[jakelazaroff]

If you want to become fit, you need to exercise indefinitely or your muscles will atrophy. If you want to lose weight, you need to diet indefinitely or you'll regain it. The steps you take to lower your cholesterol? Indefinite. Blood pressure? Indefinite. Blood sugar? Indefinite.

It's no different with mental health. We are perpetual works in progress. Any changes take not only effort to accomplish, but effort to maintain. That's just how humans work.

[johnnienaked]

The strongest indicator of general mental unwellness is the pervasive religious belief that "you need to work on yourself."

I think most if not all need for drug use would pretty much disappear overnight if we lived in a society where just being human didn't result in excommunication.

[jakelazaroff]

In my early 20s I ordered takeout every night and mostly ate like crap, but my health and general wellbeing improved (along with my finances) when I started cooking at home and eating a more balanced diet.

Was there something "wrong" with me? No, but I definitely prefer this version of myself! And it takes sustained, ongoing effort — there are still nights when I'm tempted to just order takeout, but I push myself to cook something and end up glad I did so.

The same goes for physical fitness, career, hobbies, personal relationships, mental health… you can just sort of blindly stumble through life without any intentionality, but to me it seems like a good way to squander your precious years on this planet.

[weregiraffe]

>If you want to become fit, you need to exercise indefinitely or your muscles will atrophy.

You can feel and see the effects of exercise very soon after starting. It's cumulative and predictable. Therapy is nothing like that.

[fragmede]

It depends on the therapist and the patient. Therapists, like every other profession has practitioners that are really really good, some that are mediocre, and everything in between. Patients, too, come in all shapes and all sizes.

When therapy works, it works really really well, and relatively quickly too. From casual observation of friends and other people around me (ie, as a regular person; I'm not a health care professional.) I've seen people manage to make sustained healthy changes in just a handful of sessions. I've also seen people not improve, or take far longer.

If you've been going to therapy for more than a few months and haven't been improving, it's time to change something up. Therapy should be "something like that".

[kelseyfrog]

If therapy was like that, what would it look like?

[weregiraffe]

If I knew, I'd be a billionaire.

[kelseyfrog]

That's the grift - fitness packaged as subscription. They want you to have to keep exercising to maintain fitness.

[sfn42]

Sarcasm, right?