It seems like the only time I can think to write a blog is when I should be sleeping. That's when the thoughts are all over the place.
Two thoughts occurred to me about therapy.
The first being that anyone who hasn't gone should seriously consider going, and additionally should follow through with that consideration. Many people have an aversion to therapy, and I think I have figured out what one of those reasons might be (more on that in a bit).
Secondly, going to therapy is like paying someone (with cash or insurance) to listen to your problems, offer you unbiased advice, and not make you listen to theirs back. Counseling is like a career in being paid to be in an unbalanced friendship. You may think you are incredibly close to your therapist, but in fact only one of you is getting your feelings out. Which leads me to another thought. If you are telling your friends about your problems and they are not telling you theirs back, and you aren't paying them, you may be treating your friends like therapists. If you were paying them, they may forgive you for it. Otherwise they may end up resenting you. I understand that sometimes friends just want an ear, but if that is what you want, you had better be sure that's what you're going to get before you unload. Otherwise you may be very disappointed when you don't get the response you expected. Life is all about met and unmet expectations, and they can't always be met on your schedule. What I am saying is that a good balanced friendship involves equal-opportunity bitching, albeit on an agreed-upon schedule (which I have found is key).
So onto my thoughts about why some may have an aversion to therapy. People may feel like they would rather talk to someone who knows them better and can give them more biased advice. They want someone to agree with them and not necessarily to tell them they might need to reconsider their view on the situation. I mean, who wants to be wrong?
I know that some people find no comfort in releasing their feelings to anyone, so this wouldn't apply to them. However, for those that do, and have found themselves in a vicious cycle of the same emotional prisons that somehow never to seem to resolve themselves, realize that you have two options. Resolve them yourself, or let them go somehow. Well, technically you have a third option, to do nothing and wonder why you continue to be in the same situation repeatedly. Unfortunately, that option involves being in some serious denial about your role in the problem. We tend to focus our upset on the others that are causing this frustration, and yet we don't seem to include ourselves in this equation. It can't all be them. If it were, those people wouldn't have any real friends, because they would all be in the same boat of frustration. The problem is a lack of synergy between two people for whatever reason. If you don't feel you can identify and solve that problem, go to therapy. Or else.
