DLers who went to therapy, what type of therapy helped you the most?

I tried CBT and then EMDR to deal with low self esteem due to bullying...and also political stress.

CBT was ok, I guess. It treats the symptoms instead of the cause. Last week, I tried Chat GPT, and the robot told me everything the therapist had said.

Next I tried EMDR. I have read the research, and I believe it works for some people. I seem to be resistant though. However, I guess it felt good to finally talk about some of that stuff for the first time.

Now, I use all my therapy sessions to complain about politics.

Yeah, evidence on EMDR is a bit of a wash. It seems to function like exposure therapy, so you don't really need the whole eye setup. Same goes for EFT, incidentally.

I did exposure therapy on myself for phobias, and still do for the smallest discomfort. It's helped with overwhelming emotions, but not with behavioural patterns or my diffuse anxiety, the latter of which I cured with GABA. In other words, my life's as shit as it's always been and I keep repeating the same mistakes, I just feel super at peace with it all.

Parts based hypnotherapy (Ego State Therapy, somewhat similar to Internal Family Systems therapy), and Ideal Parent Figure guided meditation based attachment and trauma repair. I had narcissistic abuse growing up from my dad, resulting in attachment issues and unresolved trauma. I always liked my other more "orthodox" talk therapists, but these two lesser known approaches led to big changes in a way that pure talk therapy never really did.

I made a lot of great strides with CBT. I've always been a very logical person, so it was probably helpful for me that my form of therapy had a huge component of "let's challenge those assumptions." As for therapist connection -- yes, it helped a lot that I chose a male therapist, because I *disliked* men. The dislike for men came in large part from my upbringing where the males in my family often gave me humiliation instead of support. My therapist was extremely intelligent and compassionate, and I exited therapy pretty much getting over my dislike of men.

Talk therapy with a M.D. psychiatrist simply because insurance never questions it or limits its for some reason. So the advantage is access and continuity. I think more active or directive therapy may be better than psychiatry. But having a shrink to consult like one also has a generalist is good mental health care. Over the years my current shrink has given lots of medicines that have been helpful. I don't get addicted to them so different molecules can help when necessary. Better living through chemistry.

A lobotomy. It didn't work out so well.

It didn't help, OP. We're all still on here.

I see R7 thanks

This IS the therapy, OP!

I tried group therapy and individual therapy. Nothing was effective because I simply wasn't honest. I want to try some type of online group therapy. I think I could be honest with people I don't have to look at or be afraid I'll meet in real life.

30 years of talk therapy here with 3 different therapists. Not sure it did much for me. Not one of them recognized my Bipolar disorder so that’s a huge bummer.

Psychedelics helped me but they're not for everyone.

Talk. I recalled early on that when my appointment started and my therapist came out of her office to get me, I’d walk in, she’d shut me he door behind us or I’d look at her for a prompt I could shut it behind us, and then we’d sit down. Then, the door was eventually left open because she stopped closing it herself. I mentioned this one visit finally, and she answered: “It’s your therapy. It’s ok for you to can close it if you’d like, you don’t need my permission.” Small gesture and phrase—really had a big impression on me being actually in control of the reason I’d sought out therapy. It meant that I was ultimately in control of my life, and how the therapy would transform me.

I've had two longterm stints in therapy, one around 2000 (when I was turning 30) and one that ran from around 2015 to 2018 or so.

Both were probably CBT based, but honestly, some of it was just having a person to talk to. I had a breakthrough with both - especially the second, who was a very sweet and patient guy and got me to break down some of my defenses and establish trust with my partner.

I haven't gone back since because unfortunately I now live in an area with a relative shortage of therapists, and I really don't want to do an online only relationship with a therapist, but I think it's useful.

CBT was somewhat helpful for what I was dealing with at the time.

These days, I’m in psychodynamic talk therapy. After a few years of my therapist never giving me direct answers to anything, (while asking me lots of questions about my feelings) I now spend parts of each session working through my own problems and answering my own questions which is exactly what he was trying to get me to do from the start.

…which I have to admit is kind of impressive. Annoying. But impressive.

Therapy is not accepted in my culture.

Never have been. Pets are better.

R16 WASP?

DBT did wonders for me. I was extremely emotionally dysregulated and paranoid. In conjunction with antidepressants, it has changed my once sullen, suspicious, negative outlook on life.

Sex therapy worked best for me. Particularly of the BBC variety.

An old guy, semi-retired, who knew a lot about psych meds. He tried most of them on me before settling on a combo that worked.

Talk never moved the needle. Drugs did.

Heroin is not the answer.

Talk therapy helped me when I was talking to non-m.d. counselors, one an m.s.w., the other some sort of state licensed counselor. The psychiatrist was good for medications. I suffer from depression and I need chemical help. Fuck RFK Jr. But my counselors were helpful. One noticed correlations between my behavior and my decsriptions of family members. Some of her research assignments helped me figure out some of my habits and also got me in touch with family members who wanted to help me. Depression is our family disease, multiple suicides and alcoholics who self treated with drink.

Standard therapy prescription:

Take a walk or exercise.

Get a dog/cat/pet.

Volunteer.

Find a church.

Join a support group.

Find a hobby/pursue a hobby you dropped/take a class associated with said hobby.

Do breathing exercises.

This is the standard prescription. Unfortunately these suggestions can't help everyone especially if you suffer from crippling depression and the world is consequently trampling all over you. Sometimes you just need meds to turn the situation around.

Fuck a church

Whos voice do u hear? When youre bearating yourself, whos language and turn of phrase does it belong to? I always assumed I heard myself, but i dont speak that way to people. I guess its my mothers, societys, bullys, God; but mostly my mothers. We were never what she wanted us to be so we were on quicksand..not exactly stable ground.

I can see R26’s dirty pillows!

I thought R16 was Beth Jarrett, R18.