# Does therapy actually work?



## Lawrencepa (Dec 21, 2015)

I've done it like three times for low self esteem mainly. I honestly don't get what they get paid for. It just feels like they come out with what anyone can say. I feel like I feel better after talking to a relatively than I do them. So does therapy help I'm your opinion? Yes or no?


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## CNikki (Aug 9, 2013)

In my personal opinion - no. Talking things out alone doesn't help, especially if the person is older and the damage of mental illness has been done, no matter what happened that led up to them. Early life intervention along with talking things out is likely the most effective.


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## anxious87 (Oct 6, 2013)

It can if you feel ashamed of your thoughts


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## SplendidBob (May 28, 2014)

Oh god. Yes.

It takes the right therapist matched with the right patient at the right time though. My hit rate with therapists, 1/10.


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## tehuti88 (Jun 19, 2005)

Only made me worse. :/ Having therapists literally _give up on you_ tends to do that to a person.

I'm sure it helps some other people, though. One of those things people should at least try.


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## truant (Jul 4, 2014)

Theoretically, yes. I believe it's possible to help people by talking to them. How often it happens is a separate issue. Each person is unique, most problems are extremely complex, and not all therapists are good at their jobs.

I think most people have the wrong idea about therapy, too. They think it's like going to the hospital to get their appendix out, but a therapist is more like a personal trainer. Unhealthy thinking patterns are like unhealthy eating and activity habits. You don't go to a personal trainer for a couple weeks and then decide that exercise and nutrition are bunk because you're still a fat slob.

You have to pay attention to your own thinking and resist the temptation to indulge in destructive and self-limiting mental habits just because they "feel good". If your therapist tells you to stop indulging in black and white thinking, or catastrophizing, it's because that kind of thinking is making you sick the same way eating a tub of ice cream every day would make you sick. Deciding that it's easier to avoid a social engagement than go to it is like deciding it's easier to sit on the couch and watch TV than exercise. Yes, ofc it is. But you're going to pay for it in the long run.


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## user404 (Nov 12, 2017)

It never did for me. I felt improvement for a short while butas soon as the therapy ended - the symptoms came back.


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## SwtSurrender (Nov 24, 2014)

Yeah I remember with my first psychologist even though I couldn't talk with her I was feeling different at college. I was calm and wanted to participate in my group in class and I just felt different inside. She taught me some breathing techniques with my belly and I used to do that before class and it helped! I just felt so good at college around that time seeing her, I told her to talk to my professors and instead she talked to the disability place at my college. I used to hate that place and hate being disabled but now I accept it and use it as a tool to fit it more in college. But that psychotherapy was nothing like Dr. Richards man, he good, he has CBT group therapy with loads of hot people!

If you have social anxiety you can't just go see an ordinary psychologist especially if you have zero friends. This Dr. Richards place is so different, he provides this group with people in it in his psychotherapy session, can you believe it?! And then we hang out during the week at social places like real friends, no strangers can tell there is something wrong with us cuz we look like normies! It's so weird! It's like falling through an ice cold frozen ice skating lake but you can't feel anything cuz you numb!

Other than that I think if you are motivated to overcome and you're actively doing stuff like initiating conversations and studying and practicing the materials taught then you have something concrete that you're building in your brain. I mean you learn so much from other people especially if they talk alot. When people talk alot they inspire others!!!!!!!! That's important. You don't just have a psychologist and psychotherapy, you have this process of understanding why you behave this way and also tackling it with people your own age on purpose. You're going through it together not just with your psychologist.

For me it was hard to join a group anywhere even meetup but I was able to join one for social anxiety branched out from Dr. Richards and I'm proud of that. But someone who just goes to an ordinary psychologist and doesn't have any friends or meetup friends then it's gonna be pretty hard to go out alone. If they have friends then it is easier, they should go enjoy life with their friends as much as possible!

