Health

Does Therapy Really Work? Let’s Unpack That.

Over the decades, especially since the pandemic, the stigma surrounding treatment has diminished. It has come to be recognized as an important form of self-care, much like a gym membership, and has become standardized as a routine, healthy endeavor, obviously investing a lot of time and a lot of money. Worth doing. By 2021, US adults will be her 42 million sought mental health care somehow from 27 million in 2002. Americans are increasingly accepting the idea that therapy is one way in which they can reliably and significantly improve their lives.

When I recently considered revisiting therapy to adjust to a major change in my life, try to identify exactly how it has helped (or not helped) me in the past. It was made. This train of thought has me wondering what research actually reveals how effective talk therapy can be in improving mental health.

Occasionally, I have tried to raise this question with friends who are also in therapy myself, and they have often tried to change the subject or even have a slightly hostile response. They felt either threatened or irrelevant just by introducing the problem of research findings. What was the point of studying in the face of the unseen things that would improve their lives—a flash of insight, a new understanding of irrational anger, a new appreciation of the perspectives of others? ? I have no doubt that therapy can change people’s lives, but I was curious to see how it could actually help people out of their suffering. Will therapy help with symptoms that cause great pain, such as fear in people coping with anxiety or insomnia in people with depression? If so, how well will it work?

Sigmund Freud, The dogmatic but genius father of psychoanalysis, he was famously uninterested in submitting his innovations to formal research, preferring to do so in the face of excavations of the unconscious brain. seems to have been thought of as a mere counting of beans. Presented with promising studies that have actually emerged, Freud said, “The abundance of reliable observations on which these claims are based makes it difficult to confirm these confirmations because they are independent of experimental validation.” I do not place much value on A certain skepticism of the scientific method persisted in psychoanalytic circles well into the late 20th century, said Andrew Gerber, director and medical director of the Psychiatric Treatment Center in New Canaan, Connecticut. , had continued his research into neuroimaging studies. Effectiveness of treatment. “When I graduated from my psychoanalytic training, my mentor analyst said to me, ‘Your analysis will make research unnecessary.’

Over time, formal psychoanalysis focused less on libido, such as psychodynamic therapy, a short-term therapy that also focused on habits and defenses acquired early in life, and cognitive-behavioral therapy to aid learning. It has been largely superseded by talk therapy that doesn’t target. Replacing negative thought patterns with more positive thought patterns. There are currently hundreds of clinical trials of various forms of talk therapy, and overall, the vast body of research is very clear. Talk therapy works, which means that people who receive it are more likely to improve their mental state. healthier than those who do not.

Related Articles

Back to top button