Does that make me crazy?
A friend of mine was recently advised by her GP to go see a psychologist for some problems she'd been having with her family for several years by now, that were causing her a lot of stress. I happened to speak to her boyfriend before I got to talk to her, and he mentioned she was having a bit of a rough time with that advice. So I gave it some time, and gave her a call - it was high time we meet up again anyways. So we chatted for a while, and then got to the advice from her doctor. "I'm still so young," she said "I shouldn't be messed up yet!"
Meanwhile, another close friend is having trouble with his thesis, and running into fear of failure problems, which had already been diagnosed when he was in highschool. About 9 months into what should have been a 4 month project, he asks me whether I can't help him work it out. I'm a psychologist, after all, but since I'm also a friend, he'd feel less crazy asking me for help.
Somehow, there's a big stigma attached to seeing a psychologist. So let me make one thing clear: seeing a psychologist does NOT make you crazy. In a lot of cases, in fact, it might make you a lot more mentally healthy than not going.
The fact of the matter is, sometimes things break under stress, whether that's your mind, your body or your car. Put enough pressure on it, and it'll start having problems. And sometimes things break down in easy-to-fix ways, that you might be able to fix yourself, or have fixed by a friend that happens to be good with cars. Other times, you need a professional - or you might want a professional to have a look before things break down to prevent problems. That doesn't make you crazy. That just means that life is rough sometimes, and that an outsider with knowledge of and experience with how these things work can be more helpful than the friend who might listen well and have good advice, but who, even if they know their way around these things, are too personally involved to be quite objective. Staying away from help when you need it is only making your life needlessly harder.
Meanwhile, another close friend is having trouble with his thesis, and running into fear of failure problems, which had already been diagnosed when he was in highschool. About 9 months into what should have been a 4 month project, he asks me whether I can't help him work it out. I'm a psychologist, after all, but since I'm also a friend, he'd feel less crazy asking me for help.
Somehow, there's a big stigma attached to seeing a psychologist. So let me make one thing clear: seeing a psychologist does NOT make you crazy. In a lot of cases, in fact, it might make you a lot more mentally healthy than not going.
The fact of the matter is, sometimes things break under stress, whether that's your mind, your body or your car. Put enough pressure on it, and it'll start having problems. And sometimes things break down in easy-to-fix ways, that you might be able to fix yourself, or have fixed by a friend that happens to be good with cars. Other times, you need a professional - or you might want a professional to have a look before things break down to prevent problems. That doesn't make you crazy. That just means that life is rough sometimes, and that an outsider with knowledge of and experience with how these things work can be more helpful than the friend who might listen well and have good advice, but who, even if they know their way around these things, are too personally involved to be quite objective. Staying away from help when you need it is only making your life needlessly harder.
posted by Geerte at 11:39 AM
1 Comments:
Every problem can't be solved in a text book!
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