ScottLee.Name

When I was in intermediate school, I got shoved into therapy under the assumption that my mediocre grades probably meant there was something wrong with me. Actually, I was distracted, but the things I was distracted by were things that my parents were unable to really take away from my presence. They were things at school that all kids have to deal with when growing up, and perhaps it is possible that I was actually just a little more sensitive to all of it than I had originally thought. I was forced to see a therapist for 6 months, and in the end, I can honestly say that nothing was accomplished.

But later on down the road, when I was working 20 hours a week, going to school full time, and trying to run a company, things began to overwhelm me to a point where my stress got the better of me. I began experiencing mild anxiety attacks, and had long periods of disorientation that completely incapacitied by ability to normally function throughout the day.

So I shopped around really carefully for a counselor that I felt fit my needs and after a few days of searching through dozens located in the area, I finally found one that I might be happy with. I saw her for three total sessions, and within just three sessions, I was able to determine that my problems could be laid to rest by giving myself more off time. I have always been a very proactive guy, chasing after project after project until my body and mind do not allow me to chase any further. It is a bit of a quirky strategy to get further along by the sweat of my brow, so to speak.

Instead of putting into my projects more innovative, automated solutions, I’ve often gotten stuck in trying to do everything by myself. Many of the things I’ve had to develop with my production company, for instance, I have had to do on my own. With no money to pay employee salaries and no other place to start but the very beginning, it takes a lot to begin building foundations. The therapist’s idea that I was overloading myself was a common one with many other people I talked to, and especially the rest of my family. To this day, I am still not completely satisfied with the concept of taking a lot of time off in order to keep my stress level low, but maybe later I will be able to worry about more efficient ways to get things done.

In any case, the mere act of figuring out a strategy that enabled me to almost immediately live a happier, easier life was worth the $325 I had spent on those few sessions. With the anxiety problem out of the way, maybe there was more for me to learn about myself, I thought. Here are ten reasons why I predict I will end up working with a therapist for years to come, even when I do not need therapy.

1. Optimistic bias and overconfidence. Working with a mental health professional is often seen as self defeating for many people. Many who end up reluctantly going to therapy will say that they wish they could have taken care of their own problems themselves. The truth of the matter is, no matter what sort of project it is that you are working on, two minds, or even three or four that are able to work together with a certain kind of harmony, are almost always better than one. There are exceptions to this rule, but when it comes to expanding your own perceptions and perspectives, there is virtually no substitute for another viewpoint, as well as another tank of experiences from which to draw insight from.

2. You may not think you “need” therapy, but sometimes it is best. Many of us do not realize that our way of looking at the world is horrendously flawed until problems begin to arise that we cannot explain. At times I have gotten so caught up in the depth of analysis and logic that I give virtually everything in my life that I do not see how I could possibly have left something out of my conclusions. You almost always leave something out, and sometimes it is the solution to whatever problem it might be that you are attempting to solve. Your own perspective and systematic way of dealing with your daily life may also be creating long term issues that are easier to sort out now rather than later. For those who believe that therapy cannot benefit them, they are often the same people who may benefit the most once they actually show up to sessions.

3. Consider the cost of losing critical information versus the cost of mental healthcare. When I told my parents that I had gone back into therapy, the very first thing that they actually recoiled to was the fact that I was paying for it. “But honey, that’s so expensive!” For this same reason, many people believe that the price of therapy is too high and that its worth is too low. In my experience, I have found the opposite to be true. In not even half a dozen sessions, I have saved myself from what could ultimately be millions in heartache, frustration, or even information that is simply too valuable to pass up. $100 or even $300 may not be “expensive” at all once you factor in the cost of not gaining the benefits from it. Why is it that you think people who go to some of these conferences and seminars are willing to pay thousands? There is benefit to be gained out there, and it is in your best interest to seek it out.

