Do you feel/view therapy as a punishment?

[Justin Bieber]

I saw someone post in the forums that therapy should be viewed as a "gift" not as a control/power struggle or punishment. However, while I understand the aims and goals of therapy and whatnot. I still definitely feel like going can totally be a punishment... trying to take power and achievement away from you. Basically saying, "haha you failed, now I get to fix you."

Anyone feel similarly?

[MadPoet]

I voted other, because I couldn't choose. Sometimes I see it as a punishment, and I absolutely dread going. But other times I see it as a gift in that I am helping myself. It makes sense that therapy would seem like giving up on trying to fix things yourself, but it's more of a way of taking responsibility and allowing yourself to get help. A lot of therapy, if you go to the right therapist, actually allows you to help yourself. Your therapist doesn't take away your problems completely, they teach you how to deal with them and approach them. They lay down the ground work, but you're the one that controls your life and still helps yourself. But that being said, I don't always feel this way, so it's kind of a yes/no, depends on the day type of thing for me.

[Loving Linux Penguin]

Therapy is not a punishment, it's a way to receive help. It's a coping mechanism--just like this site, talking to a friend, calling a hotline, etc. They're ways to get help, plain and simple! Needing that help is not a sign of having done anything wrong or being a bad person, it's a sign of being human. EVERYONE needs help sometimes! Heck, I probably really should go to therapy for my phobia. As far as "haha you failed, now I get to fix you." if THAT is the attitude any therapist is taking, they're in the wrong profession. Being a mental health professional requires compassion, patience, understanding, and most of all respect. That is NOT a respectful attitude, so again I say if that is the attitude they are taking, they need to be in a different profession.

[survivor16]

Truthfully, I love my therpiast. He has helped me find myself and I dont know what I would have done without therapy, at first it was hard though. You have to fully give into it.

[Kate*]

While I see how some people could view it as a punishment or at least a less than pleasant expeirence, it's ultimately what Chris said. I'm not so sure that this site should be compared to therapy, but I see what he meant. Anyway, professionals don't take your power away, they take the power away from your maladaptive coping mechanisms so you can have your power back. Same goes for taking achievments away from you, they will more than acknowledge the good ones, it's the one's that aren't "healthy" that they're trying to do away with. As for the attitude of "You failed and I get to fix you" like Chris said if any professional ever believes this, they're in the WRONG profession. It's more that there's something unhealthy going on in your life and I'm here to help YOU fix it so you can have your life back. Any good professional knows that the client is the only one who can "fix" anything.

[Masquerade.]

When I first started going, I saw it as a punishment. Now, I feel the complete opposite way. I'm not gonna say I love going, but I do see it as something good. It's done a lot for me and it's helping me become stronger. Personally, I've never felt like my therapist was saying I failed. She just said that she wanted to help me learn to deal with things and that she wanted to walk the road with me. So, I definitely see it in a positive light now.

[Magical Forest.]

With the therapy I am receiving now, I see it as a really positive thing. Group therapies are hard to come by and when you have the people I have, you feel very lucky.
But I have seen it before as a punishment. I mean at 12 years old you don't want to be seeing a counsellor twice a week. And especially all of the times i've been admitted into mental health hospitals. It was more just being forced to get help that I didn't want. Everyone knew I needed it apart from me. Thats not a punishment, that's people trying to make sure that i'm safe and getting help I deserved and needed.

[Tamsin96]

I chose other, because I have been seeing counselors off and on since I was 8, and as a child I felt like I was being punished... I have gotten over that, but I still sometimes dread going, and have to force myself to go. I think that looking at therapy as a gift is a really good thing, at times it may feel like a burden on us but it really is the gift of support that we all needed.

[better-than-ecstasy]

I wouldn't really say it is a punishment. It is just way to get better. Like is taking medicine a punishment? I have asthma and I take medicine for that, but it's not a punishment. Therapy is kind of like that. Some poeple on the other hand may view it as a punishment. May be they are forced to go like the parents set them up or something. That's how it was with me. My parents forced me to go at first. But I loved therapy. I think it is a punishment that my parents won't let me go anymore. But that's a different story. But therapy is not a punishment to me. People just want to help!

[Henry Tyrell]

If one's parents are forcing one to go to therapy then it is a punishment. If you go of your own volition, then it's just therapy.

[Don'tForget]

I think its punishment if your parent or someone is making you if you don't want to go. Which is why i view it as punishment, my parents made me. But if you chose it for yourself i wouldn't think of it as punishment.

[Bibliophile]

To start with I thought it was a punishment, definitely, I was forced to talk to somebody I neither knew nor trusted, and forced into a group. After so many years( it feels far less of a punishment, I'm beginning to embrace it and try to get better. (:

[Sequin]

Other. There is no universal truth about therapy. For me it is a waste of time, though I wouldn't go so far as to call it a punishment so much as it can sometimes be the result of an unfounded concern. For a lot of people, however, it has been proven to help in difficult times.

Is therapy by itself a cure for an ailment? No. It takes both a person who is able to find a resolution via those means and who is willing to seek that resolution out as well as a well-trained psychiatrist who knows what they are doing and is willing to go the distance with that client. With a poor therapist, you might as well be speaking to your cat. You would get the same results.

If you do, however, have a situation with the right combination of patient and therapist then it can have positive results. But with one of these two factors missing, therapy is a waste of time. It is path to a cure using communication. With a poor link in that communication, it isn't worth it.

