“person I pay to pretend to give a shit about my problems” is such a reductive and unhealthy view of therapy that it should be immediately apparent why therapy has not been helpful and why you’re unable to see why an Autocorrect word regurgitation machine wouldn’t be helpful.
If you have an accountant, is that a person you pay to pretend to give a shit about your taxes? Is an orthopedic surgeon someone you paid to pretend to give a shit about your broken leg? You should be able to recognize why this would be an unhealthy and unhelpful framing device.
10% odds the problem is that you haven’t found the right therapist. 90% odds you’re building up mental barriers that are actively preventing you from engaging with the therapeutic model in a beneficial way. Acknowledging this and working to overcome these barriers was life-changing for me and has resulted in an astonishing level of change in not only how effective talk therapy has been, but also in how I feel and think about myself particularly in regards to my mental and physical health.
There definitely are crappy providers out there but if you’re at the point where you’ve personally bounced off of multiple dozens of providers, it might be time to start thinking about the “why” of the problem and about your actual needs. Like, what do you want out of therapy? What are your goals? Maybe you need a specific therapy method, or maybe talk therapy straight up cannot meet those needs.
The classic model of a sufferer of depression has them numb to or unable to see positive stimuli in their life and both talk therapy and SSRIs can help people recognise and maximize the positive things in life.
There’s a scenario colloquially referred to as “shit life syndrome” in which a sufferer is living in untenable and seemingly unchangeable circumstances, which are impacting their mental health. Therapy is largely ineffective here because it doesn’t affect the material aspects of life. It doesn’t stop abuse, it doesn’t put food on the table, it doesn’t make your workplace more tolerable, etc. There also seems to be a high level of correlation between this type of depression and cPTSD.
Interestingly, SLS-type depression may be a major cause of paradoxical reactions to SSRIs, where symptoms actually worsen. Unlike the traditional model of a depression sufferer, it’s not that SLS-type sufferers unable to see the positive stimuli in their life: they’re just overwhelmingly exposed to negative stimuli. Heightening the ability to engage with stimuli that were being missed instead results in a worsening of symptoms.
If you have an accountant, is that a person you pay to pretend to give a shit about your taxes? Is an orthopedic surgeon someone you paid to pretend to give a shit about your broken leg? You should be able to recognize why this would be an unhealthy and unhelpful framing device.
One big issue with therapy is that it’s difficult to afford unless you have a good job or are on a state-sponsored health plan. The people who are in that welfare cliff are arguably some of the people who need it the most.
And then, once you get it, it’s often restricted to “you will have twelve 45-minute sessions to address the issue”. It really cannot function properly in a transactional, capitalist model. To really have an impact, it needs to tie in with the pace of life, and if this doesn’t take the form of a figure who’s present outside the office/clinic, it’s prohibitively costly and/or slow to try to link the professional up with the on-the-ground reality.
What we now have access to is something that’s on-demand, 24/7, for better or for worse. The provider/client model canmot match this.
If you have an accountant, is that a person you pay to pretend to give a shit about your taxes? Is an orthopedic surgeon someone you paid to pretend to give a shit about your broken leg?
Yes and yes. I’m hiring them because they perform a service in exchange for money. It’s not reasonable to expect them to care on an individual level about my taxes or my broken leg, I just need them to do their job.
You are in fact having someone perform a service in exchange for money. The service is to identify, analyze, and treat a specific, named issue or group of issues which you are facing. But would you walk up to your parent or neighbor and describe either of those professions as someone you paid to pretend to care?
A therapist is supposed to do the same thing: identify, analyze, and treat an issue or issues. So why the fuck would you frame therapy like you’re trying to pay someone to pretend to be your friend? Why is it uniquely normalized to describe just this one profession in this way?
Primarily subjective and patient reported measures (perceived self-esteem, self-reported frequency or severity of events, ability to cope with external pressures) as the physiological measures associated with most of my issues can only be expected to worsen.
I’ve had improvements in terms of things like reduction in negative self-talk, reduction in upsetting intrusive thoughts, and pretty drastic reductions in both frequency and severity of ED events.
