Is psychotherapy a good idea?

Heya! I've been contemplating for many years if my mental health is "normal" so to say. Starting as a young teenager I developed an interest and understanding for mental disorders, at the same time I was trying to figure out what it was to be and who I was. I didn't fit in at all, didn't understand how the people around me were thinking. Those who I ended up befriending and understanding best turned out to be deep in some type of disorder or spectrum, be it ADHD, depression, autism, take your pick.

6 years later and I still keep drifting in and out of states of feeling great and feeling terrible. So far I have visited counsellors and seen doctors with varying results. Most recently I was told to take AD by my gp because I was depressed. I did for some weeks but I stopped after I missed an appointment with the gp, the way most of my encounters with professionals have come to a permanent end. I feel pretty great mentally, creative, motivated, enjoying myself again. The sudden switch doesn't really make sense to me.

Now, sorry for being slow to the point but here it comes. As I have never stayed with a professional for long enough for them to be able to spot what is up with my mind, it keeps weighing on me. Would it be worthwhile or even possible to stay with a therapist for a longer time without permanently feeling mentally unwell? As in would they take me seriously just with a drifting state of mind more than a permanently active disorder.

If something is irregular with my mind, I would like to know how to best deal with it. Every time I thought I had it figured out so far my mental health changed for the better and I stopped pursuing an answer, but then a few months later it returns and it takes me weeks to make a new appointment.

Thanks for listening!

You say that you "feel pretty great mentally, creative, motivated, enjoying myself again."
Why see a therapist then if that's the case?

I think most of them could go along with that, at least the ones that you could bond with anyway. I would plan a little speech to them (as you try them out) about what you wanted from therapy, because they're going to ask. I've told them I don't have a grand goal and they've accepted that.

I think so. I see my mine more for support vs. seeing her to accomplish a goal.

You might ask one if you happen to go back. Maybe you wouldn’t want to see one often.

After some time you might want to gauge whether seeing a therapist is a positive move in your life.

It's hard to find a good therapist, imo. None of mine came close to the root of the cause. I just figured out one of my life-long problems (derealization) recently by googling some symptoms. I told my last therapist and she didn't want to hear about it. I fear that my next therapist is not going to be any good.

It might be possible for a therapist to help you figure out why you have the times when you feel terrible, and hopefully prevent them. Obviously I am in no way qualified to make any kind of diagnoses, but you might ask about bipolar, cyclothymia and other mood disorders that make you go up and down.

I have frequent depressive episodes interspersed with mostly normal moods. I never have any great highs. But I have noticed that I can actually dig a little deeper and learn more coping skills when I am not super depressed. So I go consistently...even when I'm not feeling particularly bad.

with therapists, I say don't gamble more than you are willing to lose.

Clear goals are a helpful way to start. It definitely promotes self-discovery , though I am on the fence about how it impacts daily life still. It is big experience.

Read the thread titles of this forum or any other, and you might get a sense of the potential problems created by therapy. I've found it to be dangerous and full of poorly defined risks and sketchy assumptions.

For me, meditation has been helpful for sorting out psych stuff. And functional medicine has been helpful for investigating biological factors in mental and physical health, and actually getting to the bottom of things.

skitsnigel, I definitely believe in the benefits of therapy/counseling.

It sounds like you have a lot of questions and have had for quite some time. Maybe therapy could help you find the answers to some of those questions. It wouldn't hurt to try.

Therapy has helped me immensely through the years. Helped me grow, move forward, and learn better coping skills. I certainly learned a lot more about myself. And there were things in my past that were holding me back from becoming the person I wanted to be. Therapy gave/gives me a safe place to work on that.

I also agree with the benefits of meditation as BudFox mentioned, and medication if needed. Sometimes we have to use everything in the toolbox, at least imo.

Btw, I want to mention....there are many different types of therapy.