Seeing a therapist

Hi Wizzer, a friend will listen and give advice but sometimes the advice is quite subjective and not always the right advice. A therapist is trained in these matters. There are different types of therapy. There is "insight therapy" which will help you to see "patterns" in your life. They listen a lot and ask you how you feel about that and should ask leading questions to help you to come to the answers that are within you. There is also "cognitive therapy" which will help you to change the way you think and talk to yourself. They will make you look at what you just said and suggest a different way of thinking about it and phrasing it. It certainly can't hurt and might do you a world of good so give it a try. Hopefully others will be here to post soon.

Wizzer,

there's stuff I have told therapists which I have never told anyone else. There's stuff I would tell them that I no longer talk about with friends/acquaintances. I can't imagine very many friends would WANT to listen to a timeline of my troubles.

It's not like what you see on TV or movies, just like lawyers in a courtroom aren't like what you see on TV. (I've seen the real stuff quite a few times thanks to my previous jobs.)

I would suggest at least trying a counselor a couple of times. You might even have some friends who could recommend someone. The health insurance I used to have actually grouped counselors by their specialties, as in types of problems -- survivors of sexual abuse, anxiety, divorce, etc. That was pretty helpful.

-- MK