Hello,
Lately I have been overwhelmed with my schedule, finances and social life. I am always trying to improve my mental health. With all of this stress I am considering therapy, mainly for someone to talk, to process all my thoughts, and maybe help me develop ideas or come up with strategies to cope better. I have ADHD, Autism, and some other things if that helps anyone relate.
I have three main questions:
Has therapy helped you enough to be worth the time?
Is it very difficult to find a therapist you mesh with?
How do I find a therapist? From a doctor’s referral? Online service? Through insurance? (I live in the United States.)
Any experience or advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated!
Edit: I just wanted to thank everyone for your help and support! I hope everyone is doing well and has seen positive changes. And I hope all these replies help other people besides myself. I’m feeling more positive and hopeful toward finding the right therapist. Your kindness is appreciated!
Can only answer your firts question as I do not live in the USA. I would compare therapy to chiropractic. You suffer everyday from a pain that prevents you from living your life to it’s fullest, being a knee pain, back ache or anxiety, ocd, depression… Sometimes you only need a short series of sessions to feel better, sometimes you have to exercise at home to reinforce what you’ve done with your therapist and sometimes you need to see them twice a week for a longer period of time because the suffering is unbearable. I would not say that you find definite answers to your pain because it is in you and most certainly will never disappear completely. I see mental suffering as a condition that is the result of hereditary traits and events in your life, exactly like having bad joints or fragile bones. Good luck out there and take care of yourself.
Thanks for that analogy. That really helps me visualize how the process might look. I’ve gone to physical therapy and now I’m imagining that is will become easier over time to maintain any traction gained at the start of therapy, if that makes sense.