4. By continuing your work with a mental health therapist or counselor, you are not just getting rid of the negative, you are following that with transcending toward the positive. Obviously the first things you want to take care of in mental health are the things that prevent health, but following that you will find a tremendous advantage in being able to pursue things that you want to pursue. Someone who is exceptionally healthy psychologically is not just someone who goes to the effort of resolving their mental problems, but is also often the one who continues their self exploration past the problems. Self exploration will yield things that you did not know about yourself, empowering you to accomplish things you may not have thought possible.

5. Through therapy you are able to gain a better grasp on your identity. Sometimes many of us ask the question of “who would I be without my past?” If your family was not there to teach you the values they taught you, your teachers not there to educate you, your friends not there to influence you toward certain decisions, who would you be? By continuous introspection with the outside guidance of a therapist, you can begin to dive deeply into this area. For instance, I recently learned that while my greatest strength in thinking about so many things has enabled me to do well in business and do things few other 20 year olds have done in my generation, it is the same trait that has impeded the growth of my relationships. Being a shrewd, social tactician and a bit of logician might work for increasing your profit margin, but that skill fails to hold any benefit when it comes to emotional empathy or communication with my girlfriend.

6. An outside perspective with applied expertise can outweigh your own personal introspection. Again, these things are often not visible without an outside observer. The first time I had gone through therapy when it was important to my father that he push me into it, sessions consisted of me doing almost nothing but talking, talking, talking. The therapist always seemed very passive to whatever it was I was saying. Truthfully, that experience was lame, and I felt like the woman had no clue what she was doing. She was asking questions to me that seemed to have no relevance to what it was that was on my mind. I felt very misunderstood and she ended up at one point calling me “evasive.” Evasive to what? To your questions that have no bearing on my reality or existence? The ability for an outside perspective to benefit you is dependent on your ability to get the proper and beneficial outside perspective that has the real ability to help you. If your therapist is not “getting it” or especially not listening to what it is you have to say, move on.

7. The best defense to emotional disturbance is early conditioning. Children who learn two languages at an early age do so without much effort, and children who learn a musical instrument very early in life also seem to do better on intelligence tests. By attacking problems early on, you prevent them from ever becoming problems at all. The best defense is a good offense. Begin restructuring your perspective, attitudes, beliefs, and views of the world before things come along to throw you off balance. One of the first things you might ever learn is how directly in control of your own emotional state you are. Overcoming emotional attachment is something that can happen after the fact, or it is something that never takes place because your superior thought process weeds it out of ever even bothering you.

8. Mental exercise can be just as important and beneficial as physical exercise to your overall health. There seems to be an increased emphasis these days on eating healthier foods and exercising more often. Physical exercise is crucial to staying healthy and living a long, rich, and fulfilling life, but so is mental exercise. Neurologicial scientists have learned that in addition to children being able to so rapidly accomodate knowledge at an early age because of their rapidly expanding brain development, adult brains seem to also require constant usage and exercise in thinking about complex ideas to maintain optimal functioning as well. In essence, therapy is just one more way to continue learning, and it has the same benefit for you.

9.You will begin recognizing other points in people that you previously recognized yourself. Psychology is my favorite field because in teaching one person to resolve one problem, you have essentially taught a dozen or more people to resolve that same issue, too. Here’s how it works: by your therapist assisting you to see one thing about yourself, you may use the same strategies to help others see that same point about themselves. In turn, they may then go on to help even more people. On a communal and societal level, therapy is good for the population. Of course, remember that you do not really want to go around trying to be everyone’s actual therapist either! It is important that you know your limits in these areas!

10. If you’re a guy like me, therapy helps not just you, but your business too. Philosophies developed from ongoing introspection do not just help you to be happy or allow you to function better throughout your day and life, they also serve as the basis for which other ideas can blossom and grow. If it were not for my constant research and looking into the self, I would not have ever found the ability to use the ideas I had developed for my own personal financial benefit. If I did not hold my same beliefs and values, I would not have been so ambitious as to start the projects I have. Maybe you could even go so far as to say that I would not have gotten promoted at my job to earn a better salary, would not have opened my own online store, and would not be earning advertising money from this very article you’re currently reading. I might be smart on one hand to implement these things at a mechanical level, but the value probably lies far more heavily on the part of me that has learned to be ambitious and proactive.