this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
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Showerthoughts
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You can, it's called therapy.
Which, like every mental health treatment, only works for a subset of people.
Most of my friends who have tried therapy just leave after a session or two and claim their problems have gone away, dodge further sessions and never actually gave it a real try. Then a week later they will go through the same issues again. It sucks to see them this way.. I've tried to help them to go to therapy consistently but very few actually do.
You can't solve 20 years worth of emotional issues in a few sessions.. it takes years of therapy to actually get better. Not to mention societal stigma against going to therapy makes it even harder.
Years of therapy cost a LOT of money though, not everyone can afford that.
As the pizza hoe mentioned, it's very country dependent. Where I live, therapists are, like other medical specialists, paid from taxes, so free at the point of use (not all of them, they need some licenses etc.). Or you can pay for them out of pocket if you want.
You live in a utopia
Or just an EUtopia.
🇺🇳🫡
I agree but this is very location dependent. I live in India and an hour of therapy session costs around 15$(average bill if two people eat at a normal restaurant to put things into perspective).
If you can't afford that, don't worry as many not for profit organisations exist which will help you with free therapy. But this comes at the cost of therapists who themselves are paid like shit. But none of this applies to my friends because their job is ready to pay(your boss can't find out you go to therapy btw) in case they want therapy but they still are hesitant. It's more to do with how people will perceive you if they hear you're going to therapy.
Woah, that's awesome. I live in Italy and my therapist asked for €80/hour. I eventually had to choose between daily expenses, university fees and therapy, and the latter was, unfortunately, the one I decided to cut.
Yeah, but when therapy costs $100-$200 per session and is not always covered by health insurance (in the US at least) what else are you going to do? In most places in the US it’s also very very very hard to get in to see an actual Psychologist, and nigh on impossible to get in to a Psychiatrist, so most people are stuck with LSCWs who are not competent at all, and often times make matters worse. Mental healthcare in the US is an absolute joke.
https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/mental-health-substance-abuse-coverage/
Boom, look what government regulation of healthcare can do.
That is only if you get healthcare through the ACA healthcare marketplace. Those plans cost upward of $400 a month. While private healthcare plans do sometimes cover mental healthcare, you then have to find a mental healthcare provider that accepts your health insurance. They are not required to accept all healthcare plans and that can mean you have to drive 1+ hours away for mental health appointments. Under my insurance the closest psychiatrist that takes me healthcare is two hours away, and they have an eight month wait list. That was the one I got to actually call me back to find that out. The other ones 2+ hours away never even bothered to call me back.
I got tried to get on the wait list for the local healthcare group that has a few psychologists on staff last October. They told me it would be two months before someone reached out to me to set up an actual appointment. It is now August 2023 and I’ve still never been contacted.
No, ACA compliant plans are the standard, including employer-sponsored plans.
Every ACA compliant plan has the same list of minimum coverages, including the above.
Every state-run plan under Medicare and Medicaid are also ACA compliant.
If you've chosen a non-compliant plan, or opted to skip your state's healthcare exchange, or are unlucky enough to live in a state where Republicans have tried to fuck you over by not expanding Medicaid under the ACA, I'm sorry.
None of those things, though, affect the mental healthcare provider shortage in this country, though. If you're still waiting for an appointment, perhaps you should call back and check for open slots regularly?
Many people can get the same results by talking to a plastic duck or doing nothing at all. It works for some people, the rest of us consider it a pseudoscience at best.
Edit: That comes off harsh, I'm not taking shots at anyone who it works for or who helps others with it.
Then don't think about it as a science, but as getting help from someone trained to help you. As an example, do you need firefighters to be scientists to get help from them when your house is burning?
Kind of yeah, air currents are basically fluid dynamics.
Doesn't mean your firefighter is a scientist, which was my point.
Weird thing to say, but, therapy is not a pseudoscience.
I have gone through some trauma therapy that has helped where no talk therapy has been able to. There are lots of studies showing the effectiveness too. Look up EMDR or brain spotting.
I really just have to push back on the "doing nothing at all" or "talking to a rubber duck" piece because I'd been trying that for years and trauma flashbacks don't seem just go away on their own.
Brainspotting has been lifechanging for me. Took me decades to find it though.
So it works for you and that's okay. That's why I made the edit.
I still somewhat take issue with that characterization though. It doesn't just "work for me and that's okay," it works period. It has been clinically shown to work for other people too. I only say this because spreading misinformation about it being "pseudoscience" and ineffective only serves to continue some people's pain and never find an effective treatment for them, and I believe that's potentially dangerous.
Buddy, I'm not telling you it doesn't work for you. But you have no problem whatsoever dictating to me that it works for me which it absolutely does not in any way. It's a waste of my time and energy that yields nothing of value at all.
You might want to do some of that introspection on this issue you seem to have. Or talk to your therapist about it if it works for you.
Buddy, I'm not telling you it will work for you. I'm talking about on the whole we have scientific evidence to prove that it is effective. I'm literally only responding to your claim that "therapy is pseudoscience." No need to get so defensive.
I know the evidence says that therapy works in general, but yeah, it’s difficult to believe. And to be honest, I’d rather take a pill than talk to a therapist, all else being equal.
Well, I can only advise to at least try it.
And keep trying until you find the right therapist/therapy that works for you. There is huge variation in quality and effectiveness.
Not only quality but different therapists belong to different "branches" and every branch has its strengths and weaknesses when dealing with specific problems. A good therapist should recommend going to someone of different branch if they feel it would be better for you.