Do these sorts of things really help?

Yup! That's exactly what I wanted to do. Other people might describe it differently and I am sure if you looked at my T's notes... well let's not go there! But I am a long term sufferer of depression, and at the time when I started therapy about 1.5 years ago, I also really bad anxiety about leaving the house/bed, I guess you could say pretty much agoraphobia. But I knew what I wanted deep down was to be able to connect to my life better, especially the PEOPLE. I think I actually said that during my first appointment, it was very melodramatic... just like, "omg pls help me connect to life again!!!!!"

The weird thing is that before starting therapy I saw so much of my issues as a cut and dry diagnosis and now when I start to get symptoms I go down my checklist: am I lonely? Overworked? Fighting with someone? This is a whoooole new awareness for me, and I think it started actually in therapy, as I started to get more aware within the relationship with T. Meds have helped but really that awareness and having new skills to actually look at relationships, has been the more "useful thing" about therapy. Mileage may vary! It has been really interesting to hear all the answers on here and what we all get out of it.