Having defined goals helps me measure how helpful therapy is or isn't. I've found it helpful at half a dozen times in my life, but then I take breaks in between when I feel like I've gone as far with that bout as I can. So I'll go for a year, off for three. Back on with someone else for three years, off for two, etc. Each time I go back for a reason. I'm not like Woody Allen--I don't see the point in going forever, just to endlessly analyze myself. But that's me. Other people probably aren't as goal-oriented, and that's fine.

Right now I go just to keep myself accountable, because my spouse has good insurance and it's cheap to go. At an earlier point in my life it wasn't cheap at all but I still did whatever I could to keep going because my illness was critical. Now, not so much. It gets slowly better.

Honestly the thing that has helped me more than anything, therapy included, was getting on the right meds. It was like flipping a switch and suddenly turning 'normal'. Like, wow--THIS is what I'm SUPPOSED to feel like! What a revelation.