Yeah it works for me, I feel different already. I think it's because I choose to feel different like I choose to not feel that depression and sadness anymore. I run away from that depression just like I used to run away from people. I hope it lasts, it feels like a ride, it feels more like a set mindset.


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## minimized (Nov 17, 2007)

No.


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## RCMC (Feb 5, 2017)

Partially, the rest is your brain problem.


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## Neal (Jan 14, 2012)

Yeah but you’ll do the heavy lifting though. All a therapist will do is tell you what’s wrong with your thinking, give you options as to what to do and think and after that it’s up to you to run with it. The main difference between talking to them and just some random friend or relative is that the counselor “shouldn’t be” basing their advice on their personal opinions/prejudices.


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## sanspants08 (Oct 21, 2008)

truant said:


> Theoretically, yes. I believe it's possible to help people by talking to them. How often it happens is a separate issue. Each person is unique, most problems are extremely complex, and not all therapists are good at their jobs.
> 
> I think most people have the wrong idea about therapy, too. They think it's like going to the hospital to get their appendix out, but a therapist is more like a personal trainer. Unhealthy thinking patterns are like unhealthy eating and activity habits. You don't go to a personal trainer for a couple weeks and then decide that exercise and nutrition are bunk because you're still a fat slob.
> 
> You have to pay attention to your own thinking and resist the temptation to indulge in destructive and self-limiting mental habits just because they "feel good". If your therapist tells you to stop indulging in black and white thinking, or catastrophizing, it's because that kind of thinking is making you sick the same way eating a tub of ice cream every day would make you sick. Deciding that it's easier to avoid a social engagement than go to it is like deciding it's easier to sit on the couch and watch TV than exercise. Yes, ofc it is. But you're going to pay for it in the long run.


This x2. Therapy helped me immensely, and it has had a lot to do with having a therapist who could guide me in the right direction without trying to tell me what to do. I have a Gestalt therapist, which means (among other things) that he's very open-minded and nonjudgmental in the first place. IMO, judgment has no place in therapy, and if you're feeling it, switch to someone else. There are as many different therapists in the world as there are people...

(I say this as a crisis worker, knowing there are as many different crisis workers in the world...and our job is much more structured)


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## SunshineSam218 (Dec 6, 2013)

For me, yes it has helped me out a lot since I bottled in a lot. Sometimes it helps a person and other times it doesn't do a thing for a person. Believe it's all up to the person or they may be fine with trying to help themselves. Therapy isn't for everyone. I know a lot of people who get therapy through other things. Nobody is perfect and we all have flaws or something we need to work out on. My therapist always listened to what I had to say, asked me questions if it was needed and there's been many times where I cried in session. 

I'm not the same person I was a few years ago and I've improved a lot. That doesn't mean I'm 100 percent cured of everything but I've improved a lot. It takes progress and patience. So if you chose therapy, I wish you the best of luck and just go by what you feel is right, rather than listen to somebody else. Only you know what's good for you.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

It does help. I found ways to work through thinking, and at the same time the therapist was cognizant and even supportive of what I was trying to do - even allowing me to adjust my dosage when I felt like testing myself - more often than not, I ended up right back at my dose within a couple of weeks.

It was this year that I suddenly noticed how much more outgoing I have become - more open to talking to people (breaking down walls).

All of a sudden - I gained six pounds in one month, took naps all of the time (even in the summer which never happened!), people noticed I was sweating profusely from an activity that wasn't all that strenuous (and I run 18 miles a week!).
.......clear signs that the dose I have been on for years was now way too much!

It's been reduced and if I can get through the first month of work on my lowered dose, may be lowered another 25%. I'm on Paxil, which cannot be quit cold turkey!


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## Maslow (Dec 24, 2003)

A good therapist can help you understand your problems. I'm not sure if that helps all that much, though.


