yes without it I don't know if I would be where I am today in my life

Yes and no. i completely agree with ArmHusseinAdillo. I have several different problems and some have to do with post traumatic stress, so understanding doesn't really help at all and remembering only makes it worse. however, it can help understand destructive habits and coping mechanisms and replace them with something more constructive. It really depends on the case i would say, but it's worth a try. as a potential patient you'll probably come up with a million reasons why it won't help anyways, to avoid dealing with the problem altogether anyways.

Yes, and yes it helped. My problem is chronic depression. I wish I had sought help 25 years earlier.

I have been on meds (given to me by a psychiatrist), and it has helped alot. I have been in therapy on 3 or 4 occasions..........It helped with some things,but it didnt help with many others (group therapy was the absolute WORST for me). I guess if you were linked up with the right therapist (which I was not....they never really listened to me), then it can be a wonderful thing. But I am reluctant to try again based on past experience.

Yes,with me, it helped,I was in a mental breakdown and PTSD.After 4 months of laying in my bed in total horrible fear, I knew something was horribly wrong.I found a counselor who could take me within 1 week and I was desperate.I was only in the FEAR,I had'nt yet gone into the actual first flashback because I was so terrified and fought hard to not remember.The first flashback did finaly come out and many after,for the next 3 years,my counselor helped me to understand why I became the person that I became.I chose to remember my flashbacks with only the occasional zanax for my high anxiety,I did'nt want to depend on pills for the rest of my life to make me feel better.It was the most horrific experience of my life.My counselor taught me certain things to do to make it a little more tolerable.This year since 2004,I feel more free than I have ever felt,I feel like my normal happy self again,I don't take zanax anymore,I was taught how to let go of the FEAR,I am the most calm I have ever felt in my life.I am very grateful for my counselor!!

In the end...no. I needed to figure things out for myself, and spending money to talk to people about my problems didn't work because 1: It made me feel like a loser that I needed to pay people to listen to me, and 2: I suck at opening up to people. I wasn't necessarily pushed to be on pills, but everyone thought it was better that I was medicated. For a little while it was...I will admit that for a good amount of time it would have been foolish not to put me on them. But that was a very small amount of time, and eventually, I came to realize that my treatment couldn't be once a week, once a month kind of dealies, but a day-to-day self treatment that only I could regulate through diet, personal hygiene, self-acomplishment, etc.

Yes, and it helped a little. But I wouldn't have had any if I had to pay for it. I needed a huge number of hours before it had any effect, both group therapy and one-to-one.

Yes, & it's been the single best choice I've ever made for myself.

Yes, when I felt my behavior was destructive, and wanted to save my relationship from it. I had to stop due to $$ shortage... a few months later, I realized the problem the shrink thought I had wasn't the worst of it. She'd have probably seen it in time...
But her methods of dealing with it "weren't me", I had to devise something by myself.
So, briefly put, the process helped, but the therapy itself did less than I thought it would.

Yes - it did help. But beware some psychiatrists. I was in a counseling session with a friend - he asked me what the hell was wrong with me lately, that I didn't say anything and just gave short answers to any questions. I, the group leader, and my friend talked about it for a while. I wound up taking myself off four of the five meds my psychiatrist had prescribed. It was like sobering up. I was on anti-anxiety, anti psychotic, anti depressant, tranquilizers, and pain meds. Now I take one anti depressant every day. I feel great and think straight. tim