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Good therapists don’t schedule constant weekly checkins for folks who don’t need it. I’ve had times when my therapist said check in after 4 months to see if thi

Good therapists don’t schedule constant weekly checkins for folks who don’t need it. I’ve had times when my therapist said check in after 4 months to see if things are fine. Therapy works for people who need a lot of help to barely get to normal. It also helps a lot for people who would typically be classified as just fine, but they still want to become better people. I’m in that category. I hope none of us believe we are already the best we can ever be, there’s always room for improvement. If that’s the case, why wouldn’t you want to continue working with a professional to try and figure out how that can happen?

jdietrich 3y ago
>If that’s the case, why wouldn’t you want to continue working with a professional to try and figure out how that can happen? Because there's essentially no evidence to support it, the cost is very significant and there are very real risks of adverse events. Most developed countries (and America in particular) have a very serious problem of over-medicalisation, over-diagnosis and over-treatment, which greatly inflates healthcare costs for no real benefit. More broadly, what do we mean by "better person"? If we define it in the Californian sense of hyper-optimised self-actualisation, then long-term psychotherapy for clinically healthy people might plausibly deliver on that goal. If we mean a better friend, a better neighbour, a better citizen, then I think you'd be far better off spending an hour and $200 a week doing something towards those aims.
- faeriechangling 3y ago
  There is an immense IMMENSE bias towards the idea that if something is vaguely a mental health intervention it must be helping. So much of mental health practice especially outside of pharmaceuticals is well well outside the realm of evidence based medicine. If a study shows therapy benefits a specific population it given for a specific period of time, it must benefit all people if you go monthly for ten years. The, what is for most people, massive cost of therapy itself in terms of money but also time is treated as if it has no potential for adverse impact. I’ve been trying to hammer for most people the main cause of poor mental health in the developed world is not lack of access to therapy. It’s poverty.
- ramraj07 3y ago
  I’m saying it helps me, you’re saying it cannot help me. I’m wondering who I should believe. If anything there seems to be this visceral reaction by (mostly) men to the idea that they could use any help from outside to become better. Every guy seems to think they’re Ron Swanson with irony being the show was written by the so-called Californians and he gets help from friends anyway. You could argue “that’s friends not a therapist” well maybe I’ve found better advice coming from a professional than an amateur. I’m tired of taking advice and giving advice within my friend group when we ourselves can’t deal with the same advice ourselves.

jdietrich 3y ago

>If that’s the case, why wouldn’t you want to continue working with a professional to try and figure out how that can happen? Because there's essentially no evidence to support it, the cost is very significant and there are very real risks of adverse events. Most developed countries (and America in particular) have a very serious problem of over-medicalisation, over-diagnosis and over-treatment, which greatly inflates healthcare costs for no real benefit. More broadly, what do we mean by "better person"? If we define it in the Californian sense of hyper-optimised self-actualisation, then long-term psychotherapy for clinically healthy people might plausibly deliver on that goal. If we mean a better friend, a better neighbour, a better citizen, then I think you'd be far better off spending an hour and $200 a week doing something towards those aims.

faeriechangling 3y ago
There is an immense IMMENSE bias towards the idea that if something is vaguely a mental health intervention it must be helping. So much of mental health practice especially outside of pharmaceuticals is well well outside the realm of evidence based medicine. If a study shows therapy benefits a specific population it given for a specific period of time, it must benefit all people if you go monthly for ten years. The, what is for most people, massive cost of therapy itself in terms of money but also time is treated as if it has no potential for adverse impact. I’ve been trying to hammer for most people the main cause of poor mental health in the developed world is not lack of access to therapy. It’s poverty.
ramraj07 3y ago
I’m saying it helps me, you’re saying it cannot help me. I’m wondering who I should believe. If anything there seems to be this visceral reaction by (mostly) men to the idea that they could use any help from outside to become better. Every guy seems to think they’re Ron Swanson with irony being the show was written by the so-called Californians and he gets help from friends anyway. You could argue “that’s friends not a therapist” well maybe I’ve found better advice coming from a professional than an amateur. I’m tired of taking advice and giving advice within my friend group when we ourselves can’t deal with the same advice ourselves.