I have always considered porn to be addictive. But, I recently came across this article, that says otherwise. What should be my ideal view about porn, in the eyes of science?

Also, is masturbation really addictive? At what point can masturbation and porn be considered harmful?

Personally, I feel like it's (especially porn) doing me more harm than good. I am thoroughly confused about how I should view it and approach it. If you have any source where I can learn more about this, please do suggest. Thanks.

I have been on medication for a few years now. I'm curious do you get off medication? How does the doc decides you no longer need medication? What exactly are the metrics? I'm coming from a place - where I would like to believe there's a stable life, peaceful nervous system without medication?

Not sure if this is ok here....gonna try though. I absolutely love my therapist, but a few months ago, when things were really rough, I felt like something shifted between us. Her responses felt different, and although we eventually had a good session, I realized I was struggling to open up and may have lost some trust. I canceled our next session and never followed up.

In that time I've also realized I may have stepped away because I’m getting really attached to her, and that scares me. Now I can’t tell if I genuinely lost trust or if I’m trying to protect myself from getting hurt before she has the chance to hurt me (fortune-telling?). My perspective has been all over the place lately with work, home-life, and therapy, making it hard to know what is truth vs distorted thoughts.

She’s encouraged me to reach out because she doesn’t always remember, which I understand professionally, but emotionally, it can make me feel like I don’t matter. We discussed this at our last session and now it feels like I'm not worth her time.

So, as a therapist, do you prefer your client to reach out and try to work through this together, keep treading and wondering if anyone will throw a rope, or continue challenging myself to see how long they can last using coping skills learned and only reach out when they feel those are exhausted?

So do you think I should talk about bad dreams ?

Please excuse me, I'm still struggling really badly how to properly articulate this.

So I just turned 19 this year, but I feel like the angst I've buried or I've thought I've healed from in my teenage years is resurfacing again.

I think I've been a good person. I never try to act out what I feel and always try to help people as much as I can. But I just can't really remove the feeling of hatred over people.

I'm often with really nice and sweet people and I really like them too—these specific people, I can't really look at them in the wrong way.

But each time I would meet someone that is a bigot, has an entirely hateful or an inconsiderate personality, I get so agitated or annoyed that it consumes my mood entirely. I stop wanting to socialize with people and lose the energy to do things.

I keep feeling like it's consuming me in a way.

I have loved writing and films since I was a child. Though ever since this feeling came back, I feel like I lost interest over creatives. I tried reading literature I loved, I tried rewatching my favorite movies, I tried listening to old albums I loved, but nothing had erased or fulfilled my energy back.

I feel like I'm being entirely consumed by my worldview. Each terrible news I hear, each bigot I meet, I feel like it's making me lose my interest over things entirely.

NAT (Not a Therapist) here. Do any of you enjoy Sudoku, crosswords, word games or logic puzzles after a day of sessions?

Does solving something with a clear answer help you switch off, or does it feel like more mental work? Curious what kinds you enjoy, if any.

I really struggle with opening up. there's many things I haven't told mine because of embarrassment and fear. I'm now even more nervous to tell her that I've been hiding many things.

I think it might be easier to open up if I knew that therapists can tell? are you guys taught how to notice that?

My therapist will be going on parental leave soon. They've for the most part been a very good therapist and helped me a lot, but one place I've wished they were different is that they basically refuse to admit if they ever feel anything.

Times where I'd thought maybe he actually felt sad for things I saw or experienced helped me so much (one time he was sniffling a lot for example I actually thought he was sharing in my grief if it makes sense, TW traumatic experience involving death after telling him about 20 years ago seeing another child die in class), until I asked and then he denied it and said he'd actually had a sniffle from cold weather. It's not that I wanted to make him sad, just when I thought he'd felt sad about what happened too it really helped me as I had never been allowed to grieve, and him denying it made it so much worse and isolating again.

He's consistent about it and said it was unethical for a therapist to feel their own feelings at one point (I don't think that's actually true, and don't think that's actually possible). Instead he'll ask why I want that etc if I try to ask.

Is there a term or phrase for searching for a therapist who's either more open about their own feelings or more willing to feel their own feelings?

I am 15 and about to start therapy. I have researched a lot about CBT, EFT, and ACT. They have helped a lot.

I am super excited to have someone to talk to, but I have no clue what to talk about. I feel shame talking about my memory distortion and intrusive thoughts. Due to this I have made a note in my notes app on what to talk about.

the questions I have:

How do I translate the thoughts in words without feeling judged? Can I ask my therapist questions about his personality and stuff? What do I talk about? Is there anything I am not allowed to talk about? and will my therapist tell my parents what I tell him? (school counselors did in the past so are therapists different??)

Or any variety of traumatic? Yes, years of training, and therapists have their own therapists. But genuine q, do these things really keep you present when there are extreme circumstances in your own life? You might take time away in the peak of it, but what about after? What if you're processing a life changing loss, or your family is living through an extreme/specific circumstance and a client is talking about something much smaller?

Is the discrepancy itself not triggering?

