America Has Reached Peak Therapy. Why Is Our Mental Health Getting Worse?

Re:America Has Reached Peak Therapy. Why Is Our Mental Healt... by lukev on Tuesday September 05, 2023 @04:37PM (#37397381)

I can empathize with this, however, I think it's worth pointing out that the value of therapy does not lie in the insights that are communicated. Even if they weren't in self-help books, you could in theory just go read the textbooks that therapists do.

The value I have found in it is in actually spending time talking about my emotions, with a reasonable human being, and receiving reasonable reactions. It's a chance to build "reps" in emotional intelligence that are otherwise scarcely available in regular life (mine, at least.)

It's like working out. Sure, you can lift buckets of sand in your garage and get strong. People still go to gyms and hire personal trainers.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:America Has Reached Peak Therapy. Why Is Our Mental Healt... by red-iron-pine on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @01:36PM (#37408318)

> It's like working out. Sure, you can lift buckets of sand in your garage and get strong. People still go to gyms and hire personal trainers.

The personal trainer metaphor is one I used when trying to convince a friend (we're both Iraq veterans) to go to therapy.

Something to the effect of: "it's like personal training, they're there to respond and push you, but ultimately you're doing the work and making things happen. sometimes you need someone to push you hard, sometimes you need a soft touch, and sometimes you need someone to just check your form or get you to do different exercises."

[ Parent | on HN ]