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?
In: Other
The human brain typically learns by trial and error. You touch boiling water, it’s hot, you get burned, now you know. Your body reinforces these lessons through emotions and physical sensations. So maybe in the future you’re nervous or shaking around hot water / drinks.
The human brain isn’t perfect so sometimes it comes to incorrect or unhelpful conclusions. If your brain makes you nervous around all hot liquids, then you might avoid to cooking, bathing, making or buying tea or coffee to avoid feeling anxious. That’s a very limiting bit of trauma that your brain cooked up to protect you.
Ideally, a (cognitive behavioural) therapist will help you engage with trauma to help understand what happened; why you might feel the ways you do; and what a better, more compartmentalized lesson to take away from that experience might be. Not all hot liquids are automatically going to hurt you, you just need to be careful boiling water in a pan on high heat without a lid.
I’m going to disagree with other posters and say it’s HARD! It’s difficult to change how you think, your brain will want to stick to what it already believes. But I have found it helpful in feeling less insecure, and in making fewer generalisations.
You’ve gotta find a therapist who gets you (I was lucky. Some of my friends, though? Many, many tries); You’ve gotta actually tell the therapist your thoughts, all the way down as close to the deepest you can go; and you’ve gotta practice– “It only works if you let it” is pretty trite, but unfortunately perception and reality are pretty close neighbours when it comes to the brain.
Latest Answers