to think therapy/counselling isn't always the answer to MH conditions?

[sittinonthetopofthebay]

Two family members have tried it and have had no joy, as have I, years ago now thankfully.

Yet it is often bandied about as the one definitive answer to all MH problems: I am not being unreasonable, or am I, in thinking this is misleading and inappropriate?

Well it all depends on the actual therapy itself and it's approach I think and I don't think it gets bandied about as the solution to all MH problems.

Also I think you really have to be open to it
I think some people think talking therapy is a load of shit

It depends on the person, the condition, the circumstances, the professional delivering the therapy, the tools they use etc etc

It's also not an overnight cure either, depending on what mental illness you mean OP medication may need to be involved to. Sometimes I think some people can have an unrealistic expectation of therapy and if they don't feel better quickly enough blame the therapy.

I find it's most frequently bandied around by people who've never suffered from a mental illness or only a mild one.

I hate it because it assumes that the mental illness is entirely rooted in ways of thinking, when for many people, especially the quite severely ill, it's based in brain chemistry and no amount of talking therapy will make a difference to that.

I think it can be useful for mild mental illness but I think often it's offered to people for whom it can be very little more than an ineffective sticking plaster without other intervention particularly drug therapy.

Yep you're right about that Corus!

It is not the definitive treatment but neither is a pharmaceutical one. Either one as the only one is a very bad idea.

Well this is at least in part the problem I have - that when it isn't effective, it is deemed to be "your fault" for "not engaging" or whatever. I really did "try" (so to speak) but after three months just had to conclude it was making no difference and was exacerbating my depression to a large extent.

I was stuck on ADs for years.

It was only when I got proper therapy from a consultant clinical psychologist that I actually made any progress with my issues and I'm now medication free.

It was the thing that made all the difference for me!

Interestingly Weegie, the opposite was true for me: counselling made no difference, medication had me sorted within weeks.

I am not saying "counselling never works" but I do think the danger is that it is seen as something of a one size fits all answer, infinitely preferable to medication or other possibilities and never counter-productive. I don't think any of these beliefs are true.

I think the right sort of therapy can be very beneficial to anyone with a MH problem- bar possibly schizophrenia.

I've done various courses and learnt all sorts of coping skills and mood management techniques, plus stuff about recognizing triggers and avoid conflict in personal relationships. All very useful

Well you say that sitting but 3 months isn't long and I felt a lot worse before I felt better as a lot of buried feelings had to come out first!

It hasn't cured me but I feel much much better and am able to cope with episodes and not be a bad as I once was when one happens.

It isn't long, but twice a week and at £40 a pop, it was long enough.

Does your GP not offer any talking therapies via a CPN?

I don't need it now. I'm fine

Yes - if you're prepared to wait for 6 months and only need 6 sessions, then NHS help is available!

Not heard great things about nhs counselling in our area, but having read 'bad pharma' i am sceptical of the drug treatments too

That's a shame it's like that in your area. I didn't have to wait anything like 6 months and was free to say when I'd had enough. That NHS postcode lottery again

why not schizophrenia saucyjack? I thought increasingly people were saying cognitive type therapies were proving helpful, in fact I always thought CBT started out as a treatment for schizophrenia because of the thought disorder thing

I think the 'right' therapist at the 'right' time can work wonders. Unfortunately I encountered a counsellor many years ago now who decided the best way to counsel me would be to have a sand tray and some plastic animals and pretend that each member of my family was an animal then role play with them, I was about 21 years old at the time and found it all ridculous so stopped going.

of course therapy isn't always the answer. Who thinks it is?

I think most of the time it is the answer

But I would say that as a therapist

If you have a severe illness then you need to combine it with drug therapy

The biggest problem is the time limited nature of therapy and the nhs 'fix' - sometimes with ingrained issues it takes years.
No one wants to hear that of course

But if you've been abused as a child, gone onto make poor choices as an adult, brought up a load of kids with those poor choices, and you're now 50 plus then frankly 12 weeks of hand holding and soothing noises isn't going to cut it.

lots of people do think it is the answer

even people who should know better, but more worryingly there is a dearth of information about the adverse effects of therapy - if it has the power to heal then it has the power to harm, obviously, otherwise it would be completely inert but unlike with drug treatments there doesn't seem to be a co-ordinated effort to collect such information about talking treatments yet

I've had pretty poor results from therapy. I've tried many different types, from counselling, CBT, CAT and 2 years of intensive, 3-times-a-week psychotherapy. People often assume that if the therapy hasn't worked, it's because it's been quick-fix and longer term therapy is what's needed, so I committed to that for 2 years but I just found no real connection with the therapist or that I gained much insight. I definitely felt open to it and worked very hard during the sessions.

The things that I've found helped most were actually an increase in income (initially through qualifying for DLA, which allowed me to pay tuition fees to return to education), a diagnosis of a condition that had affected my anxiety but wasn't MH-related, and meeting a wonderful DP. I think if the NHS had got it right about my diagnosis in the first place, and if I'd been able to get the right financial support, then my MH issues would never have got so bad.

its working for me.