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## discoveryother (Sep 18, 2016)

depends on the therapist and what you're problems are.

i found that it helped on a surface level. but i'm still a bit ****ed up. i mean if you have a really naive view of anxiety and think you're gonna die every time you blush or you get a tight chest, etc. then you need an education about that, which includes some kind of exposure therapy to prove it. then i think it depends on how far you can go with exposure therapy, which i think depends on the underlying reasons for your unwanted behaviour - if it was mostly just anxiety, then you'd make gains, if it was something else then it may not be effective after a certain point. i was diagnosed with SAD, so for a long time i thought it was all about the anxiety. but over the years i learned that no, it is not just anxiety. 

i've had therapists that were good at treating anxiety, but i didn't really have any that were good at treating people. they would go down the path of treating that anxiety, and there would be things that would block any more progress. but they didn't switch their focus onto what it was that was getting in the way. they would just say things like "you have to really want to change" etc. as if i was just deciding to not want to get better. which was a bit demoralising.


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## Muliosys (Aug 28, 2017)

That's like asking "Does medication work?" or "Does school work?".

Of course, but everyone is different. You need a good therapist, you also need to pick the right type of therapy for you. I see a few posts here saying it's a scam to get money - therapy doesn't necessarily have to be conducted with a therapist. CBT and exposure therapy for example can be done on your own with the appropriate books etc. So if you're sceptical of therapists, then that's fine, but do it yourself rather than not using any sort of therapy.

In fact, I think that's a large contributing factor to whether therapy is successful or not - your own self therapy. Yes, even if you go to a therapist once a week, you realistically need to be doing your own therapy on the other days when you're not with the therapist. A single hour a week isn't going to be enough for most people, so unless you can afford to literally go to therapy sessions every day, you should be making your own effort in therapy on your off-days. Pick up some books about the style of therapy you're practising, and choose practical books with exercises and activities, and carry them out.

This is especially true with exposure therapy IMO. You should be exposing yourself to things that make you anxious EVERY day if you want to see real results. Once every week or two simply isn't enough in my opinion, and won't get you anywhere.

My suggestion is to pick up a good CBT book like "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy", start an exposure hierarchy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_hierarchy) and start at the bottom of your hierarchy with daily exposure, as well as identifying cognitive distortions etc. You'll notice the results very quickly. Then, if you feel like you could use some extra help, pay for some therapy sessions and see a professional alongside your self-therapy, but not as a replacement for it, as you should be working on yourself every day not just once a week.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

IMHO, it's BS. And I'm not even really sure if I believe SA is even a disorder at all. I think there are people who have much to gain from classifying natural variations in human behavior as illnesses and disorders. 

That said, if you don't like being the way you are and you want to try to change things, more power to you. Obviously, when you're different people are going to make your life suck if you don't try to change to suit them. It might work for some people and it's worth trying if they believe it can help.


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## myProblems (Dec 26, 2017)

I believe it helps for some people, as I know some people who have told me that. In my case it didn't help. I tried 5 therapists, and I was open and spoke about everything, but it didn't help. I feel it like you: it helps me more, and is harder, to speak to a relative about my problems than a therapist, because that person knows me more and I care more about what he thinks of me than the therapist. I also believe writing in this forum helps me more than going through therapy, as I can relate much more with you people, than the average therapist that doesn't suffer from SA. So all in all, I believe it depends on the type of person you are if it works, but it is worth giving it a try, because if you don't, you will never know.


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## naes (Nov 1, 2013)

It doesn't not work if that makes any sense. lol


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## harrison (Apr 14, 2012)

I think it obviously depends largely on the person and their own particular situation. For social anxiety, if they're able to work through the exposure exercises the therapist sets them then it's bound to help to a certain extent. Not everyone is able to do that though - or wants to. And I think some people have very severe anxiety, so to expect them to do exposure exercises is probably unrealistic anyway.

For other mental health things they can help - my therapist told me he couldn't even see me if I was not already taking my bipolar meds, but once we got out of the way it was great. He's the best I've come across - I enjoy talking to him and he reminds me to try and not dwell on things from the past.


