I think talk therapy is immensely helpful. Personally, I think medications have their worth and that only an individual, with the guidance of a trusted doctor, can decide for themselves whether or not it's appropriate - but I can't see any harm, whatsoever, from talk therapy.

Sometimes all we need is a friend.

I think the reason I enjoy therapy so much is that the therapist is not my friend. In fact, he/she is a completely objective person that honestly doesn't think twice about me the second I leave the office.

Good point! But aren't most professionals instructed to remain objective? I mean, provided the individual isn't presenting any symptoms of violent behavior, either to themselves or to others...

Interesting - thanks for the insight. I've always wondered what it was like from the therapist's perspective.

Personally, I have absolutely zero faith in doctor/patient confidentiality, and I refuse to ever let someone document the inner-workings of my mind and all my most personal memories and secrets of my life, no matter how beneficial it may be.

If I could find a doctor that doesn't store notes digitally and doesn't write down key intimate details that come up throughout our sessions, I'd probably do it though.

Oh no, I'm not saying there's things I don't want to talk about, I'm saying there are plenty of things I wouldn't ever want to be on record, particularly in some digital database.

How much confidentiality do people really have if the authorities (take your pick on which one) come asking for files on someone? Both "technically speaking" and realistically speaking. Very curious.

I look at this stuff very similarly to the 23andMe DNA testing shit. I can think of dozens of reasons for why I wouldn't want that information to be out there in the ether in the first place. Maybe not right now, but certainly in the very near future.

Thanks!

Interesting about them having to tell you what they're writing about you haha, I never even thought about that. That's good to know.

In the end though, I'd rather just not ever even provide the potential for that kind of information to get into the wrong hands in the first place.

Sure, right now it's just subpoenas. But how long til subpoena power laws get more lax and they can subpoenaed for basically anything?

Ideally it'd be nice if I could go talk to someone, have them analyze my thought process, and not take any notes about it.

Same here dude. We feel exactly the same on this one

Hugs not drugs.

Physical contact releases dopamine in the brain so hugs are basically the same thing.

I’m in a related field and I believe there are benefits to non-medical therapy. Some people benefit greatly from ‘talking it out’, others not so much.

There are some challenges as well. Particularly when psychologists believe they already know the answer without gaining a true understanding of the individual. I see this arrogance in many folks in the field and it’s unfortunate - and it seems to be getting worse to be honest.

I agree with this. I actually wish my therapists had done more investigation into how my mind works. Some people, understandably, are afraid their conversations are going to be documented and give all these details into their personal life but in my experience the notes I have seen from my therapists have lacked so much insight and detail. I never felt a therapist has explored the context of my illness or how it originated, etc. , etc. I mostly feel like I show up, tell them how my week has been going, how I’m gonna improve, pay and go on my way.

I think some of this has to do with therapists having so many patients, where I live it can be almost a 2 month wait to get into a psychologist. My school offers free counseling and couldn’t offer me services because they could only see my once every 2 weeks since there services were fully booked. I’m happy to see more people seeking help but it also feels we need more practitioners and research in the field.

Preferable to drugs at all costs, any form of medication should always, 100% of the time be a last resort.

But big-pharma would rather you pay them for the rest of your life and is one of the worst industries we have as a nation.

I am not a professional, and I have not done extensive research on the subject but I can share my experience with both therapy and medication.

TLDR; talk therapy can be hit and miss depending on your situation and willingness. No, I don’t think my therapist have tried to “mkultra” me. Medication can also be hit and miss and one should consider the context of the situation and do extensive research on the drug they are taking.

A little background, I have been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder since I was a freshman in college, but like most people with OCD looking back it had always been there since my childhood - it just didn’t seriously interrupt my life until I was about 17.

