Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Divulge The Most Helpful Advice Their Therapist Has Ever Imparted To Them

People Divulge The Most Helpful Advice Their Therapist Has Ever Imparted To Them
Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

Therapy is a wonderful experience for so many people. It's a tool that allows us to secure our own well-being with the help of a compassionate, engaged supporter sitting right across from us (in normal times, that is).


And yet, many people are not in therapy.

That is the case for a vast array of reasons. Cost, insurance struggles, lack of time, simply not being ready--all are very real and legitimate reasons.

So a crowdsourced resource like Reddit can be helpful.

A recent thread offered anybody on the internet the chance to anonymously take a look at very real tidbits of wisdom from people's therapy experience.

It's not at all the same thing, but it's nice to dip your toes in this way if you're curious or hankering to talk about the things weighing on you.

Phaesphoric asked, "What is the most helpful thing your therapist has ever said to you?"

Embedded

"My therapist and I were discussing how I felt about a pretty deep betrayal from my now ex-wife. I was beating myself up for not seeing how bad she really was when there was plenty of evidence."

"He wrote down something on his yellow notepad and then held it up right in my face, practically touching my nose."

"He said 'what's that say?'"

"I couldn't read it; it was too close to my face. Stepping back from it a bit, it could read it said 'you're too close to see it.' He was right."

"I was too close to the problems and the situation to have been able to see it where in retrospect it was so obvious. I stopped beating myself up over it and was able to let it go."

-- LovesMeSomeRedhead

Loudly Yourself

"I'm confined to a wheelchair. It's amazing how many people still look at you like you're a freak! I was told by my shrink of 15 years to smile big and say hi loudly."

"They'll either say hi or look away. Either way, I've made an attempt to humanize them to the disabled. If they don't, it's their problem."

-- cobra-man

Stay Present

"Worrying about something that might happen just makes you miserable."

"It's great to have a contingency plan, but don't spend all your energy worrying about something that might never happen, just deal with it if it happens."

-- carsonshall

No Need to Overhaul

"'Maybe you can treat yourself like a person and not like a project.'"

"It changed my life. I'd been treating myself like something to fix, and seeing every little problem as evidence that I was a failure and a terrible person."

"I learned to give myself the same benefit of the doubt as I'd give any other human I met on the street. Humans make mistakes, including me—that doesn't mean there's issues to fix, it means I'm a person."

-- Robin3019

Address the Simple Stuff First

"'You're not sleeping, you're missing meals, and you barely see your friends. It's no wonder you're depressed. You are barely taking care of baseline needs, my dude!'"

"She was right. I needed to actually take care of basic human needs before I could move up any higher on Maslow's hierarchy."

-- Accidental_Chemist

Where Do You Take It?

"The lifespan of an emotion (the actual physiological sensations—adrenalin, heat in the face, tightness in the chest, rapid heartbeat, fists clenched, etc.) doesn't last very long. Emotions only last about 90 seconds or so."

"What keeps an emotion alive and lingering after the fact is the stories and the associated thoughts we tell ourselves about them."

"It's usually what we think should have been rather than what it is that causes us that extra suffering we're all too familiar with. And the longer we've been telling ourselves a certain story, the harder it is to "'just let it go."'

-- jwshyy

Mind-Body

"That my mental health issues arise when my body is trying to tell me that i'm mentally exhausted. Just like when you don't get enough sleep, your body tells you that by making you feel tired, or hungry when you haven't eaten enough."

"When i haven't been giving myself enough down time, i've been super stressed trying to please everyone and meet everyone's needs, i burn out, and feeling depressed or anxious at nothing in particular is just a way my body lets me know that i need to look after myself."

"That I'm not necessarily broken or going to feel this way for the rest of my life."

-- MishaJBee

It Is a Choice

"I'm not required to forgive anyone, especially from abuse. I can if I want to and it works for me but if I don't feel forgiving then I don't have to." -- NorienneSedai

"So important!! I hate how often people act as if forgiveness is the only way to be a good person or to move past something." -- Phaesphoric

Small Pleasures

"Mine said this in an offhand way, but it's stuck with me:"

"'Try to find something you enjoy in every day. Even if it's something small like taking a hot shower or going for a walk. If you start feeling down, you can think about what you enjoyed from that day, and recognize that you've done something nice for yourself.'"

-- schoonerw

Healthy Relationships

"You cannot expect one person to fulfill all your needs and to be with you whenever you want them to." -- shieldsforcamelot

"Actually came here to say something similar. I had a therapist once tell me 'if you need someone you can't love them.'"

"Now, that statement was heavily based on context in that situation and my tendency towards co-dependence, so PLEASE don't take it as axiomatic." -- OfficerWonk

Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Robert De Niro
Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM

Robert De Niro's Daughter Publicly Comes Out As Trans In Powerful New Interview

Airyn De Niro, 29, daughter of actor Robert De Niro, has publicly come out as a trans woman in a new interview with Them.

Though parts of her journey have been previously reported, Airyn says this is the first time she’s truly felt “seen.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Howard Lutnick
MSNBC

Commerce Secretary Ripped For His Dystopian Vision Of Generations Of Families Working At U.S. Factories

MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, spoke on MSNBC about the Trump administration's version of the American dream.

It doesn't involve universal healthcare, a living wage, and access to food and housing.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pete Hegseth
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Hegseth Gets Hit With Awkward Fact-Check After Bragging About Ending 'Woke' Program

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was swiftly fact-checked after he claimed in a post on X that he'd ended the "woke" Women, Peace & Security (WPS) program because it was an initiative created by the Biden administration.

For the political right, "wokeness" or "wokeism" generally refers to a left-leaning perspective that acknowledges the widespread existence of racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination in American society.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump; Taylor Swift
Alex Wong/Getty Images; Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Trump Made A Petty Dig At Taylor Swift During The Eagles' White House Visit—Because Of Course

President Donald Trump was called out after he made a petty dig at pop star Taylor Swift during his speech for the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles' visit to the White House.

In a brief speech, Trump acknowledged the Eagles' 40–22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs was “a little surprising,” a remark that appeared to reference the Chiefs' consecutive Super Bowl victories in 2023 and 2024. He then shifted focus to Swift, getting in a petty swipe drawing attention to Swift's presence at the game to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, play tight end for the losing team.

Keep ReadingShow less

Medical Professionals Break Down The Scariest Mental Health Conditions They've Seen

Being in healthcare is not an easy journey.

I know so many people who work in so many different areas of the healthcare system, and they are constantly stressed out.

Keep ReadingShow less