For context, I (23M) live in the United States. In Ohio. A bit concerned about privacy because of the whole Nazi problem and the fact that I live in an abusive household.
I’ve been working on myself a lot recently and realized that I can’t do this alone anymore (or rely on Internet strangers to talk about my issues). I feel like I finally have the strength to ask for help in the real world. I’ve just never done this before. What’s it like? Is it warm and fuzzy, or cold and analytical? (Does it feel like someone is providing care and comfort, or is it more like an emotionally detached scientist meticulously studying you and scribbling down notes while mumbling “Hmm, I see, I see” while you yap at them?) Do you start to see results right away, or are things slow at first? How much stuff is recorded in a database that other systems can look up?
Random thoughts in no order.
I started therapy way late in life. I wasn’t against bit in general, I just thought I was too stubborn and private to get anything out of it. Good for you starting earlier than I did.
It started out awkward but I realized this was up to me if i wanted to get any thing out of it. This person went through a lot of trouble to be in a position to help me and I could either just trust that, or I should stop wasting her time and my money.
I got lucky and found someone I could connect to on my first try. My wife had to go through a few till she got someone she felt good about. Don’t feel bad if you dont find a connection with the first few you go to. This is important enough to get right. Do a session or two till you find someone you can be open and honest with.
The one I ended up seeing for a few years was significantly younger than me but we had a couple of big things in common so it worked really well.
Its like seeing a doctor, be honest. They cant help you if you don’t tell them what’s wrong. Doctors and therapists you tell everything to, cops you say nothing to. Everyone else is a case by case thing.
I can only speak from my experience but sessions were just talking and having conversation about what was going on in my head and life. Sometimes she’d suggest a book or something, but mostly she’s ask a few questions and let me work out what was up. Like, she knew the questions to ask to get me thinking about untangling my knots. It wasn’t her making notes about my problems and giving me solutions. Though she did have a few exercises to suggest I do that helped as well.
Once I let my ego or whatever go and started being honest with her and myself, I started feeling better pretty quick. Thats not to say my problems were solved or I had shit figured out, just that I felt like I was actually doing something about it. And that felt good. Like there was a better way to do things if I put in the work to relearn some habits and understand why I did things one way instead of another.
Good luck with this.