[Felorena.]

I don't think it's a punishment at all. These people do what they do to help, not to think 'Oh yay I can punish people'. They are there to help people. The aim is not to punish even though to some people, more those who are 'forced' in to therapy, it feels like a punishment which is understandable but that doesn't make it a punishment. Just like when someone is put on a section into a psychiatric unit. They might not want to go and feel they're being punished, but be sectioned is for their good, not a punishment for what they're going through or their illness.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

There are two situations, involuntary and voluntary, although my opinion is the same for both: I do not view it as punishment. Psychotherapy is akin to any other medical treatment. For example, taking prescription pills for regulating blood pressure is similar to voluntary psychotherapy. On the other hand, emergency transport to the hospital after a car collision is similar to involuntary psychotherapy. Regardless of how you slice the cake, the goal is to improve function and "repair". Psychotherapy may not be the most exciting activity and people may not want to go especially if forced but I believe that having a negative view acts as yet another barrier that must be negotiated.

[Darth Vader]

I do not view it as a punishment, but I'm also voluntarily asking for it. I'm not being forced to go.

[Stargazed.]

When I first started therapy when I was 15, I thought my dad hated me so that's why he sent me. Now though, if I had the opportunity to go again, I would. I miss being able to talk about my problems and get help. I think it's a great thing to do and I recommend it to a lot of people.

[Silhouette]

I don't see it as a punishment.
Its a way of getting help, and people can choose whether to go or not. And while therapy isn't for everyone (I hated it, but others get a lot out of it) it really does help a number of people and I've hear several times of people who enjoy going. So no, I don't view it as a punishment because therapists aren't there to make you feel miserable for being emotionally unstable.

[Cataclysmic]

I don't think that it is a punishment. Even if someone sees it that way, in the end it is helping them and that is all that matters. Therapists are there to help, not hurt even if it may be rough sometimes.

[i_like_black]

I voted other.

Yes, sometimes I see therapy as a punishment - people have decided my behaviour is inappropriate, or doesn't fit into their expected paradigm, and have forced me to go. If I miss an appointment, I get tracked down.
Being under the mental health act - which is basically the same as being sectioned - definitely feels like punishment, especially as the majority of the time I'm not harming anybody (else).

I understand that I'm supposed to participate and it's supposed to help me, but right now, it's just a massive list of things I don't want to do - see a new person, spend money to catch the bus (the outpatient clinic I go to is outside my area because apparently I'm too high risk for the one INSIDE my area), waste an hour, rinse and repeat.

I have at times seen it as something beneficial and to be used to help. These times have been few and far between, because being put into the mental health system has never been a choice I have made on my own.

So . . . it FEELS like a punishment. But I understand that it ISN'T.
(I also understand that if I didn't do the things I do, I wouldn't be in this mess in the first place, but that's moot because the things have already been done.)

[Justin Bieber]

Is anyone choosing to go, but feels like it's because you've failed.. and therefore this is what you "have" to do (similar to a punishment, but not the same)

[better-than-ecstasy]

Hmmm I guess I might have felt like that when I was going to therapy. But in a way I loved to go. I mean I felt like I let myself down so I did have to go, but I liked to get the help because I knew I needed it. Fair enough?

[Alto.]

I chose other because I don't know and I haven't had much experience talking to a therapist or counselor. I've only had to once and I bsed my way through that. If my parents knew everything I do to myself, they'd only send me to a therapist to make sure that I don't hurt myself more than i have already. I'd view it as a punishment because the control I've counted on for years would be taken away from me. Though I guess after everything is said and done, I'd consider it a gift that I'd be healthy. For other people, especially friends, I view it as a gift for them because I want them to get better and to be happy.

[Jas]

I strongly believe that if you're receiving therapy from someone that's at all competent (and that doesn't always come with qualification, I and others I know have had some really bad experiences) therapy should never feel like a punishment. End of.

[esfdhtfy]

It certainly depends on how you view mental illness. Some people view mental illnesses in a very different light when compared to physical illness. Personally, I feel they are synonymous practices, but with different focuses.

For example, when you are sick, you visit the doctor. When you break your leg, doctors at a hospital will treat you and provide you with a cast. When your cast is off, you are likely to be referred to physical therapy and other forms of treatment. How exactly is this different than treatment for mental illness (i.e., therapy)? It's really not. And I certainly wouldn't refer to going to the hospital, getting a cast, and attending physical therapy as "punishment".

People with a mental illness requiring treatment are just as ill as someone with the flu, a broken leg, or an enlarged appendix. All should be treated appropriately.

[Just Another Accident]

I put both because I feel when I went in the past and still sometimes now I hated it. There are also those days when you feel like it's good. When I was younger I was forced to go to talk about an accident that happened between my sister and I. They forced me to go and deal with it and I saw it as a way to keep living it over and over. I felt like I couldn't escape anything.

Now I love to go on most days but sometimes I dread going. I feel that now it's a gift but when I was forced and miserable, getting nothing from it, it was punishment.

[George^^]

Originally I would have put no, because I personally chose to go to therapy, I needed it. I might still choose to go to therapy, but I might not again...

But when you bring up what you did at the begining I saw how it could be a punishment. Therapy is not for everyone. I know that sometimes it is okay to work through things yourself because well, sometimes you can.