Poll How long have you been in therapy?

[Movingforward10]

Trying to work through my internal messages that I should be finished with therapy already. So thought I'd see how long people have been in therapy.

You light have been in therapy and have 'graduated'
Or you might still be in therapy.

Or therapy might not be available to you. Or you think it didn't work for you.

 

[Sideways]

All up, I think I’m about 16 years in.

I’m down to once a month. But I suspect that I’ll be on about this level of maintenance indefinitely.

If/when things go pear-shaped again, I’ll need to increase, and/or go back on meds.

I’m in a good period right now, but ptsd and depression are both cyclical, so it will be something I’m managing for the rest of my life.

There may can a time when I don’t need therapy, or my T quits and I can’t find an adequate replacement. But neither of those options are on the cards for the foreseeable future.

 

[gorgonzola]

Symptoms since May, weekly therapy since July.

 

[Friday]

Completely depends on your qualifiers.

- The very first time I was in therapy? I was 10yo. For a completely unrelated to trauma reason, much less a trauma & stressors disorder.

- The very first time there were pros involved with trauma/PTSD? For about 3 days. In my 20s.

- The first time I actually sought trauma-therapy? Over a decade later, nearly 2.
- Once I actually started working with a trauma-therapist?
- How much ACTUAL TIME I’ve spent on trauma therapy?

Okay. Let’s go with that last one

4x4x9=144 hours : 4 hours a day, 4 days a week, over the course of 9mo.
Maybe 30 or so more hours here & there, over a few years .

175 hours? 175/24=7.292

A little over a week? Over 20+ years?

 

[Movingforward10]

Thanks All.
So the consensus is: therapy is a long term commitment.

Maybe if I see it like keeping up a healthy diet and exercise? Rather than a thing I am taking too long to fix.

And maybe there is a cultural difference too. There seems to be more of an acceptance socially in the US that people are in therapy? Whereas in the UK, there isn't that. And also the NHS tends to be more short term therapy.

 

[Sideways]

And maybe there is a cultural difference too.

Cultural difference and accessibility difference for sure.

 

[gorgonzola]

So the consensus is: therapy is a long term commitment.

Well, crap.

And maybe there is a cultural difference too. There seems to be more of an acceptance socially in the US that people are in therapy?

My upper lip may be stiff, but I can recognise that sometimes my objectivity may be compromised. Hence when my wife suggested therapy, I sought out some therapy. She's doing therapy too for other reasons. We have friends who are or have been. Much therapeutising going on.

 

[Movingforward10]

Well, crap.

Totally!
I started therapy, nearly 6 years ago, thinking 6-8 sessions with couple of chats about rape is all that would be needed, and of I can pop to live a life free from the past and never speak about it or think about it again.
Having to renegotiate with myself about the timeframe at each arbitrary 'deadline' I've given myself is draining

 

[gorgonzola]

I started therapy, nearly 6 years ago, thinking 6-8 sessions with couple of chats about rape is all that would be needed, and of I can pop to live a life free from the past and never speak about it or think about it again.

Sometimes I remember that things like EMDR date from 1987, CBT is from the 1950s, DBT from 1991. They're all very young in the history of science, spent a lot of time percolating through the field, and much of adjacent fields like neuroscience are even minty-fresher.

Also in 1987 came Star Trek: The Next Generation and its idea of 24th century psychotherapy. Maybe in the 24th century all it really will take is 6-8 sessions and a hypospray.

 

[PlainJane]

This go around? I've been in therapy consistently for six years, without breaks.

I have been in a therapy before then, for different amounts of time.

I am no where close to being done.

ETA: This go around is with a trauma therapist, but we spent alot of time on stabilization and depression, as those were immediate concerns. Actual trauma work has been a different timeline. If that matters to ya.

 

[whiteraven]

So the consensus is: therapy is a long term commitment.

Yeah, and I've finally reached the point where I don't think it's in anyone's best interest. Just my opinion, but how we do therapy--at least in the West--seems to be more about living in their damn box than getting out of ours. I think there are sooo many untapped modalities people should be encouraged to try, but because they are not traditional, they aren't.

All medicine is only a practice. It's definitely made me worse.

 

[Dark.Green.Feathers]

with my current T? around 2 years I think, probably a little over.
Before that? in and out of “therapy” for since I was in primary school I think. Had a looot of therapists and a lot of “therapy” and a lot of it sucked, or wasn't trauma focussed/informed so only did so much (had one that did a decent job with my general anxiety I think).

Now I have a good therapist, a lot of the time I’ve had with her has been unpicking the perspective/effect years of bad therapy has had on me so I can actually engage with it properly.

CAMHS really did a number on me. endless forms to review how you’re doing instead of actually knowing/being known by your T. The feeling that I need/will have everything forced out of me and that therapy is the “homework” of tasks to try after the session and going back and forth between people who i don’t know or am scared of or both… etc etc.

I think therapy will be long term for me. Years more. I didn’t know therapy could be like this before having my current T. It’s not easy but it doesn’t feel clinical, and it doesn’t feel like the onus is on me to know how to get better and just follow these instructions and do it. It doesn’t really feel like “therapy” when I’m there. Which is good but some of me is still terrified of my T and it’s taking a long time to come round and put the shields down. Which were made with the blood of my past experiences

I think good therapy/therapists are rare, or at least rare for people who need them the most because most of us in these positions just can’t afford it. Which is a terrible thing. When it’s bad it’s really very bad, but when it is good it’s actually good.


So maybe I’ve been in it my whole life, or only a few years depending on if you take therapy to be seeing a “therapist” or as seeing someone who actually helps.