As someone with OCD, talk therapy can be either helpful or a slippery slope. Sometimes I feel talking too much about certain obsessions / compulsions can actually make me tune into them more and make them worse. I have gone through CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and can say it wasn’t very successful for me, but I think that also has to do with my willingness to overcome my own issues. Personally, therapy has never really given me any insight into my issues that I didn’t already have and a lot of my therapists would just tell me to buy a book that I could have just gotten on my own without dishing out a lot of money to have a professional recommend a book.

I guess what was successful for me with therapy was feeling that I was held accountable for making the improvements I said I would. That being said, my boyfriend is my biggest support system and holds me equally accountable for the things I say I will do and he does it for free (lol). I really think talk therapy is just hit and miss - it also involves finding a therapist that you feel comfortable with and some people, understandably, feel discouraged if the first therapist they go to isn’t the best fit for them.

Since you are posting this question to r/conspiracy I thought I should also just mention that I have never felt I was being “MKULTRA-ed” when going to therapy. If anything, I wish they would have done more investigation into my illness. In reality, most therapists see dozens of patients and sometimes I think that can negatively effect a patients diagnosis or how effective treatment is. I’m not sure that most people realize a lot of tests for certain mental illnesses are literally just a series of verbal and written questions and based upon those answers the therapist / psychologist / psychiatrist will make an educated assumption.

Now medication can be a controversial subject, but from my experience is has really helped me a lot. I think there are misconceptions and varying expectations when it comes to medications. First, some people think it is going to be a magic cure, when in reality I have found it has just been a useful tool and is definitely most effective when combined with some type of therapy. Secondly, there are so many different medications out there and they won’t work the same for everyone. I can say it is a little concerning when you read the clinical studies for some SSRI drugs because the success rate is typically not mind-blowing, you must consider the dosages, and from my understanding medical professionals are still uncertain of the causes of some mental illnesses. So similar to therapy, medications can be hit and miss.

Another concern I see with medications is the side effects. Luckily, I have never had any severe side effects from the medications I have taken for my OCD. Last year I decided to try a birth control pill for the first time because I thought it might help me deal with depression around my period, now that drug caused a ridiculous amount of side effects for me and was the worst experience I have had from a drug. I was nauseous all the time, had my period for an entire month, and began getting migraine headaches! I thought this was interesting because birth control pills are so widely accepted and in my opinion it was a MUCH stronger drug than any of the SSRI’s I have taken for mental health.

What kind of CBT did you go through? Typical CBT isn't all that great for OCD, and can even make it worse. ERP (a special kind of CBT) is the gold standard for OCD. Medication can definitely help with it as well, even to just better manage the anxiety.

Thanks for your recommendation, I will look into ERP!

This is my experience as well. Both very hit and miss. Some people like myself however are too far gone and need the chemical override of medication. But as you said, this brings up many issues of side effects on its own

Doctor/Patient confidentiality is breeched whether from doctor abuse of confidence or the plethora of New World Order spy devices continually streaming on the planet. Aside from the conspiratorial answer, the other reason would be penalties and forfeiture. If I said I have life threatening thoughts at least 2 times a day for the past 10 years, you (or others in your profession) would systematically enter my home and take my firearms. Not saying that's my case but if it was, therapy would do more damage than it's potential for good.

I was in the field too and I believe in talk therapy. To comment on some of the comments, I would never need to necessarily know the 'nuts and bolts' of someone's beliefs. What we're really trying to judge is the thought process, not necessarily what they're thinking about. Obviously, of course, sometimes the content is not based in reality, but I guess that's when the science becomes the art, to figure that out. I had a client once in a forensic setting who had committed a series of significant assaults with a firearm. The rest of the team was all up in arms because he also believed in UFOs. I argued that we hadn't yet found any reason to connect his actions to his belief in UFOs. We did find the reason, it was psychotic, and his belief in UFOs had nothing to do with it. But to circle back to the original question, with the UFO client, talk therapy wasn't effective because his cognitive function was too compromised. We put him on medication after which talk therapy appeared to be very successful. However, after several years we wanted to discontinue medications, very common and his perfect right, and he became actively delusional again and was never again responsive to either kinds of therapy.

