I've decided I should probably reach out after suffering more than usual for almost a straight year. The things I've been working on to improve my mental health are helping a little, but it's not enough.
I'd like to hear from the community about effectiveness and cost. I don't have health insurance, so it's all out of pocket
So when you say online therapy, do you mean like telehealth or like, some app? I have a therapist that I vall/VC with and tbh it's good. And convenient. In person is better. But VC gets you like 80-90% there I think?
I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. If there are other options, I'm interested in hearing them. In my head I imagined a person I can text during business hours. I don't really enjoy talking on the phone.
Hmm. Text, imo, isn't that great. And the services that do text are just... not.. great. You are also against video chat? Or just voice only over a computer?
I'm not completely against it, it's just finding the time for it, and I live in BFE with unreliable internet. If I'm going to schedule a video call, I might as well go to an in- person visit in an office
True, I mean I'd say it's easier to get a time slot that works for you over video call. And easier to find therapists that do sliding scale payment.
For me, it was also gonna take a long time to locally get a gender therapist. It was much easier to find therapists specializing in gender over VC. But that's a specific situation. You can also screen for leftists (I did that too, my therapist is a leftist and also a lesbian, which helps things just in terms of like, understanding what it's like to be queer in some way and also understanding what I'm talking about when it comes to capitalism and what not)
That's good advice. I should see if I can find a leftist therapist. A small part of what I'm going through could be called "political/economic climate anxiety" or something.
I have a tendency to carry the weight of the world on my shoulders, and as we all know here, it's so much worse when you're a leftist.
I don't want to have to argue my lived experience with someone who makes in a day what I make in a week, and have them tell me its irrational the way I feel.
I tried it a couple of times. The therapist was too slow to reply to my messages and it just frustrated me.
i had a bad time with call-in therapy but i've never had a good time with any therapy so that's probably only an indictment of that guy.
It worked fantastically for me, no having to take the bus to go somewhere far away for early hour sessions, and don't have to deal with the sensory overload of the therapist's office, and it's usually cheaper too. Wholeheartedly recommend.
That's part of why I was hoping to hear good things about text therapy. I live so far from the next major town that would have therapists, that it would add significant cost to the process just in gas and personal time. I already don't feel like I have enough personal time between work and responsibilities at home. It's hard enough to squeeze any fun in, let alone an hour visit to an office plus an almost two hour round trip commute.