“person I pay to pretend to give a shit about my problems” is such a reductive and unhealthy view of therapy that it should be immediately apparent why therapy has not been helpful and why you’re unable to see why an Autocorrect word regurgitation machine wouldn’t be helpful.
If you have an accountant, is that a person you pay to pretend to give a shit about your taxes? Is an orthopedic surgeon someone you paid to pretend to give a shit about your broken leg? You should be able to recognize why this would be an unhealthy and unhelpful framing device.
10% odds the problem is that you haven’t found the right therapist. 90% odds you’re building up mental barriers that are actively preventing you from engaging with the therapeutic model in a beneficial way. Acknowledging this and working to overcome these barriers was life-changing for me and has resulted in an astonishing level of change in not only how effective talk therapy has been, but also in how I feel and think about myself particularly in regards to my mental and physical health.
if therapy was rigorous we wouldn’t have to suffer through dozens of wrong therapists.
There definitely are crappy providers out there but if you’re at the point where you’ve personally bounced off of multiple dozens of providers, it might be time to start thinking about the “why” of the problem and about your actual needs. Like, what do you want out of therapy? What are your goals? Maybe you need a specific therapy method, or maybe talk therapy straight up cannot meet those needs.
probably this. drugs didn’t help either,
The classic model of a sufferer of depression has them numb to or unable to see positive stimuli in their life and both talk therapy and SSRIs can help people recognise and maximize the positive things in life.
There’s a scenario colloquially referred to as “shit life syndrome” in which a sufferer is living in untenable and seemingly unchangeable circumstances, which are impacting their mental health. Therapy is largely ineffective here because it doesn’t affect the material aspects of life. It doesn’t stop abuse, it doesn’t put food on the table, it doesn’t make your workplace more tolerable, etc. There also seems to be a high level of correlation between this type of depression and cPTSD.
Interestingly, SLS-type depression may be a major cause of paradoxical reactions to SSRIs, where symptoms actually worsen. Unlike the traditional model of a depression sufferer, it’s not that SLS-type sufferers unable to see the positive stimuli in their life: they’re just overwhelmingly exposed to negative stimuli. Heightening the ability to engage with stimuli that were being missed instead results in a worsening of symptoms.
I just don’t agree that these are good analogies.
Why? If they are bad analogies, there must be a reason for that to be the case.
One big issue with therapy is that it’s difficult to afford unless you have a good job or are on a state-sponsored health plan. The people who are in that welfare cliff are arguably some of the people who need it the most.
And then, once you get it, it’s often restricted to “you will have twelve 45-minute sessions to address the issue”. It really cannot function properly in a transactional, capitalist model. To really have an impact, it needs to tie in with the pace of life, and if this doesn’t take the form of a figure who’s present outside the office/clinic, it’s prohibitively costly and/or slow to try to link the professional up with the on-the-ground reality.
What we now have access to is something that’s on-demand, 24/7, for better or for worse. The provider/client model canmot match this.
Yes and yes. I’m hiring them because they perform a service in exchange for money. It’s not reasonable to expect them to care on an individual level about my taxes or my broken leg, I just need them to do their job.
You are in fact having someone perform a service in exchange for money. The service is to identify, analyze, and treat a specific, named issue or group of issues which you are facing. But would you walk up to your parent or neighbor and describe either of those professions as someone you paid to pretend to care?
A therapist is supposed to do the same thing: identify, analyze, and treat an issue or issues. So why the fuck would you frame therapy like you’re trying to pay someone to pretend to be your friend? Why is it uniquely normalized to describe just this one profession in this way?
What are your outcome measures for therapy, personally?
Primarily subjective and patient reported measures (perceived self-esteem, self-reported frequency or severity of events, ability to cope with external pressures) as the physiological measures associated with most of my issues can only be expected to worsen.
I’ve had improvements in terms of things like reduction in negative self-talk, reduction in upsetting intrusive thoughts, and pretty drastic reductions in both frequency and severity of ED events.