It really depends why you're going to therapy. For myself, I went into it with very specific goals. I wanted to learn how to properly manage bipolar disorder. T

It really depends why you're going to therapy. For myself, I went into it with very specific goals. I wanted to learn how to properly manage bipolar disorder. That's not something any of my friends could have helped with. None of them had heard of cognitive behavioral therapy before. (And I had done a half-assed job of reinventing the concept.) For me, therapy was very similar to private tutoring sessions. I did almost all of the work. Took about a year to nail down all of the corners. Haven't had to go back since. In an ideal world, therapists should be no different from personal trainers. No one really questions having someone help you learn how to exercise. Learning how to handle your mental hardware should be the same way. Granted, we're living in a Sci-Fi dystopia. We're have a lot less problems if we didn't. Therapy is a very poor replacement for having a good social support system. But for some things, it's a resource your usual support system is unlikely to have.