Have you ever had to talk to a therapist?

[Temprano26]

That is one thing Winston wrote about was that Americans have to pay to talk to a therapist for an hour because we don't have strong bonds with people. There used to be a time I ranted to therapists on a couch every week because life was so lonely that it was my only outlet. I even went to intensive therapy for six weeks and now I just remember how out of touch the therapist was.

Therapists are always telling me that I am unhappy because of negative thoughts but the fact is I look around and I come to my own conclusions positive or negative. She kept telling me to go out and have a fun time but don't expect to start a relationship. Well, maybe I want to have a ****ing relationship! That is the whole point of going out! Relationships are a big part of human happiness. It is fundamental.

No amount of therapy or positive thinking changes the FACT that I had better quality and quantity of relationships in Costa Rica even if I was there for a few months and even if most of those people spoke Spanish. It is not just romantic relationships either. I see my family once a year at Christmas if that much. They might as well be a bunch of strangers.

[QuestionMark]

That is one thing Winston wrote about was that Americans have to pay to talk to a therapist for an hour because we don't have strong bonds with people. There used to be a time I ranted to therapists on a couch every week because life was so lonely that it was my only outlet. I even went to intensive therapy for six weeks and now I just remember how out of touch the therapist was.

Therapists are always telling me that I am unhappy because of negative thoughts but the fact is I look around and I come to my own conclusions positive or negative. She kept telling me to go out and have a fun time but don't expect to start a relationship. Well, maybe I want to have a ****ing relationship! That is the whole point of going out! Relationships are a big part of human happiness. It is fundamental.

No amount of therapy or positive thinking changes the FACT that I had better quality and quantity of relationships in Costa Rica even if I was there for a few months and even if most of those people spoke Spanish. It is not just romantic relationships either. I see my family once a year at Christmas if that much. They might as well be a bunch of strangers.

+1. Good topic.

I've been to therapy to man. There were two of them I saw that were pretty good that understood my problems, related to me, and helped me but even they frustrated me too, but the majority of them are out of touch as you said. Also as Winston pointed out, most therapists you see don't really care about you, and they don't even act like they do, and some of them aren't good listeners and don't have empathy either. And because of that, for me, seeing a therapist actually me even more upset and frustrated than before I saw one. In other words, they didn't help me, they made my problems WORSE. That's very cold to supposedly be in a profession where you're supposed to help people, and you actually dont even though you know they're having probs.

Therapists do place a lot of emphasis on thoughts. Most of em have grad degrees in psychology, so they're all about that. Unfortunately, they're not too educated about other aspects/factors of life, and/or they just don't give a $h!t.

Sounds like a pimp job. You get a good, prestigious job, which I think pays pretty well, to act like you help and care about people, when actually you don't. Maybe I should become a therapist:D.

[mattyman]

To the OP; sounds like your needs for a sense of intimacy are not being me. It's most likely the shrink doesn't know what would make you feel less lonely or what your needs are.

The question is, why are there so many therapists, why are so many people turning to therapy? Is it due to the fact that people, I mean younger generations have less capacity to empathise with other people's feelings, have a tendency to judge others, to be more closed-off, to not want to sticfk through thick and this. You know the term 'a good friend is hard to find'. Well, that couldn't be any more true for generation Y. PArticularly so with Americans, shallowness doesn't help.

People have needs for intimacy, people have needs, to valued for who they are, to feel wanted by someone, to feel that they are needed, which when not met, naturally put one at risk of feeling loneliy, vulnerable and so forth. That's a fact of life. Anyone who says otherwise is bullshitting.

It's the mentality that failure to achieve these things is somehow a sign of weakness, or that admitting that you're unhappy because of it, is something that modern young people don't want to here. I think that many people deep down, FEAR all forms of loneliness, including the above. The fact that the attitude towards it has become less compassionate over time means that this fear is even worse now than at any point in the past. God knows what it's like for Americans with their levels of shallowness and narcissism, it's bad enough in the UK.

[Temprano26]

This is also a big part of being a massage therapist because massage therapists I have found are more IN touch because that is the whole point of their profession. They understand how lousy society can truly be.

[Cornfed]

I even went to intensive therapy for six weeks and now I just remember how out of touch the therapist was.

Anyone who listens to a shrink or asks for a female's advice on any kind of abstract issue needs his head read.

She kept telling me to go out and have a fun time but don't expect to start a relationship.

Classic worthless Western slag married to the government.