Does Therapy Make you Crazier?

From the times I've been in therapy, it seems like after I start it I feel even crazier than when I am not in therapy. Anyone else experienced this? Is it because of the shame of being in therapy or the fact that therapy encourages craziness? Without depression and anxiety, psychological people would not have jobs. I am suggesting the idea that psychotherapy (that is therapy, not psychiatry) may actually do more harm than good except MAYBE for some very specific purposes in uncommon situations like short term counseling after a traumatic event, abuse, loved one death etc.

I personally have an off-and-on panicky feeling that makes me feel like I'm going crazy. Sometimes I get into survival mode and I feel like I'm going to lose my $#%^. I am almost sure I have OCD but it is high functioning OCD so it is so internalized that no one is seeing it. The people I've seen don't understand or agree with me because of a history of unrelated symptoms. No one understands the mental anguish I feel when the same annoying thoughts repeat in my head over and over again and I felt sure when I initated therapy as an adult that they would understand and I would get the correct diagnosis but they just don't get it and readily admit so. I personally believe my hx and current symptoms are explained by both my personal characteristics (anxiety prone) and a rare medical condition that is difficult to diagnose which causes episodes of neuropsychiatric symptoms that vary with however the disease process is going at the time. All shrinks do is get annoyed because they don't see it or understand. They think I'm just stupid or lack social awareness but I believe I lack social skills because I've had anxiety that is severely internalized my whole life- but they do not want to believe this.

IMO Any therapy that is not helpful to ones well being or best interest will make them worse. Ive been there. I have had horrible psychotherapy before which not only made me feel insane but also ruined my self esteem. I only got worse.


Ive also been in the same position as you being both misunderstood and then misdiagnosed. Trying to explain to them was like wrestling with a pig in mud, you dont get anywhere just feeling worse thereafter. To them it seems to come across as ego 'how dare you question me' sort of thing. They just dont listen or care. You feel plain stupid afterwords.


In such a case the only healthy thing to do is switch Ts. Any good T will listen trying to understand where you come from. So far that doesn't sound like the case.

I really WANT to believe in psychotheraphy.

I hope its possible to do something constructive to get better. However I feel that therapy has some limitations. It cant be as simple as faulty logic or thinking, because then everybody just needed a book called "best psychological thougts".

Sometimes problems arent internal they are external: Poverty wont go away cause you think about that you DO HAVE a roof. You wont become popular just because you learn not to feel bad about it. And so on. Life is full of problems that needs to be dealt with. Positive thinking is just a pain killer.

However I believe in therapy when its grounded in the way the brain works. Its usefull to get a therapist to dig into phobias, fears and other sort of hang ups that impact life when it shouldnt. Again sometimes these phobias and fears are there for a reason, and can not be solved by talking.

Many times I think the therapist feels like a modern day priest, that has "secret" knowledge of how to handle life. Its counter productive to think so. And I also dont feel that all lifes problems should be dealt with by thinking. Sometimes action is much prefferable.