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## asittingducky (Apr 23, 2013)

Therapy sort of helped me get organized when I did it but it really depends on how knowledgeable the therapist is and whether you click. For me, group therapy and seeing how my irrational thoughts and fears play out in others really helped. And exposure to more stressful situations. Life is a cakewalk after you've had to worry about having a roof on your head. What I will say, though, is that other types of therapy don't always make things better. Sometimes digging into past worries just brings them back up for no reason and you waste time having to reprocess them and get to the same point you were at before.


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## unknovvn (May 29, 2017)

It very much depends on the person. Some people do better with therapy, others with medication, others with a combination of both.
Not to mention the psychologist/therapist etc. you're seeing, each one is different. Some have different perspectives and ways of helping - I find it hard to get better if I'm not seeing someone I can "click" with.
There are ones that are very much understanding, considerate & helpful, & then there are others that... really, really aren't. Best to try seeing someone else if that's the case.


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## SwtSurrender (Nov 24, 2014)

No, therapy is not a quick fix. Therapy without medication is like tackling your symptoms with cognitive strategies. Medication without therapy is like sex without condoms. Too bad I never had therapy with medication, psychologists and psychiatrists suck these days, they just have jobs but they don't care about you actually. Looks like I'll never have a re-parenting process. Psychologists and psychiatrists can let you down, they have this problem where they don't want to work with you again once they already worked with you. Whatever, I know medication works.


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## SplendidBob (May 28, 2014)

To expand on my previous post here. Factors that might influence the efficacy of therapy:

1. Skill of therapist / psychologist (it pays to get the absolute best you can, and by best I mean education and experience). I wouldn't try to cut costs with therapy.

2. Your willingness to commit to therapy. Of course the therapist, if they are competent and committed will also be able to help here (mine did). This isn't a blame thing, it's just acknowledging that the patient needs to be in the right place for it.

3. Whether the patient and therapist "click".

4. The type of therapy. Ideally though if the therapist is competent enough they can draw upon whatever therapeutic tools will help.

5. Comorbidities

6. A realistic appraisal of how much the patient can be helped. This is tough, but there might be other health problems, there might be situational limitations, and so on. Realism regarding what can be accomplished is important.

I am a strong believer in therapy (as someone who has benefitted immensely from it). I used to be very anti therapy. It can work though, very well, and I would encourage everyone to be persistent and keep trying. It is (imo) a great shame for example, that here in the UK the only therapy available to most people are the 6/12/18 week therapies provided by IAPT. They are very misleading about the potential of therapy and probably have the effect of putting people off therapy who really could benefit.

For social anxiety / AvPD therapy is the strongest tool in the toolbox, by far imo.


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## SorryForMyEnglish (Oct 9, 2014)

It does help me temporarily after being in it for 3 months already. But I feel pessimistic thinking if it can really cure me in the long term after I'd go through the whole course or I will stuck in it forever.

I think it also can depend on specific type of therapy for each person. There are people who only have mild anxiety and don't have really deep problems or psychological traumas, On the other hand, there are people who's depression or anxiety are only symptoms of a complex problem. So for the first one CBT and other kinds of therapy can be helpful and the second one would need a long-term serious therapy of another kind.


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## Lyyli (Dec 5, 2017)

Therapy helped with my eye contact and staring problems. I've always been uncomfortable sitting face to face to a person but after several therapy sessions, the anxiety has lessened. My favorite part is, I get to talk and share my thoughts to an actual person (not just imaginary conversations inside my head).


