I have heard that ‘talk therapy’ isn’t particularly effective for people with schizophrenia. Others have said it has been very helpful for them - please give me your input on this topic!
“Talk Therapy” is such a blanket term it covers so mush!
I guess it also means that there’s something for everyone 
I did Mindfulness, CBT and Schema Therapy!
I’d say it has value for people who have a little insight. I’ve had many years of Jungian therapy, and I have worked in a professional career ever since I became ill. My opinion is that drug only therapy is a little like giving a drunk coffee-- what you get is a wide-awake drunk.
Psychosis is traumatic. Delusions and hallucinations can seem very real. Most people with schizophrenia still have a bit of growing up to do. Drugs are imperfect. Handing someone drugs and saying “now you forget about all that” seems cruel and a bit of a cop-out.
Talk therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and psychosocial intervention are the polishing that takes someone from just functioning to highly functional.
I have my first talk theraphy session in a long time on 5th jab 2014,hope it won’t be too expensive
I think that for talk therapy to be effective, I feel the talk therapy has tp be with your voices. Talk to the voices and try and resolve things.
I never hear voices,but I had social anxiety,would talk theraphy help in anyway for my anxiety??
They’ve come out with a couple of therapies that treat a variety of mental illnesses - “cognitive behavioral therapy” and “dialectical behavioral therapy”. As I understand them, they are both a form of self talk, with or without the guidance of a counselor. To tell you the truth, I can’t imagine any form of talk therapy having much of an effect on me when I was highly delusional in my schizophrenia. I think that as far as sz is concerned, these therapies have to be used with psychotropic drugs.
Therapy is basically useless if one is highly symptomatic.
I did not accomplish a whole lot during therapy sessions when I was still off my rocker, after a break due to my divorce.
As time went by and I was feeling better, I got more out of therapy.
Therapy is not for everyone, and it was not created directly for psychotic disorders - but CBT especially can help, as long as the client/patient is basically lucid
Yes it can
Thanks for all the responses!
Specifically, the psychiatrist recommended CBT. I probably should have been more specific.
My son is LESS symptomatic, tho not symptom-free, but seems to be getting a little insight (and/or maturity!) and ready to be med-compliant. He currently is resisting the idea of therapy, and I am not sure how helpful it would be unless he is interested and willing.
Talk therapy by psychologists is usually totally useless.
They talk and talk to the worried well and never solve anything because that would be the end of their income stream.
They rarely come in contact with people with sz. at one time I thought i could be ‘talked out of it’ But that was a failure as I slid into the deep end while trying one. Another went to sleep on me. Am I that boring? you can tell me, I need to know!
Now you may have been helped by one that specializes or takes people with sz.
I believe that only doctors have the firepower to help sz. I used to say that psychologists are all talk and no action.
I am just lucky my pdoc uses cognitive behavioral therapy I think but we never get technical like that, its more just solving problems and dealing with reality after the initial trials to finally find the best medicine that works for your individual brain. They all are different, keep trying.
Social anxiety is more of a behavioral thing. You might do better with cbt for analysing why you feel anxious
I love to talk and vent my frustrations on the illness and (let people know) what I go through day to day. I think it’s a wonderful idea
In my 44 year experience with sz (I am 72 now) the only talk therapy that helped was when the discussions were about good nutrition, vitamins and minerals.
The reason the nutritional approach has lost ground is because the users tried to go off meds and ended up relapsing. I know because I have been there. Good nutrition and suplements means less meds, NOT no meds. In hind sight, that to me was the difference.
This is very interesting, as my son is quite interested in nutritional supplements.
CBT has been most effective for me, and I worked with clincal psychologists whilst acute never did me any good but it might do now, for the moment the best thing for me is CBT.
Hi,
WE have a lot of videos on the topic of CBT for schizophrenia on this page. I encourage you to check them out:
I do therapy with a resident psychiatrist who specializes in schizophrenia. When I think of a negative thoughts like my neurologist doesn’t care about me he helps me restructure them into realistic thoughts like: he has a lot of patients, he’s taking time to find the correct medication for my condition, and he has to wait at the end of the day to listen to all of his e-mails. He always asks me to write what my feeling is with the unrealistic thought with a number rating and after we restructure my unrealistic or negative thought I give a more positive feeling with an increased number. We also do deep breathing exercises and we also do guided imagery of my younger self when I got punched in the eye and I tell my younger self some positive things that should make me process my past abuse better that I repeatedly think about. He tells me to make a schedule of tasks I should do like take a shower, take meds,work on homework, distraction(listen to music or read a book)positive thinking, exercise, and deep breathing. He usually asks questions on what I’m feeling,he explains why I feel that way(sometimes anxiety) and he guides me how to feel positively. I assume in this very long answer that yes talk therapy does help people with schizophrenia if they also practice what they’ve learned from their sessions.
LISTEN Therapy for Schizophrenia, would be better.
Otherwise it’s all talk and no listen.
@INTROBC Interesting perspective and very true. Both sides have to listen and feel heard for any therapy to work. “Talk” or otherwise.