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What else did the professional tell you that helped? I'd rather just read a blogpost about it than pay per hour :)

by bemmu 16y ago

fooandbarify 16y ago
I am obviously not mitsche, but this is my experience: I think it obviously depends on people's personal situations and circumstance. Anxiety in particular often presents in an almost paralyzing manner - being accountable to a therapist in that case is extremely valuable. It's also easy to dismiss certain ideas when reading them that a real live therapist won't let you ignore so easily - for example, I learned breathing and focus exercises that I would have felt silly trying if it weren't for my therapist. Possibly most importantly, a good therapist will understand your condition better than you do, and advise you accordingly. Not all anxiety disorders have the same cause or the same symptoms. As far as payment goes, there are often cheap or free resources for therapy, especially for university students. For example, I made use of a free clinic run by my school's psychology department, which is open to the public.
mitsche 16y ago
What fooandbarify said. Especially: a therapist holds you accountable. He or she will try to keep you focused on things that are unpleasant to keep working on, which is necessary in order to overcome a problematic behavioral pattern, whereas without supervision you might waste a lot of time trying to find shortcuts or esoteric solutions that make you feel good about yourself for some time but ultimately fail to solve your problems (productivity pr0n, anyone?). And keep in mind that a therapist is also -- to some extent -- an analyst. So he or she might expose things you wouldn't have been able to figure out yourself, either because you're not professionally trained, or because you're part of the problem. And sorry, there's no such thing as therapy by proxy. It's a very interactive thing.

What else did the professional tell you that helped? I'd rather just read a blogpost about it than pay per hour :)

by bemmu 16y ago

What else did the professional tell you that helped? I'd rather just read a blogpost about it than pay per hour :)

I am obviously not mitsche, but this is my experience: I think it obviously depends on people's personal situations and circumstance. Anxiety in particular often presents in an almost paralyzing manner - being accountable to a therapist in that case is extremely valuable. It's also easy to dismiss certain ideas when reading them that a real live therapist won't let you ignore so easily - for example, I learned breathing and focus exercises that I would have felt silly trying if it weren't for my therapist. Possibly most importantly, a good therapist will understand your condition better than you do, and advise you accordingly. Not all anxiety disorders have the same cause or the same symptoms. As far as payment goes, there are often cheap or free resources for therapy, especially for university students. For example, I made use of a free clinic run by my school's psychology department, which is open to the public.

mitsche 16y ago

What fooandbarify said. Especially: a therapist holds you accountable. He or she will try to keep you focused on things that are unpleasant to keep working on, which is necessary in order to overcome a problematic behavioral pattern, whereas without supervision you might waste a lot of time trying to find shortcuts or esoteric solutions that make you feel good about yourself for some time but ultimately fail to solve your problems (productivity pr0n, anyone?). And keep in mind that a therapist is also -- to some extent -- an analyst. So he or she might expose things you wouldn't have been able to figure out yourself, either because you're not professionally trained, or because you're part of the problem. And sorry, there's no such thing as therapy by proxy. It's a very interactive thing.