me_irl

She came up with the question: "Am I better off putting €100 on a table, lay on my sofa for an hour, then treat myself with that money, or go to a session with my therapist?" And it stuck with me.

As someone who did that for close to 2 decades after being betrayed by two different therapists, it's not worth it. I didn't have the coping skills to get through a lot of life's problems, and I didn't have the executive function to self-teach something I don't have active interest in (because let's be honest, working through your personality flaws are hard, and overcoming that hurdle is a bitch), so I spent a large amount of time moderately-dissociated but functional.

I started with my therapist last year and he's done (read: helped me to do) more for me in the last year than I was able to do for myself in over a decade.

I think the biggest issues with therapy are time and money. I'm lucky enough to have a flexible wfh job so I can just flip to a telehealth session when it's time, but I could see even just the time commitment being an issue for hourly people / no set schedule / I flexible jobs. Adding on the ridiculous costs associated with it (with 1 session costing 2 days pay at the federal minimum) is just adding insult to injury.