No, it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the efficacy of therapy. I was not actually suggesting that it's necessary to go against those patterns. My point is that whether the pattern manifests itself in helpful or unhelpful ways, it's important to be aware of its existence, of how it operates, where it comes from and what is its end goal to be able to make a conscious choice of how much to go along with it and where to stop or whether it's beneficial to go along with it at all. Awareness, in and of itself, is the most important thing. What you do with this awareness is secondary.

I also would say that it's counter-productive to go against the established pattern when one still feels the need to continue it. If there is still the need to repeat something, that means there is still the need to learn, to understand something important from it.

I gave up doing the same thing when I no longer felt the need to continue. I would've never given up only because my intellect understood that continuing to do this thing is unhelpful and irrational. That's why prudent and rational advice we get from other people doesn't help. We don't follow it even if we know that the advice is sound. What we "know" intellectually, on the rational level is not the real knowledge we need to be able to make wise choices. We really know something only when our emotions finally "get it". Until then the drama continues..And it needs to continue because that's how we learn..