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Comment by veqq | Hacker News Reader

Therapy can often create problems ex nihilio if there isn't something obvious to handle e.g.: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000579672...

> eight-session DBT skills-training intervention (‘WISE Teens) (n = 563) or class-as-per-usual (n = 508). On average, the ‘WISE Teens’ intervention did not improve outcomes with significant deteriorations or null effects observed across outcomes relative to class-as-per-usual immediately post-intervention. The largest deteriorations were observed for depressive (d = −0.22; 95% CI = −0.35, −0.08) and anxiety symptoms (d = −0.28; 95%CI - = −0.41, −0.14

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"ex nihilo" means "outta nowhere" for the normies like me.

This was probably the first time I saw the phrase used for something besides referring to the Minecraft mod that's used for skyblock packs.

That study was done on early adolescents. How generalizable are those results to adult, white-collar workers?

many adults have experienced the same. or say they have, in my experience. as to if it’s denial vs reality? good luck untangling the biases in any attempt to figure that out!

‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ vs a world with a large segment of mental disorders basically resulting from someone having an existential need for something to not be broken (and no tools or time/resources to fix it).

It’s a sort of placebo effect. Diagnosing someone can create or amplify the effects of the diagnosis.

Any treatment has iatrogenic potential, even therapy.

The commonly accepted rate of iatrogenic harm from therapy is 5%[1]. The six listed mechanisms don't involve diagnosis.

1. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-...

My purely anecdotal experience—my [then] wife began seeing a therapist to help with her seasonal depression. She didn’t work, and spent a lot of time on social media. Her therapist encouraged her to ‘choose you, put yourself first, etc’, this encouragement gave way to her early midlife crisis, infidelity, divorce, substance abuse, and her losing custody of our young children.

Therapy can very helpful to many people. I also think therapy can be equally detrimental, (or more-so) to many people. Therapists are people doing a job. Some people are bad at their jobs. A patient implicitly trusting a therapist giving harmful advice can have far reaching, long lasting consequences.

I had a similar experience. Things were bad before but therapy increased my wife's (now separated) bad behaviors and instilled her with a newfound confidence that doesn't really fit her life situation.

It also led to MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) and playing God for the therapist.

Edit: then again, don’t out the therapist. I don’t want anyone getting sued for libel. The world has enough problems.

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