1. Therapy’s effects persist over the long-haul
A huge benefit of talk therapy is that its effects are long-lasting. This is because you’re not only working through older material, but you’re also developing the tools to help you deal with the future . Psychodynamic treatment is durable over the years. The positive gains continue and grow over time as though some of the work gets further consolidated after therapy stops. This makes sense because it suggests that we continue to use the reflective lens in thinking about, talking about and expressing feelings about our inner lives after we end treatment. The whole talking-with-the-therapist process gets internalized so that self-therapy picks up where the actual therapy leaves off, though with a much more compassionate and more considered “inner voice”. Though medication may be essential for some, it does run the risk of relapse after it’s discontinued. The "getting-to-the-cause" aspect of therapy is a big reason to enter into a process of ending the never ending cycle of addressing crisis reactions only.
2. Physical symptoms get treated also.
Psychological trauma, or even general ennui, can trigger physical symptoms – and depression and anxiety are well known to have significant, and sometimes debilitating, physical effects. Going to therapy, can help these issues fade away. There have been some studies that show that many physical ailments are ameliorated when someone engages in therapy. When people do not express feelings but swallow them and keep them buried and out of conscious awareness, one's body often reacts. It acts as a barometer that reads: danger! Something is amiss and needs attention. We see this most commonly in anxiety and panic disorder presentations. Somatizing via stomach aches, headaches, sleeping problems, and ulcers are just some of the ways our body reacts to stress and psychic pain.
3. Repressed emotions will come back to haunt you as your life unfolds.
The most serious drawback of not talking about things may be that unexpressed feelings and traumas can pile up and explode later. Lots of people avoid talking about their feelings about a whole host of things . But repressing or damping down one’s feelings doesn’t make the feelings go away. If anything, they linger and fester, only to explode when an innocuous comment is made or complicated scenarios unfold in ones life. Even if you don’t have a full-on breakdown later on, not fully processing events and emotions often creates negative thought patterns that can inform every area in your life – your relationships with your spouse, parents, kids, co-workers and oneself. So learning how to process them can change how you maneuver in many different ways.
4. And the passive-aggressive shtick will fade away
When you work through ancient (or recent) anger, it actually gets processed so that it no longer has to seep out passive-aggressively. Angry feelings are often expressed in a passive aggressive manner rather than a more direct and less aggressive manner. Someone who feels slighted might make a sarcastic remark in return, or not show up at an agreed upon time, ‘forgetting’ the appointment.” So get rid of the passive-aggressive form of expression – People who engage in good quality psychotherapy become more adult and shed child like reactive responses as they deepen into healthy living
5. It will give you a whole new perspective on other people and their dynamics.
A benefit of therapy is that it not only helps you understand yourself better but it helps you understand other people. When we hold negative thoughts in without processing them, they become ingrained so that we see the world through that lens. We become unconsciously habitual and wonder why we experience the same old predictable result and responses. In this locked in type of behaving we make lots of assumptions that may or may not be true. Without the clutter of your own (often mistaken) assumptions, it’s a lot easier to understand others intentions and motivations.
6. It helps you deal with future complexity
Since big and small problems are going to come up from time to time, knowing how to deal with them in a healthy way is an essential skill. Conflict is a part of everyday life . It is helpful to be aware of one’s feelings around conflict. If, for example, you are angry with your boss who is piling up work for you when you are getting ready to go away, you are bound to feel resentment and conflict. By reflecting on what’s going on outside (your boss’ demands) and inside (your mounting anger, irritation, and fear of losing your job if you say ‘no’), you are in a better position to resolve the conflict. Developing a process that free’s up healthy thinking and awareness around one’s own position allows for room for good decision making to manifest Then one is more flexible psychologically and emotionally to think of ways to respond in a more proactive way. Learning how not to get swallowed up by events, but instead how to form a game plan to deal with them, is important (and it takes a lot of practice).
7. Talking about things gives them more definition.
Have you ever noticed how turning a problem around and around in your head often gets you precisely nowhere? It’s so easy to feel dwarfed by a problem when it’s just an amorphous blob in your head – but talking about it gives it a beginning, middle, and end. And that helps you wrap your brain around it. When I think of the process of engaging in talk therapy, I think of the analogy with writing. The more you write, the more you know what you are trying to say – it clarifies your thinking. Similarly with talking and with talk therapy, one becomes more aware of what is making one feel anxious, sad, angry or frustrated. And then one is mor empowered to decide how to manage these feelings or take action to alleviate them.
Even if you can’t get to therapy, just talking about a problem with a friend can be helpful: Lay out the issue, and it will become clearer, more logical, and therefore more manageable.
8. You know you’re not alone
Seeing a Psychotherapist can be a huge relief in-and-of itself since you know you’re taking action against what ails you. It is also comforting just knowing that you have a built-in support structure that you can go to once a week. A space that allows you to access your own issues in a safe, non judgmental way and to learn from yourself.
9. Reduce reliance on medication to deal with emotional issues.
The use of medication to “deal” with psychological issues is incredibly common. But it doesn’t do anything to actually address what’s going on – it just masks it and can in some cases reduce the affect of disturbing symptoms. . It also creates an dependency cycle, which may exacerbate the real problem. Getting to the root of your past material in therapy will, with time, obviate and reduce the need to for medication. When you’re no longer living by the negative things in your past, the need to avoid them – and yourself – will disappear.
10. It enables you to break intra-generational wounds.
The best thing about dealing with your own process is that, if you have children it helps you teach them a better way. For those who grew up in households where emotional matter just wasn’t talked about, look how many decades later we’re still dealing with the fallout of that method. Parents can help their children learn a vocabulary of feelings early on by modeling it themselves. This gives children the feeling that it is not only okay but healthy to express themselves through all the colors of their emotions. That it is important to express anger when they feel they’ve been ignored or unfairly treated or when someone says something hurtful. The alternative is to repress the feeling, feel resentful, perhaps act out one’s anger in defiant behavior. The time to start talking about feelings is as early as possible.