therapy
this is for those who have never been in therapy or feel like they need it but are unsure of what to expect. that being said, every person's experiences may differ with therapy but there are a few things to keep in mind.
one: you have to keep an open mind going into it knowing that your priority is to be accepting of change and seeking it. there is nothing else that bothers me when people are expecting some miracle or cure-all from getting into something, anything without thinking about how their mentality is what makes the difference. As a tangent, the most difficult things we face being human is to learn how to love ourselves and understanding what clear needs/wants/goals we want to establish for ourselves in the present time and how to get there.
two: the dynamic between yourself and your chosen therapist is going to make a difference and shape your experience based on that dynamic. Some people in this world are just not compatible with ourselves, whether if its due to personality, approach, style, values, whatever. this doesn't spontaneously go away just because a person has the "licensed professional" label attached to their name.
three: based on what you know about your medical history and self-health from point #1, then you're going to be asked to have a separate psychiatrist do some background checks and ask if you want a diagnosis test on specific disorders. Psychiatrist are there to help you with medication-based treatment while therapist are focusing on other types of therapy such as CBT/DBT, group therapy, etc (there are many types).
Going into my experience with therapy i realize that the best way to forward is doing what i know best: being honest. Really, they tell you this immediately so that there is no confusion and no mistrust between your therapist. It doesn't do either party any good and so i did talk about my own skepticisms about therapy going into it from others who didn't find it effective. Over time, i contemplated about changing my therapist a few times but i'm glad that i didn't. The one i wanted to see for awhile had transferred to a different location anyways, but i think that my therapist and i get along great. i can appreciate some moments where we get to talk about ourselves as if we are well-acquainted but not quite friends and learning about my therapist's personal life versus professional life can be intriguing. honestly, it has made me want to lean into being a therapist rather than doing another half a decade of schooling to be able to be a mortician.
But, how did i grow as a person? What did i do to get here from just about two years of therapy? It doesn't sound like a lot when you say it like this: therapy sessions for me are once a week, every week. In a year that is only 52 times and 104 times in two years. Well, therapy is just about tackling what's on the forefront of your mind first. Focusing on what is giving you a hard time will get you to think and debunk things as you speak out loud. A therapist is just there to ask the questions that opens the way for you.
i thought for the longest time, talking to myself was the dumbest shit ever. it felt cringe, weird, and i didn't want people to think i was a freak. But, talking out loud slows you down to understand yourself in your sense of hearing which is MUCH slower than how fast your mind may be going when its thinking inside your head. The internal dialogue in my head for me at least, is quite fucking fast. ALL the time, so when i speak to myself, it makes me more aware of my surroundings and sometimes to stop dissociating. My manager at my current job actually talked about this with me because it was important to pace yourself when you drop donuts into the fryer. i had to count out loud and raise my voice so i can hear myself, but he pushed me to be loud enough that the kitchen heard me. i was embarrassed at first and later on.. i just got used to it and didn't need to do it anymore. This is a great thing for me because i also felt weird about speaking to my pets! Just me and my pets... now, i don't give a shit and i think its quite a bonding experience. Just doing this has made me more open to talk and be more confident in my social execution and my god, that's just one example of something i've learned for myself through therapy. That is something you can learn in just one session, so now... 104 times in therapy seems like a huge amount of progress, huh.