Did therapy help reduce your social anxiety?

[vanessa-1998]

Hello everyone. I've been seeing a therapist due to severe anxiety and depression and I don't think it's working out-- the therapist just doesn't seem like a good fit. I don't feel like I can tell her everything. She also doesn't really employ a method for coping with anxiety; it's more like she just lets me rant, which is can be beneficial but can only do so much. The next step is to find a new therapist of course, but it would be awesome to look for signs or techniques that an effective therapist treating social anxiety employs. I've been suffering from social anxiety for years and I'm tired of it constantly obstructing my life. If you have any tips about seeking professional help, that would be greatly appreciated. An answer to the title of my thread would also be welcome.

 

[triceps]

Hi vanessa and welcome. It's difficult to suggest specific therapies to ask a new therapist if they have expertise in. I'll share my experience. I attended a weekly anxiety group for five years. The therapist utilized a therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and I would have to say it really helped some members and had marginal results for others. One huge advantage our therapist had was a very close relationship with an M.D. who would prescribe medication upon the therapists' recommendation. The M.D. would also count our attendance to the group meetings as enough observation to warrant renewal of meds where normally you'd have to see the doctor every six months to get refills. It saved alot of money for us. Hopefully you can glean some info from my experience that might help in your choosing a new therapist.

 

[Lizard_Queen]

Hi Vanessa! To answer the question, no! Talking to my therapist really stressed me out. And then I would go home and fixate on everything that I had told her. I haven't been to a therapist since.

(Probably not the best advice, but that's my experience with it.)

 

[ManaClash]

Honestly you could chalk up it to my Anxiety and panic Disorder but I've never felt payothapry help much at all or maybe I'm just a pessimist hard to say. it's nice to have someone to talk to but how much can talking actually do? Maybe if you find the right one idk I've had some terrible ones in the past. I also feel like men have a harder time than women with it.

 

[Cuchculan]

Therapy is sort of a love / hate thing. Is only so much you can talk about. See a new therapist and you have to start all over again. Which can be annoying. Didn't like the fact that most were reading books and then giving me answers. A good therapist should not have to look for answer in a book. They should know their stuff. So the second I saw a book coming out, that was enough for me. Most these days base what they do on Buddhist material. They like to claim it as their own. But Mindfulness has been around for Centuries. You could just as easily buy a book yourself and really put the effort in using the book. Instead of talking you would be doing a lot of writing.

 

[ManaClash]

Therapy is sort of a love / hate thing. Is only so much you can talk about. See a new therapist and you have to start all over again. Which can be annoying. Didn't like the fact that most were reading books and then giving me answers. A good therapist should not have to look for answer in a book. They should know their stuff. So the second I saw a book coming out, that was enough for me. Most these days base what they do on Buddhist material. They like to claim it as their own. But Mindfulness has been around for Centuries. You could just as easily buy a book yourself and really put the effort in using the book. Instead of talking you would be doing a lot of writing.

I also feel like they don't have a clue what it's like to suffer from Anxiety I mean you either have it or you don't.

 

[Cuchculan]

I also feel like they don't have a clue what it's like to suffer from Anxiety I mean you either have it or you don't.

I would agree with your every word on this. They know what they read in books. Only once did a therapist sit me down and make me hyperventilate. I kid you not. He also done it himself. I got what he was doing. Trying to show me how to calm the breathing back down again. But he was one in a million. He would have ways of making you feel certain ways. As if to mimic a panic attack. Whatever he made me do, he done also. It was a different approach.