[Miswimmy1]

I was thinking about this the other day. I would have really benefited from therapy early on, but I didn't ever start therapy until I was about 15 years old. My parents used therapy as a threat for 'bad' behavior (OCD rituals). My symptoms were so bad that my parents eventually made me go see a therapist. How did you guys first get into therapy?

Other. It was actually a minister who led me to my first therapist. He saw a need for me to have help dealing with my depression and abuse history, and helped set up my first appointment.

[atisketatasket]

Friends had been suggesting I try it for sometime to deal with a particular issue; I had two other issues I wanted help with, so this past March I eventually voluntarily made an appointment with possibly the most irritating therapist in the world. It's been somewhat useful among a sea of crises.

So I checked off the first two options.

My ex partner suggested it when we broke up because she knew I was in a really bad place, that was five years ago and I haven't looked back. Only for that I would never have went

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[ejayy78]

One of my friends went with me to the mental health center at my university almost 4 years ago. I refused to see anyone there, but to make my friend happy, I took a flyer listing all of the counseling centers in our area that my university either recommended or was somehow affiliated with. I filled out an online application to the first center on the list and got matched with my T later that day, and then saw her two days after that. Scariest thing I had ever done, and I never expected my time with T to last so long, but it has. As much as I hate to admit it, therapy has changed my life for the better.

[Jessica Hazlitt]

I had years of CBT for a medical issue, during which we discovered the roots lay deeper than CBT could help with. So I decided to try psychotherapy and found my T through a local charity.

[Polibeth]

My family made me go at age 14 but I rebelled against the experience and it was a very negative experience. I re-entered therapy at age 26 on my own, willingly, and it was much better.

[Out There]

My T is also a councilor and initially my employer paid for some sessions with him. Then I decided to continue seeing him privately in therapy.

[Suraya]

My mother brought me a few times when I was a teen because I was depressed and the family doc suggested it. That T kept insisting I was using drugs because my eyes were dilated. I wasn't and my mother didn't believe me. Luckily, I only had to go a few times. I tried again at age 30 when life was falling apart, and that T did more questioning of me than helping me. Then she turned around after about six sessions and said I wasn't a good fit because my religious beliefs were too different from hers. I felt rejected and now had two negative T experiences. So again at 40 my life fell apart and my regular doc had been prescribing antidepressants for a few years and had been suggesting for some time I see a therapist. It reached a point where she basically said I really needed to because my depression was so bad. Luckily, my T this time is good.

[yagr]

The court system; I was thirteen.

[doyoutrustme]

after i had a baby i was all depressed, went to a psychiatrist for the meds. he was very attentive and i wound up doing therapy with him.

I was severly anorxic for many years and had several friends trying to get me into therapy. I did it voluntarily, but they were all very happy.

[Argonautomobile]

Went to a GP in crisis. Was referred to my T.

[Cinnamon_Stick]

I started going to therapy when I was 13 and my parents made me go because I have severe depression. I go now as an adult on my own because I know I really need it.

[NowhereUSA]

About seven years ago, I had a breakdown. At least that's the only way to describe it. I couldn't function anymore. So a friend, an older woman (could be my mother), helped me get into a doctor and then start looking for someone to see. I was in a desperate place and I needed help. The first person I saw was just a counselor but I eventually made it to my T and I'm so grateful my friend knew what to do when I finally confessed my horrible depression to her.

[Nammu]

After I was stitched up a social worker referred me to a psychologist for domestic abuse counseling

[healed84]

I sought it out myself.. After about a year of dealing with bad anxiety I was done and wanted to figure out what was causing it. I have been thinking about how I started a lot lately... A couple of weeks ago marked 4 years of working with t. But I didn't start out with my current t, about 6 months before my first appointment with current t I had just started having sessions with another t in the same office. That t ended having to leave in medical leave and I waited about three months and got current t. I am a firm believer of things happening for a reason.. And thankful that I ended up with this t because he is the kind of t, with the kind of approach that I needed and we have really work well together.

[Permacultural]

Seriously dangerous depression, impending divorce, total radical shift in standard of living and on my own in a new city.

[junkDNA]

i ran away to chicago a month after my 16th birthday. when they found me i was committed to a psych ward and then shipped off to a boot campish wilderness program for 8 months. when i finally got out of that hell hole i saw a therapist my mom found... but he turned out to be awful and he abused me.

[laxer12]

I went after becoming pretty depressed after moving across the country. I should have gone at an earlier age to deal with some family issues and actually attempted therapy twice while in college but did not last more than two sessions.

[AnxiousGirl]

My parents made me go. My anxiety was getting so out of hand that it was freaking them out. Been in therapy for a year but sometimes I still have those feelings of not wanting to go. It's helping but slowly.

[ScarletPimpernel]

I was 13 and hospitalized. At 18, I was homeless, but county mental health took me in and gave me a T. Then at 31, I chose to go back to therapy.

Doctor recommended it.

[Myrto]

I had been dealing with severe depression for years until one day I decided to finally talk to my GP about it. He recommended my current therapist.
I should have entered therapy way sooner.

[lunatic soul]

I was hospitalized when I overdosed and they wanted to send me to psychiatric hospital but I was 17 so my father didnt let them to do it.
Then I saw psychologist who I know outside but it was hard to talk to her because I know her outside and I thought it cant help me.
Then I tried benzos which I stole from my mother, it helped me so much because I was really anxious. I tried to find help and went to church and priest find me T saying she would see me for free first time and that she is very nice. I saw her and she was mad (I guess because I saw her for free), she said Im stupid drug abuser and jelled at me, wrote down a number of psych hospital saying I can see there pdoc for free, she called her friend pdoc and said that Im hopeless and would see her. She wrote her name and tell me to call to the hospital this week and see her but I thought they are monsters and didn't do it.
I tried to find information about that hospital and find another one pdoc who works too, there (my former T), there were no information about him, only his name, so I called and said I want to see that pdoc. When I first see him he wanted to send me to another hospital saying I need to be impatient. I went to talk to another pdoc saying I want to finish school so I cant go to hospital, she said she doesnt want to be my doc because she cant trust me (only if I were impatient) so she told me to go back to previous doc which I did.
Then I started to see him as a pdoc and after 3 months when I got job, he said me to start therapy with him, so I started therapy and Im still in therapy with him.