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## vela (Apr 19, 2012)

Therapy does work. The thing is, you have to do all the work. There are bad therapists too, I know that I've had more than a few of those. Eventually though you find someone you do click with and it can really help. I've been seeing my therapist for ten years now and I know I'd be a lot worse off or even dead if she hadn't been around. Sometimes all we can do is take small steps forward. It may not feel like we're making progress but eventually you realize that your thinking has changed and for the better. I understand my illness so much more now. Why I have it and how it effects me. That's really a huge deal. I also have a lot more coping skills as well. I'm still very ill but I am moving in the right direction. My therapist says that she's just my assistant. My treatment is really all up to me. She's just there to help guide me along the way. She always treats me with respect too. Like a person not a thing.


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## SwtSurrender (Nov 24, 2014)

General Psychotherapy with psychologists who mention they know anxiety disorders doesn't usually end well. I went into one my first time and she was telling me how I should join these social places and I was really severe back then even having selective mutism. I was lucky that she had a colleague who was a psychiatrist and he gave me Prozac. LOL! Well that worked wonders and before long I had found a boyfriend and he told me to stop talking to her and move in with him. That boyfriend harmed my progress completely but it was natural for me as I developed hypomania and went after my first impulse which by nature was a sexual one.

If you want general psychologists who offer psychotherapy you need someone specialized in social anxiety disorder. Just like not any general CBT will work for something as specialized as social anxiety disorder. If it's just general psychotherapy then you need medication to relieve the symptoms so you can get to work with your psychologist. Everything has to be specialized to your disorder otherwise you need to take medication to help.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

I'm gonna say no. And the reason for that is because (IMHO) there is actually nothing wrong with MOST of the people who are told they need therapy. There's something wrong with the world we live in (A whole bunch of somethings, actually) and we need to try and learn how to accept it. Or at least tolerate it and tune it out and focus on where we want to go.

For many people, that's easy. Many people never even notice the world is wonky and nothing is right and everything works the opposite of the way it should if everything is as it's supposed to be. But in order to do that you either have to be blissfully ignorant or you have to be able to be aware of it and yet ignore your awareness. 

If you just can't, you will be told you need help. But they will never tell you that you're right about the world we live in. If you believe this world is all wrong, you will never be accepted as normal. Especially if you say it. And more especially if you keep saying it after being told to stop saying that. 

The simple truth is if you're over 25 and you're still on this forum every day wondering why you're still on this forum every day, therapy probably didn't "work" for you. And it probably won't. UNLESS you convince yourself that you want it badly enough to live a lie. 

Just my two cents.


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## mindfullescape (Dec 29, 2017)

I've heard it does only if your therapist experienced the same problem as you. What are the chances of finding a therapist who overcame social anxiety?


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## vedavon8 (Oct 27, 2017)

i think i would be comfortable if a close friend or relative handled helping me with life issues.
but they usually pay people that went through school and internships.
i guess they might seem expert mode about their career responsibilities. i just think it feels tedious when half an hour gone by, the bill is up, and i spilled my mind but im not getting the credit they are... that's almost like cheating on a test or being an emotional slave so somebody in a superior label takes the credit and money

Don't get used to doing it to yourself they're so bad. also making you take dangerous drugs while you're doing that is terrifying.

Try a family priest or spiritual life coach. Practice therapy with family members or a group member you can start yourself.
therapy goals is to get off addictive harmful drugs and quit addictions to spending off your money too.


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## MadHatterAbi (Feb 19, 2018)

Therapy helps but you need to find a good therapist / psychologist. The first one I found was terrible, but now I have found an amazing one and I can see that it's helpful.


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## Willi Gran (Jan 29, 2018)