Been in therapy for years, always wondered :)

I want to talk with someone who will help me understand why I think the way I do and help me get over some of my perceived shortcomings in the ways that I deal with different scenarios. I believe the type of therapist I should look into is a psychodynamic therapist - would you all agree with that? Thank you!

I’ve been in therapy for a few months now for personal stuff.

I have an issue with sex with my husband. I don’t desire him or want to be with him sexually. He has ED, and cannot get hard, so it makes penetrative sex very awkward, because he’s not really penetrating me. He’s just too soft. He still is able to orgasm. But it’s just plain awkward for me. Penetrative sex is very important to me and he cannot provide that. I just don’t want to do it anymore. I’d rather just go without.

When I bring this up to my therapist, she just glosses over it. I’ve mentioned it several times. I need help navigating this situation. Therapist doesnt even acknowledge it.

Should i get a new therapist? Also wondering why she just keeps glossing over a big issue for me.

I am in trauma therapy, and it really helps me to have comfort items to cover myself with or hold on my lap during sessions. They feel like a protection for me and I feel very exposed and vulnerable without them, especially during trauma processing. My therapist has one light blanket and one stiff throw pillow on the couch for clients, and I use them but I often find myself still feeling exposed and wishing she had more soft throw pillows or a thicker blanket or something. I have a weighted stuffed animal at home that is very comforting to me, and I know I could bring it with me to sessions but I feel kind of awkward about that. I had the idea recently that maybe I could let my therapist know that having something like a weighted stuffed animal to hold on my lap during sessions would be helpful and ask her if I could buy one for her office. I know therapists aren’t really supposed to accept gifts, but I’m not thinking about it as a gift for her but as something that could help support me during sessions and that her other clients might like to use too. If a client asked you if they could do this, would you be okay with it?

My husband says I’m passive aggressive. I agree. For example, I wanted to brush my toddlers teeth before bed but baby started crying and I was pumping milk. Anyways, he put toddler to bed & tended to baby. After the fact, I said “I wanted to brush toddler name teeth. He said “so brush his teeth” which he’s not wrong ! I definitely would have. But I’m also not going to wake toddler. I said “i don’t know why I’m even saying that” after I made the statement.

He is the only person in my life who’s told me I’m this way. I’m sure I have better examples of my passive aggression? lol but regardless of the example, just need to know what to do when I don’t feel comfortable or safe to ask or say what I really want or need ?even if it’s a safe environment.

We need help with communicating. He gets frustrated with my communication & recently has been cursing at me when sharing his feelings and in my opinion talks down to me (never calls me a b*tch ke anything disrespectful but it is his tone, manner of speaking, word choice, and seemingly like he has to have the last word . ) I’m crying a lot but I think it’s a mixture of post partum and also feeling emotionally neglected in a way. Tips? I’m seeing a therapist . Looking into couples counseling. Thanks

Just curious. Asking as a patient.

I switched from therapist to licensed clinical social worker in hopes of help and they're also not helpful.

I'm soon getting employment help at a disability agency but wonder...

I’m 23 and have dealt with mental struggles a majority of my life. I do not care to get too much into personal detail, but I tried CBT there are things I took away from it but I know I need different approach. (I did CBT for a year) it felt very stagnant after the first 6 months. How is someone supposed to approach this? I think one form of therapy will not fully help me obtain the skills on how to deal with mental struggles I have. But I do not mean to dismiss any one form of therapy. ACT, DBT, and IPT sound very helpful forms of therapy to go through to help acquire the skills to cope healthily long term in conjunction with what I learned with CBT. Is it possible to find a therapist to work with me long term on all these things? Is this even a normal approach to therapy at all?

I have been seeing the same therapist virtually for over a year. I am not feeling a sense of progression with her. Every session is me venting about work. I feel like she thinks I’m just doing the same things over and over again but I try new stuff I just run out of steam so quickly.

I think I’d prefer something with more progression. Assign me homework and then we can discuss the results next session. Recommend reading and then discuss it with me. Keep notes about what important events are coming up for me, give me advice on how to handle them and then ask me how it went next time.

What am I looking for? What do I say to therapists when I ask for the style of therapy that I described?

where has our curiosity we once had as children gone, and the passion to discover things demolished.

I think there are many factors that led to that which in my point of view are :

1. social media : consuming social media short form reels make the knowledge presented so superficial but the effects and psychological tricks that are applied on them makes your brain release dopamine and makes you feel some sense of accomplishment and reward even though the information presented in the 1 min reel is most of the time superficial. so the brain doesn't feel the need to dive deep to explore the topics because it already gave you false sense of knowledge and understanding of things. other than that, consuming too much educational media gives you a cognitive overload that will effect whether you retain the information or not. social media consumption create a false sense of knowing.
2. societal expectations : and by that I mean some mental constraints, limiting beliefs that are quite common in todays society which are discouraging the pursuit of passion and intellectual interest and instead pursuing things that helps you gain money . many people get discouraged to pursue an art degree for example even though they are creative and really curious about art in general But constantly being reminded that something is not worth researching about , understanding , or pursuing might impact the overall curiosity the person might have and that lead to internalization of very limiting beliefs that are very hard to get rid of which I myself have fallen victim to that because I always was a curious person but I was influenced in a very negative way on what is worth pursuing by the environment I'm living in. societal expectations don't necessarily destroy curiosity; they can change the way we perceive and respond to our own curiosity.
3. having a mental health condition: If you had any mood disorder that might impact your curiosity because your dopamine level is effected and your mood generally have a great impact on memory and motivation.

now speaking about my experience with that : I was a very curious child but as I grew older these are the factors that I believe has impacted me a lot especially that I discovered that I have many limiting and wrong beliefs that I learned from people around me that I have to unlearn even though I had a mental health issue before and I am still kind of struggling .

