Hello,
Lately I have been overwhelmed with my schedule, finances and social life. I am always trying to improve my mental health. With all of this stress I am considering therapy, mainly for someone to talk, to process all my thoughts, and maybe help me develop ideas or come up with strategies to cope better. I have ADHD, Autism, and some other things if that helps anyone relate.
I have three main questions:
Has therapy helped you enough to be worth the time?
Is it very difficult to find a therapist you mesh with?
How do I find a therapist? From a doctor’s referral? Online service? Through insurance? (I live in the United States.)
Any experience or advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated!
Edit: I just wanted to thank everyone for your help and support! I hope everyone is doing well and has seen positive changes. And I hope all these replies help other people besides myself. I’m feeling more positive and hopeful toward finding the right therapist. Your kindness is appreciated!
To share my experience concerning your questions.
Definitely, but with very varying results, and also with the caveat that my time in phases of deep depression is almost worthless because I can’t really use it for myself or even productively for others either. The varying results part leads to
Yes, I’ve been in all kinds of therapies, from analytic to purely psychiatric, have gotten a ton of different diagnoses since my early teens, and results have been sometimes disheartening and sometimes lifechanging in positive ways. My advice is: Don’t be afraid to switch therapists if after a few sessions you notice it’s not working out, and try to in advance research as well as possible if there are any specialised in cases like your own (seeing as you already have some diagnosis to work with).
With the last point, I can’t really help you much, no idea how it is in the US. Here, you can usually get lists with regional therapists that are covered from your insurance. Also there are more and more online platforms, although I couldn’t help you with US-based ones.
Here’s hoping you will find someone that can help you, and even if that doesn’t happen, that you will be able to manage to get through the curret tough times. Be well and take care.
Thanks! This helps me paint a better picture of searching for one. I will try to do my research. I definitely have more diagnoses I forgot to mention in this post. I’ve spent a long time working on all of them. At least the initial shock is over with and I’ve had time to work on all of them to an extent. I just need to take the next steps now.
Thanks for your help and your kind words. I will figure things out regardless, but I am very hopeful now that I might receive some help.