*SAD Study*

This post is directed towards Males ages 18 to 65 with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) who have been patients of psychotherapeutic treatment and have: A. Experienced the treatment as, in every aspect, ineffective, neither improving nor deteriorating from the treatment, B. Worsened from the treatment, or, C. Improved from the treatment. I am not directing this message out of curiosity, but so that it will be read and replied to posthaste. I do this as a form of data collection for a study that I am employing, just as the title suggests. It is, essentially, a study that is trying to understand three abnormalities: The ineffectiveness of psychotherapy in regards to the patients not changing at all, the ineffectiveness of psychotherapy in regards to the patients worsening, and why no psychotherapist, or anyone in any similar field, is not thoroughly exploring this pressing topic of inquiry. If possible, I prefer that three individuals of each subsection mentioned above aid me in this study. Of equal importance, I would also prefer that three participants would fall under the category of improvement, as it is important to cross analyze what separates the improved cases from the unimproved cases. The reason for the specification of the age and the gender is to easily control for extraneous variables and to give a good baseline for further research in this field. To be truthful, I am even using Social Anxiety Disorder as a control variable. The true purpose of this study is to find the reason why a minority of individuals who participate in psychotherapeutic treatment are not getting any better or are getting worse. I could have used depression, bipolar disorder, or PTSD, but I decided upon Social Anxiety Disorder for no reason other than it was the first option. I reveal this not out of apathy, but out of my moral obligation as a researcher to not deceive any of the participants. Please understand that this is just the first step to a broader topic of research - a step that will help not just people with SAD, but anyone and everyone that suffers from some mental illness, whether it be mild or severe. This is still a study being done because it matters rather than because it simply "needs to be done." Please understand this, and judge whether or not you want to be part of that first step.

The method of choice is an interview that comprises of 12 questions that ask the participant a question about something regarding their psychotherapeutic treatment or personal question regarding how they came to have SAD. There are three ways that I could gather data. From least probable to most probable, the options are:

1. The participant contacts me because they want to be interviewed in person. It is important to take note that I will not supply the time and place unless otherwise instructed to. Since individuals with SAD are generally uncomfortable in unfamiliar and unknown situations, it is important to situate a location in which the participant will feel unthreatened and as calm as their disorder will allow so they will not become too uncomfortable to the point where they cannot answer the questions. If the participant requires that I change the location, I will do so. The same methodology applies to the date and time of the interview. The participant will choose a data and time unless I am otherwise instructed by the participant to supply the aforementioned. During the interview process, the participant is free to choose how they situate themselves (laying, sitting, standing, etc). This is to further enhance the comfortability of the individual. During the interview, I will record the entirety of the interview. The recordings themselves will not be revealed to the public. Instead, they are being used in compliance with me taking notes, as there might be a vital piece of information that the participant stated that I did not write down. The participant during this time will not be asked anything more or anything less than what is provided by the questions. Participants are free to speak at length regarding the topic of the question, free from any researcher interruption. At the end of the interview, the participant will be obliged a farewell and I will pardon myself from the interview location.

2. The interview is done over the phone. Before the participant and I start the interview, it is once again important to situate the data and time of the interview. Since the interview is obviously taking place over the phone, there is no reason to situate a location for the interview. The process of the interview, of course, is also identical to doing the interview in person, disregarding how the person fixates themselves in the room. The participants are once again allowed to speak at length about any and all of the questions. Likewise, the participants will be asked nothing more and nothing less of them than the questions. After the interview is finished, I will once again oblige the participant and bid myself a farewell from the phone call.

3. Sending the question virtually, preferably through a Google document. I do of course realize that doing this transforms an open-ended interview into an open ended survey. Albeit a very specific open-ended survey. The participant would contact me via email, and I would send them a virtual copy of the interview questions, preferably on Google docs, that they would then answer and send back to me. I prefer this option as it is the most convenient and it removes the hassle of going to each participant individually.

Please be assured that a participant is not required to give his name. If a participant chooses to do so, the participant must also contact me to assure whether or not he wants to be mentioned in the study specifically or he would rather be left anonymous.

Please take your time to do this. It would greatly benefit yourself, people similar to you, and the psychological community at large.

Thank you, and best regards, William.

Tl;dr: This is a study that needs men between the ages of 18-65 with Social Anxiety Disorder who have been to psychotherapy, preferably men who found it ineffective or saw their condition worsen during the treatment.