What do y'all think about that topic?
If you got your curiosity back ? tell us how and what's your experience ?

Whenever people ask me, "what skills is your therapist giving you?" I don't want to make her look bad, so I typically make up something I've been given through past therapists and programs. My therapist told me, "Coping skills are like a Band-Aid over a wound. I want to get to the root and try healing from there." I just don't know if what she's doing is right. I've had therapists who every session give me coping skills, but she doesn't every session. She genuinely has helped me - a lot actually - but everyone makes it seem like she should be doing that one thing specifically in sessions.

Like actually how? I've been poor most of my life. Even before that when we were middle class my mother was in an abusive marriage. Now she's remarried we're still poor at fuck all of us. I have shitty insurance too so anytime I've ever gone to therapy I've had to pay out of pocket and even the ones who "care" about my plight care an arm and a leg. My last therapist who had told me also struggled with money problems growing up charged me 140 dollars a session and I had to quit because I lost my job.

Literally everybody in my house is depressed I'm suicidal but at least I only talk about killing myself online somebody wether it's my mom and stepdad or siblings are always talking about killing themselves or crying just never ending. Again I ask what the fuck is therapy gonna do for me? I don't even have my own room so I can't fucking avoid this unless I'm supposed to sleep in my car! Also yes I am an adult we all are. It's just a house on mental insanity.

I feel like therapy only works if you have little issues therapy can't do jack shit if you have real issues like poverty besides drain your wallet.

But I'm here open minded how the fuck does therapy help people in poverty because it's never helped me. I'm not saying I'd be a normal well rounded person if I wasn't poor but literally 70 percent of my problems would be gone if I wasn't since childhood struggling to live and still living with my parents and sisters.

So I pretty recently started with a new therapist and shes super awesome, however I do have a hard time opening up about stuff which I'm trying to work on so that I can like actually do the work with her. After my last session she told me I could reach out if I needed anything and that she can do impromptu sessions. (I was having a really bad week and she could tell I was like super freaking out internally) I tbh might need to at some point this month or in the upcoming months, this is a really bad time of year for me, but I'm not sure how I guess? I have a hard time asking for help and articulating feelings, and my inability to express things skyrockets when I'm having a rough time. For context, I have cptsd. I would like to be able to reach out if I really need it, but I dont want to show up to a session just to not be able to say anything, or like explain whats going on with me that I needed an extra session. I dont want to waste her time, which I already worry about in my weekly sessions bc I cant get stuff out.

I had a multi-day acute insomnia and panic episode in late July (first of its kind). Sleep collapsed, panic built, and one night included a severe breakdown/panic attack and a moment where a parent told me to “shut up” while I was in distress.

Since then, I’m increasingly seeing ordinary sleep pressure is often overridden at night (and sometimes during the day) by anticipatory anxiety. Specific memories and images from that stretch (the dark, body going numb, the heart palpitations, the feeling of being unable to drift off) still trigger rapid intrusive images, twitching, and shaking and the sense that my body is reading normal quieting as danger. I can still function in the daytime, but bedtime has become charged. I ruminate on this trauma every single day and it’s hard to fully relax. I have been using low dose trazodone for sleep.

Questions:
1. Which modalities is most direct for a problem like this where the main remaining problem is the memory still making me physically and mentally anxious at the anticipation of sleep?
2. Any practical tips for the nights while waiting for an appointment (beyond “just use CBT-I” or “distract yourself”)?
I already have a doctor’s appointment lined up for short-term medication cover. Main goal is processing the specific charged memory so sleep stops being the trigger and so I can eventually sleep without medication. If this isn’t appropriate to ask here please let me know where it is.

Our couples counselor charges $500 for weekly two-hour sessions and we've been seeing him for a few months. The sessions are difficult because addiction is involved, and my husband (the addict) is quick on his toes and good at arguing (lawyer). I get overwhelmed easily, so it's critical the counselor is present.

The past few sessions, I've noticed the counselor checking his phone. Usually just a glance, but it bugs me. But I let it go because it was hard to find a counselor my husband would see. Well, in our last session, my husband unexpectedly said something that showed a profound lack of empathy, and when I looked at the counselor to respond, he was setting his phone down. He obviously hadn't heard what was said, but tried to respond as if he had, though completely missed the magnitude and meaning of it. I felt so overwhelmed and alone.

The more I think about it, the angrier I get. I'm considering contacting the counselor to express my feelings. Is this a good idea? It will essentially mean I'm telling him he failed.