Hi Alyssa,
I have been going to a therapist since early 2020 (pre-pandemic – whether the timing was good or bad, I’ll never know). She works for me pretty well, but I think whether therapy works out for someone is down to individual difference, and also the type of treatment approach the therapist employs. There’s a lot of different types – most common is Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), but there’s also things like Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Some therapists blend the strategies together for a customized treatment approach, because sometimes certain therapy approaches can actually be detrimental. For example, CBT is common because it’s effective for a wide variety of mental illnesses and struggles, but it’s doesn’t work for everyone – for some, it unintentionally makes them feel like things that are out of their control are their fault. As another example, ACT works best for things like OCD, where a preoccupation with internal thoughts and the morality of those thoughts can become intensely distressing, but it might not do much for something else. Whether therapy helps is also dependent on who your therapist is. It’s horrible, but a fact that some therapists are bullies and shouldn’t be a therapist. Other times, the therapist may not understand and may employ ineffective or inadvertently harmful methods. It can take a while and more than a few tries to find the “right” therapist because of this. And the fact remains that some people just don’t benefit from therapy, and need to manage their mental health in other ways. So while I go to therapy and benefit from it, it’s entirely circumstantial, and I don’t necessarily recommend it to everyone. It does help to have someone to talk to, but that someone doesn’t have to be a therapist, as long as it’s handled safely, respectfully, and with consent.