# Does Therapy work?



## Seven Island Suite (Apr 8, 2009)

I know this has probably been discussed many times before. I just wanted to get some fresh insight as to whether therapy has overall helped them overcome SA. And to what extent? At the moment I am living in a foreign country and it is not really affordable to get any kind of professional help. I would have to save money to afford it. What is everyone's overall experiences? If you had to give a rating from 0 - 10 (10 = complete success, 0 = utter failure) how would you rate therapy?


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## knatas (May 11, 2010)

1/10 here =/
still doing it, but already meeted psychologist 22 times


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

For SA problems? Medication route was more helpful. But my therapist was nice to have to try to handle the problems during the treatment. 

If you mean for other problems then SA, therapists are great. I couldn't live without mine.


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## AlekParker (Oct 31, 2006)

Seven Island Suite said:


> I know this has probably been discussed many times before. I just wanted to get some fresh insight as to whether therapy has overall helped them overcome SA. And to what extent? At the moment I am living in a foreign country and it is not really affordable to get any kind of professional help. I would have to save money to afford it. What is everyone's overall experiences? If you had to give a rating from 0 - 10 (10 = complete success, 0 = utter failure) how would you rate therapy?


http://www.socialanxietysupport.com...iety-and-in-process-of-setting-higher-115224/

For Social anxiety:
CBT: 8/10
Talk therapy: 4/10
doing nothing: -1/10

this also depends on how good your therapist, as well as your own motivation/work

either way with therapy you will only get out of it what you put in. most of the work for CBT you do outside of therapy, like when you're in social situations or having negative thoughts, you have to counter them. it takes a lot of work. if you are highly motivated to overcome SA and put in a lot of time/ effort on your own outside of your time with the therapist, then you will do well.

medication is great for alleviating SA and and immediate way to cover up the symptoms or instant control of negative thoughts. as far as meds that encompass long term change without having to continue meds, there are none. you can also just continue to take meds throughout your life if u need them, but meds combined with some sort of therapy is a better way to go

if interested u can join our CBT online group below


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## ORly (Jul 23, 2010)

For me it has definitely been a 8.5/10. It was mostly talk therapy with a little CBT thrown in. However, In my situation my SA has always been secondary to my PTSD/OCD issues. 

I'm actually coming to a close of my therapy, and I have about 2 or 3 sessions left. I started in March '10 and sessions every 2 to 3 weeks.

And as a sidenote, I did not take any medication. It probably made the first parts of my therapy more difficult just because the CBT stuff was SOOOO challenging for me in the beginning.


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## percyblueraincoat (Jun 2, 2009)

There are lots of different types of therapists. And most of us in the industry are pushing for more regulation and harmony between the schools. After all, we have the same aim: helping other people. 

The research behind medication shows that it has a positive effect on many people and there's no reason why medication cannot work in conjunction with therapy. We don't know if the chemical imbalance (if one exists) is a cause or a reflection of a cause or even more complexly linked than that so a myriad of approaches fed into the healing process would probably work best. Different things are going to work differently for different people and people at different stages of recovery.

The cost is a big issue. I mean, fair enough, I have to eat. People want money from me. And the cost of my training is through the roof so, upon completion of all that hard work to qualify, therapists charging what they need to charge might not seem like a bad thing.

But the cost blocks a lot of people from seeking help. And this is a powerful danger. We cannot ransom mental health care like that. It's not fair, it's not right and it will take us nowhere anyway because these people are more likely to carry on as best they can with life and deal with their own problems then they are to borrow or save the money up to come see a therapist and pay the full way.

We can reach more people if we drop the payment requirements a bit.


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## Black_Widow (May 23, 2008)

ORly said:


> However, In my situation my SA has always been secondary to my PTSD/OCD issues.


Recently I've started to wonder if this kind of thing might be the case with me too. At least to some extent. Obsessional thoughts and feelings at times for me definitely interfere with carrying out SA related CBT. And at times I've wondered if at least sometimes my anxiety symptoms are more akin to something along the lines of PTSD or Adjustment Disorder rather than just purely to SAD. This week I went to a GP to ask if I could be re-referred to a mental health professional, so I'm in a position to be able to find out. If it does turn out to be the case, then feei it would explain alot on why I'm making the limited progess I am with self help at the moment.


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## paulyD (Feb 16, 2011)

Seven Island Suite said:


> I know this has probably been discussed many times before. I just wanted to get some fresh insight as to whether therapy has overall helped them overcome SA. And to what extent? At the moment I am living in a foreign country and it is not really affordable to get any kind of professional help. I would have to save money to afford it. What is everyone's overall experiences? If you had to give a rating from 0 - 10 (10 = complete success, 0 = utter failure) how would you rate therapy?


in my opinion NO.

the only thing that can change you is programming your mind so that it doesnt produce negative thoughts, perceptions and feelings. and facing your fears yourself

therapy cannot programm your mind. therapy cannot make you take a different action , only you can do that


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## trendyfool (Apr 11, 2010)

CBT: 8/10 in my experience. obviously you have to be motivated to get over SA. but CBT helps so much. It gives you the encouragement you need to get better, and it's really hard to change your negative thoughts and behaviors alone, without any help--CBT gives you that help. luckily I have a really good therapist...how people experience therapy depends on who they are and what their relationship with their therapist is like. I tried talk therapy for about two years and it was NOT helpful AT ALL...it made me think my family was causing all my problems, you know the "talk about your childhood thing", which was not what I needed and caused me to resent them--plus it gave credence to my obsessional thoughts, because my therapist would never challenge them. I really recommend CBT to anyone trying to overcome SA.


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## percyblueraincoat (Jun 2, 2009)

paulyD said:


> in my opinion NO.
> 
> the only thing that can change you is programming your mind so that it doesnt produce negative thoughts, perceptions and feelings. and facing your fears yourself
> 
> therapy cannot programm your mind. therapy cannot make you take a different action , only you can do that


Apart of the huge danger of trying to prevent your mind doing those things, therapy does look at the programming aspect and deals with new responses to situations so it is ridiculous to say that therapy can't do that. We work with the client not on them.


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## notna (Aug 24, 2010)

so far 

CBT: 3/10


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## Implicate (Feb 1, 2011)

My therapist and I discuss foreign politics and cookies. If nothing else is it nice to have intelligent conversation for once?


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## AlekParker (Oct 31, 2006)

paulyD said:


> the only thing that can change you is programming your mind so that it doesnt produce negative thoughts, perceptions and feelings. and facing your fears yourself
> 
> therapy cannot programm your mind/ exposures. therapy cannot make you take a different action , only you can do that


I get what you're saying.

so CBT works: reprogramming the mind--gradual exposures

BUT the therapy itself is not going to make you do it. You have to do it, reprogram it yourself through tons of effort, work, diligence, constant training and pushing yourself and motivate yourself. The therapy just guides you and helps you along the way.


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