To clarify a bit, I always enjoy it, it’s just that I’ve never found it changes anything. I think it’s good for people without friends or family to talk to in particular, or if you’re going through something private or intense, it might be better to talk to a professional vs wearing out your friends. It also depends on your personality, what sort of issues you’re seeing a therapist for, and the therapist themselves.

Most recently I saw someone about drinking alcohol. I liked taking to him and he gave me some good advice, mainly about my relationship. However it didn’t have any impact on my drinking. I also told him about my drug use as a teen and was not thrilled to see it permanently recorded in my medical record, which suggests to me to not be honest with therapists, something I already have a notion of from around 20 years ago.

Also my GF and I were seeing a counselor about our relationship, and while we enjoyed taking to her, again, it didn’t really have any impact. We have all the same problems we had before to the same extent.

One common thing with those cases though is we weren’t trying that hard to change, ourselves. I was fairy lackadaisical about not drinking, and my GF didn’t take counseling very seriously. She mainly seemed to think it was an opportunity to criticize me.