To think that people overuse therapy as a solution for every problem?

[SnugOtter]

It feels like therapy is recommended for every small issue - are we too quick to turn to it?

Agree. My brother and his friends all love therapy and recommend it for any little thing. If I’m feeling stressed in work, talking to an expensive a stranger about my childhood is not likely to help.

I didn't say it was a cure. But it certainly helps some people to climb out of that very dark place.

Therapy can help hugely with suicidal thoughts and managing emotions.

alterbehavioralhealth.com/blog/top-therapies-treat-suicidal-thoughts/

Lots of people do over think tho ha which are not really an issue

Maybe people lost the skills of resilience and mental fortitude.

Do you not think most people try the self help books and other methods and then go onto therapy? Therapy is for many, an expensive, time consuming and painful experience, but it helps. I don’t think people do it lightly. We tried all of your suggestions before eventually paying for a therapist who pretty much saved my daughter’s life and saved our relationship. I think you’re being very naive OP.

@SnugOtter Problem is Therapy e.g CBT is the gold standard for treating many MH problems currently. Its not that people don't think about all the other things you suggested, it's that they haven't worked.

Are you the same poster who started a deleted thread about mental health issues being over diagnosed earlier today?

I know but you did say that more people than ever are taking their lives and that therefore more therapy would be a positive thing, suggesting that you see it as something that at least helps.

It is worth remembering that it isn’t a cure, that in some cases it can make things worse.

I have no issue with counselling or therapy. I do have issues with it being pushed as a cure for mental health on people who can often barely afford it, I have issues with it being seen as something people ‘should’ have to deal with problems they probably could deal with effectively alone and with it being seen as something which cures and heals.

Can help. Not does help. A subtle but important difference.

When can it make things worse?

No, I’m not that poster, and this thread isn’t about that topic. I’m discussing how therapy can sometimes be overused for minor issues rather than addressing them with other coping strategies.

‘Google it’ is bloody rude and it isn’t meant to be - but if you do have a look, there is some interesting stuff about counselling and therapy sometimes making things worse.

I remember reading interviews with Charlene Lunnon and Lisa Hoodless, who were abducted by a man in 1999 aged ten. The girls were held hostage and repeatedly sexually assaulted for a number of days. The police called on a chance investigation (I think another child had complained) which probably saved their lives.

The girls were sent for counselling and both hated it, found it relived the trauma and begged their parents to let them stop. One of the girls’ parents agreed, the other did not, which led to her feeling bitter and resentful to her former friend.

Well as the mother of a child who has tried to take her own life several times I can say it’s massively helpful in developing coping strategies. Medication isn’t enough and is just a sticking plaster.

It does help. I can vouch for that personally. I'm surprised that you're arguing against therapy being available to suicidal people with a poster who has already shared on this thread that therapy has stopped them taking their own life.

The thing that I think is bad is the attitude of "you shouldn't go to your friends and family for support, that's unloading problems onto them and unfair to make them have the mental load, you should go to a therapist".

Unless someone explicitly says please this is too much, I think we should be able to assume that friends and family are there to support us. Knowing that you've got that support network to catch you, people who love you without you needing to pay them, is 90% of mental health right there.

So you’re saying trauma therapy shouldn’t be offered for trauma.🤔Counselling is very different to trauma therapy such as EMDR.

I’m sorry about this and none of what I’m about to say is trying to be dismissive. But that’s one case! You’re saying it’s worked in one case.

People commit suicide because of debt, problems with the law, relationship breakdowns, physical health problems and yes, mental health problems. Therapy isn’t a ‘cure’ for mental health issues: it can help, it isn’t me saying ‘it isn’t helpful’, it’s me saying ‘it isn’t always helpful.’

No. I really do wonder at comprehension when I read this response.

I am saying that people are unsurprisingly different. Therapy should have absolutely been offered. Once the girls resisted it and felt it was reliving that trauma, they should have been listened to, with the option to go again in the future should they wish to.

After all, a biggie in counselling is people must apparently be ‘ready.’ If someone doesn’t want to go in the first place therefore it is surely unlikely to be helpful.

Well having supported mentally ill dc I can say it’s way too big for parents. We’re not therapists and the burden is too much. It’s exhausting and wrecks your own mental health. My dc needed therapy
and supportive parents . They’re two very different things .

You can’t cite one anecdotal case yourself to support your argument that therapy doesn’t work and then tell a poster she can’t use an example of her own and say it doesn’t count it’s “just one case”!

if you going to debate then play by your own rules otherwise just just sound a little bit goady tbh

Well of course they’d be reliving the trauma, it’s pretty difficult to do trauma therapy without reliving it.

Discussing the actual trauma in detail is often unhelpful, and sometimes re traumatising, unless the client wants to and finds it cathartic. But discussing the impact of the traumatic event, how they can accept where they are now move on from it and tools to help them do that can be very helpful. But the client has to want that - and in this case it sounds like it was forced by the parents, which is always going to unhelpful and may actually reinforce the trauma as it is another time when control is being taken away from the client.

I don’t think any of us know the details which are private. We don’t know what was happening with those girls and if there were destructive behaviours as a result of trauma that needed treating. 1 case doesn’t speak for everybody struggling with trauma anyway. There are several options for treating it.

Default to therapy for any little whim isn't happening in my view. What I see instead are the likes of very deep seated issues that even the OP doesn't realise. These are then manifesting as what may appear as low level sadness, issues with relationships and things some may see as typical life challenges. They are in more likelihood being driven by something much deeper that only a professional can unpick.

Therapy should be much more than just moaning about problems. There are different types. However, therapy I've had for example, has helped me unpick the absolute dysfunction and coercive dynamic of my entire life growing up. This is something that then informs almost every relationship, every choice in my life until I realised. And you often don't even realise it.

I believe if more people actually considered therapy, learnt about their history and themselves, we'd have significantly less messed up people.

I'm very suspicious of people who make a point about therapy being problematic or anything negative about it. I can't think of any greater example of personal accountability than that.