Sweetanonym said 10 years ago:

Hi everyone! I’m a 17 year old student from Belgium and I would be very happy if I could take 10 minutes of your time

I think this site is absolutely amazing and I’m doing a research paper about it! I’ll be looking at the free options only. I’m examinating how good this site works as problem solving therapy, behaviour therapy and cognitive therapy.

Problem solving therapy focuses on, well yeah, solving problems, it focuses less on the cause and more on the solution. In this case, the venter is the expert in his problem, the listener tries to guide him and give advice, they try to solve the venters problem together.

Behaviour therapy is about looking at how to solve behavioural problems by changing the psychological / physical enviroment of the venter. Hypothetical: the venter has social anxiety, he comes to this site and thus changes his psychological enviroment, people in this site can encourage him to change his physical enviroment, and ultimatly, become social.

Cognitive therapy focuses, to state it banaly, on changing the venters thinking, helping him out of depression, his problem changes as a cause to this. For example: The people in this site can change the thinking patron of someone who cuts, resulting in the stopping of cutting.

The difference between behaviour therapy and cognitive therapy is that the former changes enviroment, the latter changes thinking process.

I’ve explained these types of therapy very shortly and banaly but it’s just to give you an idea!

I’m looking for testimonials, have you been helped on this site? What kind of therapy did you receive from this site do you think? How long did it take for you to get better? How effective do you think this site is? Did this site work better / worse / just as good as therapy with a psychologist? Any negative thoughts of this site are welcome too!

Feel free to add me and message me or leave a comment! Sorry if I made any grammatical mistakes, English is my 4th language…

Deleted User said 10 years ago:

I first found this site when I was at my worst. I wouldn’t say it helped me get better, but rather that it provided a comfort knowing that others felt the same way. I actually preferred to be a “listener” rather than “venter”, even during the time I was self harming daily, and suicidal. I was first diagnosed with depression in 2012, and have been through stages of inpatient treatment, being an outpatient but receiving treatment every day, group therapy, and one-to-one therapy. I am still having weekly sessions so I guess you could say I’m not completely better, but I am functioning well now I would say there is very little CBT on this site, and most of it is problem solving therapy. personally, posting something online and maybe receiving answers doesnt have the same theraputic effect as discussing it in person – whether that be a friend, stranger in group therapy, or therapist, and maybe this is why I prefer to help rather than be helped on this website. Sorry this is a bit of a rambling answer, but hope there is something in there you can use for your paper!