How does therapy help mental health issues or mental illness?

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How does talking to a professional about your problems help you in any way? I’ve been in and out of therapy for years and I simply don’t find any use in it. I just tell the therapist about my emotions and my life, they try to be understanding and offer some very basic advice I already knew about. Why is therapy often recommended more than medication and thought of as a better solution when it’s literally just normal discussion that can’t change brain chemistry?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

You need a better therapist. A good therapist will respectfully challenge you and your ideas. They will not help you accept that you are good or good enough as you are, they will teach you that you can be better than you currently are, that you can improve and be a better version of yourself, slowly, day by day.

Sometimes simply getting things off your chest and coming to terms with the reality of your life actually is progress. Some people just need that outlet, but it should never stop there. You should have/make definable goals with your therapist, much like a psychiatrist will have definable goals as to what should be achieved through medication (such as the stabilisation of brain chemistry).

It is like exercise with a personal trainer. You literally will only get out what you put in, and a good personal trainer or therapist will guide you and help you get to where you want to be, and further, faster.

If you do not challenge yourself or put the effort in or set goals, you will get a proportional amount of benefit.

Think of it as building your mental traits as you would build fitness, with your therapist akin to a personal trainer. The medications are like nutrition, or finding an optimal hormone level. There are good and bad therapists and personal trainers. At the end of the day it absolutely all comes down to you, what you want out of it, and if you are willing to try

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