would never do anything with my life (sometimes to the point that I would struggle with basic executive function, like cleaning my room), and such...

I honestly believe that therapy is just a glorified form of "talking to a friend", or something like that, and it wouldn't help people like me, the really, fundamentally broken ones. I even admit that I sometimes think it's just a glorified pseudoscience.

I don't even know what I wanted to say with my post... Maybe that therapy is stupid and a total waste of time/money? Lol. Yeah, probably that.

and he told me wanting to get treatment for my ocd was a cop out and that my other reasons were “stupid.” he also said it was impulsive and he wouldn’t let me stop therapy then and that i had to do two more sessions. i feel so confused because we’ve worked together for 3 years and i feel like every time i’ve tried to move on to a different therapist he convinces me not to.

I’ve been with this therapist for about four months now and her schedule just seems to be full all the time. She will make time for me but it’s usually at the end of the day and she is often pretty tired to the point where she seems to be checked out mentally during our session. Our last session was at 6PM and her kid was in the background banging on the door.

I want to see a new therapist that has more open availability but don’t really want to talk about myself all over again. How can I “break up” with my therapist because of the scheduling conflict and ask her to share her notes with the new therapist? Would it be rude? She’s good but just seems overwhelmed.

I have been with my psychologist for 2 years now and I’ve been working through some pretty heavy things from my past. My therapist isn’t very big on chatting prior to getting into the hard stuff or “putting in the work” - for example updates on my life or just random little things. He will usually tolerate small chat for about 5 to 10 minutes before wanting to get into the hard stuff.

Is this normal? Also, I’m worried that when I get to a point of not needing therapy anymore (but feeling like I would benefit from maintenance therapy every once in a while) he won’t want to see me because I wouldn’t necessarily have a huge problem that needed fixed. Are some therapists only for the “hard stuff” and not maintenance?

I don’t know what to do in life to keep going, I’m giving up slowly, help it’s so hard

I am fat and depressed, I know that. But I don't want to go to therapy, will losing weight actually help? Since I can't find any solid evidence, I haven't been able to convince myself enough. Will it actually genuinely help? Just weightloss, no therapy?

I had a wonderful experience working with a fantastic therapist for several years, but she and I lost touch – I was in a very unhealthy relationship at the time and relocated.

I have a fantastic relationship with my psychiatrist who has essentially acted as my therapist for about four years now, however, he’s not local to me, and he’s expressed that it would be good for me build on my local/accessible support system.

I completely agree, and it would also be financially very helpful as I pay out-of-pocket to speak to my psychiatrist and he’s pricey… But extremely worth it.

Over the past few weeks I’ve contacted number of therapists and we’ve had introductory calls. I’ve had several of them, tell me – in an extremely polite and considerate way – that I may be someone who deals with issues which go beyond their “scope”… in essence they’ve said they’re not equipped to handle the gravity of what I struggle with.

I’ve not been offended by this at all, and I actually had an extremely wonderful conversation with one of the therapists I spoke to and was so grateful to her for hearing me out, for her compassion, and for her honesty with respect to her feeling as though she may not be the right fit for me.

I am somewhat at a loss at this point. I’m not sure if maybe I’m presenting myself inaccurately, or if I truly do just need to work with someone very specialized.

I really do want to find someone who’s a good fit, but I’m somewhat at a loss at this point.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated…

two of the therapists in my life, my sister and my ex are extremely avoidant. My ex was basically my therapist for the last year or so. she would love bomb me and would make me feel seen and heard and then ghost me for a week plus and I would take that shit. our last conversation she had plans to work in my industry, design some artwork for me and talked about our future (we saw each other over a year). That was a few months ago and now she’s completely ghosted me. I’ve tried reaching out many times and I know she’s around. The worst abandonment feeling of my life she didn’t even give me any reason why she left.

I’ve mostly recovered from that trauma but I realized that therapists are really good at dissociating the many emotional conversations and they may do that in their personal lives as well. my current therapist seems very secure attachment but it wouldn’t shock me if she were avoidant as well. Just curious to see if other therapists are this way. most avoidants would never admit they are

I've been wanting to vent or get advice from a therapist but i don't have the money and i don't want to ask my parents if they could help me with this what should i do.

I am struggling mentally and I really need a therapist but I’m having great difficulty even trying to schedule an appointment with one. I’ve used psychology today for a list of therapist but every single one that I reached out to can’t work with my schedule. For reference I work 7:30 AM -3:30 PM and wanted literally any time that won’t be during my work hours but no therapist has been able to accommodate that. I’m on the east coast, so can I schedule an appointment with a therapist on the west coast so the time zone could work in my favor? Do I just keep looking for more therapist? Do I use another site? I’m just tired of not even being able to schedule an appointment and I feel like I’m really struggling to get to starting to address my issues. I’m trying everything I can but I feel like there’s no point since I keep running into stupid obstacles that just keep looking like signs for me to give up. I don’t know what else to try.

Context: My father has an issue thinking there’s people out to get him. It’s gone this way for many years and it’s gone so far he has had many car accidents and very violent encounters with regular ass people.

The story he tells are very believable. People speeding past him on purpose, he sees the same cars every day following him, he recognizes the same people in his own restauraunt. It’s the worst when there’s car involved, he thinks people are lining up, synchronously blocking him in, and he does extremely dangerous manuevers as a reacting measure. I have been in the car with him many many times and we are very close to dying sometimes lol.

I’m a little bit older now (19M) and it’s only gotten worse. He can’t sleep, he lost his job recently, and he still has no idea why people are after him every day of his life. The worst part is he surrounds himself with people who feed into it, drives around with his “friends” that just blindly goes on his side.

