My therapist is a "baby T," still in school. He's 26 years old and the best therapist I have ever had, hands down. You might want to try to lose that bias. :-)

I found the groups helpful, because there are bound to be other people in them with at least one or two of your same issues, and you can help each other with new ideas, etc. The success of the group can depend on the competence of the therapist running it, but I only ran across one who had no business being a mental health professional, although she would have made a good kindergarten teacher.

I also appreciated that I was there with other struggling people. Try as they might, your friends have no idea what you're going through unless they've gone through it. Real support comes from fellow travelers (isn't that why we're all here on these forums?).

I appreciated that I saw a pdoc daily for as long a period of time as he felt was necessary to spend with me. That helped keep me grounded and I felt cared for and knew that I wasn't going to be left alone to deal with all the crap going on in my head. I am eternally grateful to my inpatient pdoc -- my regular pdoc doesn't do inpatient, but he hooked me up with a friend of his who does, at that hospital. I was admitted at about 8 on a Friday night, and by 9 Saturday morning, the first time he came to see me, he knew everything about my history and I didn't have to waste time starting from the very beginning. I thought it was impressive that on his own time he clearly decided to call my regular pdoc to discuss what needed to be done with me.

Overall, while it's not on my top 10 vacation spots :-), it was a good experience for me, and now that I know what it's about, I'll be less hesitant to do it again.

Candy