[stopdog]

If something has changed or if you are feeling better or worse - do you attribute it to therapy?

For me, while an interesting experiment in seeing two of them - I would not say it has had much impact on my daily life one way or the other.
My bank account - yes, but my life - no.

Absolutely yes. Therapy, and a lot of my own hard work applying what I was learning in therapy, absolutely got me where I am today.

[Ad Intra]

I've been in therapy twice and for a total of 17 months. I learned something both times I was in therapy and I'm a totally different person now.

[magicalprince]

yes but it was because of who she was to me and not anything she did

[pbutton]

Yes. I have purposefully made several changes to the way I think and react to things, after examining my beliefs/behaviors in therapy. My anxiety has lost a great deal of its power in my life.

I selected the therapy and other factors option. If I had simply shown up and refused to try anything new, therapy itself would not have helped me.

[JustShakey]

The change came from me, but without the support of therapy I couldn't have done it. When I'm able to create and maintain my own real-life support systems I won't need therapy anymore (though I may still want it, we'll see...). That ability to fulfill my needs through relationships has always been stunted in me and was further damaged by my marriage. With T I'm learning skills that I should have learned as a teen/preteen - the fledgling independence (interdependence?) that was too threatening for my mother. I won't say it would be impossible to learn such things as an adult without therapy, but it would take a very special sort of relationship, the kind that I think you might be lucky to come across even once in a lifetime.

Good question. I almost chose "other", because while I have had positive changes occur in my life from therapy, they don't always last.

It seems like the same issues often resurface or become problematic again a few years later for me and have to be dealt with again. It's easier once you've dealt with them before, but still annoying when it happens the first few times.

After a couple of times, I decided that that's apparently how emotional issues often work and adjusted myself to the idea that I'd have to revisit them.

[Crescent Moon]

Yes. I can't discount the affect of lamictal, but therapy was the biggest thing.

[Nammu]

I put therapy and other. I need both. Therapy felt with PTSD and how to recognize my BP mood swings. The meds helped control the mood swings.

[stopdog]

Interestingly enough - I did not think about drugs when I put other - it fits - I just did not think consider it.

Originally Posted by stopdog

Interestingly enough - I did not think about drugs when I put other - it fits - I just did not think consider it.

I think for many of us, there is such a combination of factors working together. For me, the biggest change-maker was therapy and my hard work at that therapy. Meds helped, family helped, etc., but therapy was the big game changer for me.

[atisketatasket]

Other. I saw changes as I started therapy. I don't think they were due to therapy but to the fact that starting therapy itself was such a huge hump for me to get over that I managed to get over a few smaller ones at the same time.

Since then? No. And certainly not to do with what I'm in therapy for.

My life has changed a lot since starting therapy. I attribute all the change to therapy.

Definitely a lot change has been due to therapy (but therapy has caused its own issues too) also time has passed and things have changed a little in my life since I started therapy, which helps.

[doyoutrustme]

Therapy doesn't work, you work.

[Salmon77]

I think it's a slow, gradual and indirect process but I am seeing changes that I don't think I would without therapy.

[Cinnamon_Stick]

Yes. All of the change that has happened is because of therapy. Therapy has helped me so much to make positive changes.

Therapy caused a lot of damage and pain for me. I only got better when I got out of the bad therapy relationship. I realized I was a lot stronger than I thought and I wasn't dependent on someone else to "help" me (or completely screw me up).

Therapy is somewhat selfish I think.

[brillskep]

I find change is usually due to a variety of factors combined, but personally I do feel therapy has had a great impact on the changes in me - both for the better and for the worse.

I don't understand how I could know that. There may perhaps have been changes, but I don't know whether they are due to therapy or other factors, or if they are a figment of my imagination.

[gayleggg]

Yes, he has definitely helped me put a very destructive acting out pattern in my past. It took a lot of work but we did it.

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[StressedMess]

Therapy and other factors. Mostly my serious desire to get better, coupled with my medication and my willingness to learn new things. I don't think the T had anything to do with the changes, just offered a guidepost every now and then.

[Chummy]

Yes. Therapy and what we do in therapy and meds.

Most definitely yes, and in a positive way. I am light-years away from the closed up little person who first walked into t's consulting room. I believe it is due to therapy/the therapeutic relationship between t and I, my commitment to wanting a better life for myself, and the hard work that I have done and continue to do.

[feralkittymom]

I would absolutely attribute a major shift in my emotions and self-concept to therapy. Such a developmental shift allowed me to engage with life quite differently than I had previously or would have otherwise. I think I have a unique perspective on this question simply because my therapy was so long (11 years with the same T) and significant time has passed since it concluded ( close to 20 years).

And I do think therapy can work under the right circumstances, that it is a mixture of conscious and unconscious processes. The changes I experienced weren't simply due to conscious emotional and cognitive work that I did. Much was the result of the skill of my T, the role he was willing to undertake in my life, and the authenticity of the relationship between us. The bulk of my "work" was to show up, reveal my honest raw emotions and thoughts, allow him to engage with me, and reflect as much as possible in and out of sessions. Of course, none of this was accomplished perfectly, but each of us being willing to grapple with the results was pretty consistent.

So I would attribute most of my conscious shifts in thinking as driven by my unconscious shift in emotions that came from the relationship.