why I think everyone should see a therapist

Life is hard.

Really really hard, every single day. And going it alone makes it harder.

Not that you may actually be alone, but you may feel alone. And if you're feeling alone, or overwhelmed, or under appreciated or over worked you may not be able to talk to the people in your life that are causing you to feel this way.

And having someone to talk to about these things, free from judgement or outside opinions, things seem better. You can deal with them easier if you have a way to talk through them, over and over again, out loud. You discover things about yourself and your life that you didn't realize before may have been affecting you. You see where things started. You come up with solutions to problems and have someone who generally cares about your happiness and well being sitting with you every step of the way.

You can cry, get angry, laugh, share stories or opinions and someone just listens and lets you. You don't get interrupted or pushed aside. For one whole hour it's all about you and what you're going through and your feelings and impressions about those things. All of those things.

Talk about your relationship with your mother, how annoying she is, how much you love and miss her, how you're afraid you're becoming her... Talk about school, work, stress, anxiety, depression, money, sex, match dot com, your secret lesbian fantasies, anything at all that's on your mind. Talk about sleep, dreams, your pooping schedule (yes, I do talk about this. It's important to me), your favorite things, things you don't do enough, your life plans, your friends that make you happy, your friends that don't. Talk about any and everything, over and over again till your brain can get around it and everything makes sense. And, if that takes a million sessions and a million hours of the same thing that's okay, because that's why you're there. To figure everything out.

Emotions, feelings about yourself and how others see you, feelings about how you see you, moments in your life where you feel crazy or hurt, anything at all. I'm serious. One in five adults has a diagnosable mental illness (and if you don't know one you probably are one...). Why fight something you don't have to? Why suffer if there is someone there to help? Why live your life miserable when happiness is just a pill (or two) away?

My argument probably could go without that last sentence, but really; my anti-anxiety meds have made such a huge difference in almost every aspect of my life (note: including my poo, but we won't go there... again). I feel different and I see things differently and I am able to get my head around my problems before any situation gets out of hand (usually, sometimes I need a few minutes).

More than anything, a therapist helps you reconnect with the person inside you that's having a hard time dealing with your life and isn't coming out anymore. It helps you find who you're supposed to be, because you need to be that person again. You need to get yourself past all the outside things causing you to hide from the pain, the stress, the money issues, the loneliness, your unresolved parental issues, your unresolved body image issues, any sad thing in your life you've been unable to deal with because you just have so much on your plate. Therapists get that. They get where you're coming from and want you to be and feel and live better than you are currently.

Everyone needs someone who is completely objective to talk to about any and everything. It makes the world a much better place to be.