Therapy can be used for a lot of other things, though, and I find this take can scare a lot of people away from it.

They’re only human so you gotta find someone who’s good and works well for you but they’re great for relationships or trauma or just venting. Mine’s awesome and doesn’t try to tell me that actually working is so great or that my ADHD is problem.

There are so many people who really need it that don’t go because “it doesn’t work anyway”.

I totally agree with your standpoint, but would like to add that in this whole thread no one has mentioned that many people do need help as individuals. While I have made many negative experiences with therapists only trying to get me functional again, analyzing mental health problems away isn't going to work either. I feel like focusing only on the structural problems in this context is ignoring the individuals fighting mental health problems. That's what also frustrated me with the antipsychiatric movement.

We should be able to discuss both the structural and individual levels, because both are essential to actually solving any problems.

It’s kind of like saying that the individual who isn’t responding well to the abysmal conditions created by capitalism is “broken” and not the system itself. So most of the time you are gonna get a “best I can do is give you some pills that dull all your emotions, good and bad”.

It's me ✨😎🥰

When I constantly stated the same reasons for attending mental healthcare when I got there, after a shake up in the ownership of the network, I was terminated coverage by my place because no one there got it into their head:

Major sources of depression and anxiety aren't fixable with therapy and pills, they are only fixed with a major change in income and political climate. Even if I somehow have a job that pays 8 figures, it doesn't solve the social issues of me and my friends being future victims with no way to stop it.

And then they just went "Well since you're too focused on what you can't change, you can't change at all, buh-bye!"

At some point I just gotta wonder who's actually mentally ill. The people who see the truth and try to change it despite the lack of influence, or the people who ignore it and say everything is okay.

I mean, when I expressed to my last therapist of the network "Hey this place in town, violated the state labor laws and I'm trying to figure out if I can sue them." she just said "But I like the gas in my tank."

Therapy can help people develop effective communication skills for self-advocacy, and emotion regulation skills to stay calm under pressure.

Therapy can help people notice things they didn't notice before that might improve their thoughts/outlook, and better understand both themselves and others.

It can help people to clarify and organize their priorities, and improve motivation and increase the rate of progress toward their goals.

A good therapist (usually of the social worker variety, ime) will help you navigate and pursue resources via government, NGOs, and even local mutual aid networks

Therapists act as agents of social control in that we're pushed as the solution to problems which actually have systemic causes, but therapy doesn't have to be inherently oppressive