I tried stepping into his shoes fo r these past few months and I felt similarly to how he felt, that gang stalking effect. I had to mentally click first how I seen it, for example two cars last night left with me as I got off work, but I know (obviously) that these guys are not actually following me or anything, but I can see how easily it fools someone like my dad.

The most strangest thing is that my dad is well spoken. He’s smart and he is unique. He does kind of hate people in general (idk if it’s related to gang stalking) but he’s honestly good hearted. He does have criminal background. But he aint CIA track down level, he’s been clean for many years. He thought maybe all these things are happening to him because he did something to someone a long time ago.

Just wanted to ask, because this post is very personal, if you were in my shoes, what would you guys do?

I don’t really know how to explain this properly, but for the past several months I’ve been feeling extremely disconnected from myself and it’s starting to scare me.

It’s not that I don’t know what reality is or anything like that. I know where I am, what people are saying, what’s happening around me. But sometimes in the middle of conversations I suddenly go completely blank. I’ll be staring at the other person and suddenly forget what I was saying, what word I was looking for, or even feel mentally absent for a few seconds.

And when I’m alone, it gets worse.

Sometimes I feel deeply disconnected from my own body, like my skin, skull, and body all feel separate from “me.” The only way I can explain it is that it sometimes feels like I’m observing myself from outside of myself, like third-person perspective almost. I know I’m physically here, I know I’m not hallucinating or anything, but internally it feels terrifying and strange.

I started searching symptoms online and ended up reading about dissociation/depersonalization and things like that, but honestly I don’t know what’s actually happening to me.

I can’t really afford therapy right now and I don’t even know how to explain this to people around me without sounding crazy or dramatic. I’ve been trying so hard to hold onto things that make me feel alive or connected, but lately nothing feels fully real or emotionally grounding.

I also spend a lot of time reading sad poetry, depressive literature, isolating myself emotionally, overthinking relationships, and living inside my own head constantly. I know that probably isn’t helping either.

I just genuinely want to know if anyone else has experienced something like this before. Does this sound like dissociation/depersonalization? Did anything help you feel normal again?

Because honestly I’m scared and exhausted from feeling this disconnected from myself all the time.

i’m unsure if this is the right community or whatever to put this in, but I think it’ll be what gets me the most help.
i’m 16 years old, and i’ve been having thoughts of suicide since i was around 10. I started self harming when i was 12, and then quit. my parents caught me, and then did nothing about it and offered me no support.
i’ve never actually been about to go through with killing myself, but it’s all i ever think about and it drives me crazy. i’m so tired.
my mum is argumentative and if i tell her she’ll spin it into her being ‘the worst mother in the world’, or she’ll just get mad, or she’ll say it’s teenage hormones, her favourite phrase. my dad is an incompetent stoner who laughs when i express any kind of issue, so i don’t go to him about much.
i feel so hopeless. i text a helpline at least once a month just to get my thoughts out because i don’t want to burden the people i love with my issues and make them worry.
i don’t know what to do anymore. i’m so exhausted. every day is just a fight with my own mind. i’m either comparing myself to everyone around me, or i’m convincing myself that no one likes me, or i’m thinking about how i’d go about killing myself in different ways.
i know id never do anything because the thought of actually being dead and gone sends me spiralling into a panic attack. i’m a coward. i’ve been clean from self harm for like 3 years aswell so im good at ignoring it when it rears its ugly head. i’m not gonna harm myself or anyone else.
advice is greatly appreciated and needed.

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For some context, I was in a relationship with a girl with a Indian family. We dated for a couple of months long distance. The relationship was really well until her father found out and made the family not talk to her because her dating me. It ended with her father coming to Australia and picking her up and taking her back to India. I have never heard from her since. Since last year, I have had dreams about her, but not often, i cried like 15 times over the situation last year .The thought of the situation and our last phone call together dose make me break down at the thought. Yk our last words together. The fact we were forcefully separated. All that stuff. I posted on another sub how I was in a similar relationship with another girl and how i broke up with her because I was scared the same situation might happen. 80 % of the comments were "dude you need therapy." Is this just people saying whatever just for the sake of it, or do I actually need therapy for the situation? As I said the thought of my last words to her and how the phone conversation went dose make me almost break down everytime.

I'm 19 and I'm in a bunch of issues. I can't really find anyone to vent to, so I've just been looking around reddit for people who are free to listen and give me some advice if possible.

Ye so this is my first time ever going therapy. I’m scared and nervous and even wondering should I just not go. I’ve not got anything serious going on I just get a lot of anxiety, mood swings, low confidence and so on. I’m not sure what I’m trying to achieve other than to not have any of the above I do t even know what to say or start talking about or tbh I do t even see how this is going to help. Don’t get me wrong I’m looking forward to it at the same time but I’m worried it won’t work. Also one question this therapist said she doesn’t provide advice or diagnosis or anything seems more like she just helps me explore my emotions. I’m just not sure how that’ll help as I’m already somewhat aware of what causes my anxiety or low confidence. But ye if anyone can enlighten me to what it is like that would be great.
Thanks

Curious why people choose not to see a therapist. Whether it’s cost, lack of trust, too busy, not knowing where to start, etc. What are your reasons?

Hi! I finally gained the courage to seek therapy, and I'm starting with an online therapy app. I noticed that they have a 'text therapy' option, and this sounds off to me.

of course It would be much more comfortable for me to text my therapist for an hour instead of doing a video call, as I'm nervous about my stuttering. But how would that be for a therapist? Won't this make it harder for them to do their job since they can't see their client ? would you recommend it to me as a therapist ?

and if someone tried this type of therapy, how did it work for you?

// english isn't my first language, so sorry if anything is not clear .