Way, way, way worth the money.

Should be the first option for all pondering mental health help.

Should be covered by all health insurances with minimal restrictions.

Should have cheaper barrier to entry (hours of internships, cost of programs).

“Should be covered by all health insurances with minimal restrictions”

Yes!!! I have a pretty good health insurance plan and as someone with OCD I prefer to see a therapist regularly instead of waiting until I’m in a crisis - being proactive! My insurance only allows me 20 visits per year and I can only get 3 extra if I tell them I’m suicidal... I think that’s kinda messed up. And also if I did happen to be suicidal my insurance thinks 3 visits is going to cure that?

Check out Thom Hartmann’s stuff on ADD/ADHD and also the evolutionary psychology perspective of depression if you havent.

Both of these ideas are counter to medication and Offer great insights if you suffer from either. For me medication did nothing for my depression and it took realizing there was nothing wrong with me (fuck the chemical imbalance BS pill pushers talk about) but there is everything wrong with our society, especially our lifestyles and habits.

Honestly mind blowing how much a healthy diet, exercise and sleeping well helps mental health (I would recommend talking to people too, but most “professionals” either milk the time for money or have no real solutions but pills). Our society is set up to keep us sedentary, sleep deprived and addicted to junk food and sugar, all things that cause depression. We have to break free of this garbage in order to be happy.

Lastly, I would like to mention Flow by Mihalyi Csikzentmihaly. He is THE leading researcher of positive psychology and happiness and his ideas have been around for decades but get relatively little attention outside of graduate level psychology. His ideas are revolutionary towards living an actually happy life and they have nothing to do with consumerism, watching tv, or any of the other BS we waste out time with.

Read up on all the stuff I mentioned if you want an alternative (but still academically and intellectually rigorous) mental health solution

Everyone needs to talk to someone. I personally wouldn't pay someone to listen to me because it feels one-sided and my limited experiences talking to a therapist have resulted in me saying to myself, "Lolz, this person does not give a fuck about me, will never understand all of my idiosyncrasies the way that I do". I find myself not really being myself in such a formal set-up of a conversation. I'd rather vent to someone who is actually a part of my real life and isn't getting paid to listen to me.

it's good. A healthy wariness of the profit motive is wise. Healthier patient = less therapy.

I've benefited as a younger person when a therapist slapped me with how I deceive myself, which was sorrrt of a new concept to me, or at least the extent of everybody's susceptibility.

It's a conspiracy

If one finds themselves "in a rut," or however you'd care to term it, I highly recommend psilocybin, the psychoactive compound from magic mushrooms.

It's a non-addictive, natural solution to depression. It basically resets your serotonin receptors, and will take you on a personalized, subjective journey. It may take several treatments,typically spaced weeks or months apart, but the end result for trials conducted by John Hopkins were generally similar.

In the end, your inner voice will be louder, and it will typically advise you something along the lines of, "Hey dude...lighten up."

Progress in this field is being made. It sucks that years of propaganda from the for-profit drug war has been so effective.

maps.org for anyone interested in learning more about the potential of the chemicals OP mentioned above.

I agree with this. I actually wish my therapists had done more investigation into how my mind works. Some people, understandably, are afraid their conversations are going to be documented and give all these details into their personal life but in my experience the notes I have seen from my therapists have lacked so much insight and detail. I never felt a therapist has explored the context of my illness or how it originated, etc. , etc. I mostly feel like I show up, tell them how my week has been going, how I’m gonna improve, pay and go on my way.

I think some of this has to do with therapists having so many patients, where I live it can be almost a 2 month wait to get into a psychologist. My school offers free counseling and couldn’t offer me services because they could only see my once every 2 weeks since there services were fully booked. I’m happy to see more people seeking help but it also feels we need more practitioners and research in the field.