Reviews (1)

In a very, very painful and dark time in my life, I spent the last of my money in my bank account to sign up for BetterHelp. I've been in and out of therapy my entire life because it's been an eventful life, to say the least. I was diagnosed with depression almost 20 years ago and every time I think I'm on top of it, it evolves. It evolved again in early 2018 and I couldn't cope anymore. I was having suicidal thoughts, my life wasn't at all how I thought it would be at this point in my life, I was feeling abandoned by my friends and family, and being in my first long-term relationship was bringing up a lot of my past I thought I had put to rest. I was lost and I didn't even know who I was anymore. I wasn't acting like myself, I wasn't doing the things I loved, and I wasn't getting any better.

Traditional face-to-face therapy was too expensive at this time in my life and I couldn't afford to pay for appointments I didn't show up for because my depression wouldn't let me out of bed that day. I've wasted so much money on paying for therapy I didn't even go to. I heard about BetterHelp through a YouTube ad and thought it couldn't hurt to try.

It was very easy to sign up for and I was immediately paired with my therapist, Nikeisha. One month of sessions with her cost the same as one SINGLE session with my last therapist. In the beginning, Nikeisha did a lot of listening as I needed to do a lot of emotional purging. I had isolated myself and had nobody in my personal life to talk to about my deeper pain. Talking about it with someone I could trust was helpful in and of itself.

I decided to do my therapy with her via phone call, not video call, because in traditional therapy I would have anxiety about seeing my therapist write something about me down. I can't see her over the phone so I'm more focused on me than what she's writing.

Because I can do therapy from my bed, I don't have to worry about getting out of it to get to my session so I miss less appointments. Scheduling with BetterHelp is easy to work around my work and personal schedule and I don't have to worry about factoring in a commute to get to therapy, which is also nice. There are times I've done therapy on a park bench or in my car after work. It's so convenient and not any less personal than face-to-face therapy.

Through working with Nikeisha, we identified that I was dealing with a lot of extreme anxiety and that I've probably been struggling with it a lot longer than I thought. I just thought these feelings of anxiety were part of my depression diagnosis. We also identified that I was going through a genuine identity crisis and that we needed to do work toward getting me to feel like "me" again. I described the life that I wanted to work toward in therapy and she connected that to Brené Brown's work, The Gifts of Imperfection, and what Brown calls a "wholehearted" life. We've been working through the book for about a year now, spending about a month on each guidepost/chapter, and it has changed my life for the better.

I no longer struggle with anxiety. I still have worries, yes, but not extreme and irrational anxiety. My depression is manageable, I can recognize my different moods, and I have become "me" again! I feel great! I'm not 100% where I want to be quite yet but I'm closer than I ever have been. I feel like I'm in good hands with Nikeisha, BetterHelp, and the team behind this amazing resource.

I've had 2 major breakthroughs in my time using this medium for therapy that I never came close to when I was doing traditional, face-to-face, therapy. Don't get me wrong, if for some reason I couldn't work with Nikeisha, I would absolutely be open to face-to-face therapy again. But I think, for me, what's very important in therapy is consistency and it's just so easy to stay consistent when BetterHelp fits into my schedule no matter how much my schedule changes.

It's also VERY nice to be able to message my therapist before our session to let her know what my main concerns and issues for that week are so she can prepare some topics or exercises for us to go through. She also researches resources for videos, talks, even events that might help me toward my goals.

If you're at all concerned if this type of therapy can work, I'm here, as living proof, to tell you that it absolutely can! My relationships with my family, friends, and my significant other have improved 100 times over. I'm working toward my passions in life again, I'm able to live a productive and active life again, I'm not crippled by anxiety and fear, and I finally understand the underlying root of all my anxiety and fear which has helped me to overcome it. No doubt it will mutate and come back but I feel ready for it with Nikeisha and BetterHelp in my corner. Life might not be perfect but it is enjoyable again and I'm so thankful for this amazing resource and this amazing team of people who made BetterHelp a reality.