Have you actually spent all this time on this forum and not realized that many, many people have no clue that their thoughts are distorted? That seems to be one of the biggest issues I see here: people who believe in their whole hearts that what they are thinking is actual fact and reality when in actuality their thinking is completely messed up by whatever in their life has gotten them into this state. The therapist's real challenge is getting people to recognize their mistakes in thinking so that they aren't slaves to that distorted thinking any longer.

People go into therapy knowing they are miserable or lonely or depressed or manic or anxious or whatever, but generally they are not at all aware that all of these feelings they are having are the direct result of their mistaken thinking about themselves.

So, I'd say people generally go into therapy because they don't like how they are feeling, and it is usually in the process of therapy that they realize how tied they are to their screwed up thinking which is often the result of years and years of going through all sorts of yuck in their lives.