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## Solomonze (Mar 28, 2018)

I tried CBT back in 2016 but didn't get much out of it. My psychologist was a very caring person but i had time formulating my problems, like i've always had...


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## andy0128 (Dec 19, 2003)

On the plus side it gives me someone to discuss my problems with calmly without being criticized or feeling I'm creating stress for the other person. In terms of making giant strides forward i don't see it happening. The first reason being that i don't see going there as a permanent thing. It isn't free of charge first of all and I'm increasingly operating on a tighter budget. Secondly its hard to focus on goals a lot as i become so overwhelmed with various problems and if my stress levels are high then it's out of the question that I'll place high expectations on myself on a given day. 

I feel i can make refinements but i am constrained within certain limits. Over the years interacting better with people has mostly depended on the type of people I'm surrounded by. Some you feel comfortable around and it brings out a confidence then in no time at all if you replace them with unpleasant people that confidence evaporates.


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## SwtSurrender (Nov 24, 2014)

We're always doing therapy on ourselves, but with social anxiety the kind of therapy we do on ourselves is the one that is irrationally negative and causes anxiety and makes you feel bad. Now the other kind of therapy you get from psychologists/therapists/counseling for social anxiety is the one that is rational with neutral thoughts, and maybe a few irrationally positive thoughts here and there to lift you up and make you feel good and get better. I think the reason you think therapy doesn't work is because you like how you are and the pull of the past is always with you. It does feel something like bipolar, I couldn't agree with you more! But if you want to get better you need to tell yourself that maybe you're wrong and slowly allow these trained psychologists to teach you how to start repeating rational thoughts/beliefs to yourself instead of irrational thoughts/beliefs. 

It's pretty hard to snap out of a strongly held belief system you identified with for your whole life, it does feel rather manic to even think about it! Therapy works when you can awaken in your consciousness like people awaken everyday to enlightenment either spiritually or religiously or etc. Right now you're blinded by your own belief system with (social anxiety), but with rational therapy and doing it to yourself you will slowly come to become enlightened and see the truth.


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## mrpeanuthead (Apr 1, 2018)

To be honest ive met a few therapists in the past and the majority of the ones funded by the government and they all mostly aren't allowed to say anything more than the basics on how to improve your life in the safest ways possible. 

Most of them don't give advice, because they are not allowed to. They are trained to be nice, and to try to understand. It can be a stressful job for them but, I honestly don't think that most of them know how to properly use CBT to treat people going through anxiety disorders like SAD. Plus these therapists are sometimes no better than talking to a good friend, and a good friend that is nice and tries to understand. Honestly I see them just nodding their heads and thats it. 

The ones I think that really know how to treat SAD are the ones that cost $100/hour or more. They're usually are only a handful of them in bigger cities, or maybe 1 in a smaller area. With no competition they just charge even more than the usual amount. 

I can't really blame the ones that are paid by the government to help people. They do come to work every day in pursuit of changing lives.


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## Nekobasu (Apr 22, 2018)

My therapist actually helps me quite a bit. Let me explain..

My therapist actually suffers through a diagnosis very, very similar to mine.

Because of that, I feel like I am able to be myself during our sessions. She knows, first hand, personally, what it is like to be this way.

She actually picked herself up, and rose above her illness to become a professional dedicated to helping others who suffer through it... She earns my respect for that.

I see my therapist as a role model. A fighter. Someone who cares because she has been there. Maybe someday I can do the same.


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## railcar82594 (Mar 1, 2016)

Maybe a good therapist if one is lucky enough to find one. Most just want to string along and don't even know what they are doing much less know anything about SA except while still giving out the little brochure about it.



franmendizabal said:


> I can say I cured my social anxiety with meditation. Just be consistent with it. You can learn it virtually with a company called hackself .org
> 
> Science has shown that meditation is better for anxiety that cognitive behavioral therapy


Shill. Already multiple first posts about "hackself.org" Moderation may be required.


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