Why do I go to psycho-therapy?

I ask myself that every time an appointment is coming up. Why do I go? What am I actually spending my money on?

All the advice he has ever given me that I have actually followed has been either disastrous or generally useless. He advises me to put distance between myself and my extended family, which is dysfunctional, but I thought therapy was supposed to help to deal with your problems not run from them. And even though he has my chart, or file, or whatever it is right in front of him, he seems to get the facts wrong about me and my life. One time he even thought I had been recently hospitalized when it was actually a different patient with the same first name that been hospitalized.

The closest he comes to giving me advice on how to cope or deal with things is by telling me to read books. If I wanted to just read self-help books I wouldn't be going to a psychologist, I'd be spending my money on self-help books! Not only that, we end up spending half the time I'm in his office talking about stupid things like politics, which granted is in my professional area, but hardly seems relevant to my social anxiety disorder.

And on top of all that, when I know I have an appointment coming up, it actually makes me feel WORSE than I do normally. Are all therapists this fruity or is it just my bad luck again?