By, Caroline Stefanak
Therapy is something that has a very negative connotation for such a positive word. I was 17 when I went to my first ever appointment with a therapist. I was on accutane at the time, struggling with school, and losing sight of who I was before high school. I hated my body, my face, my hair, basically everything from head to toe and inside and out. But I wasn’t embarrassed to go when my mom booked me an appointment. She told me a really nice woman was going to be my punching bag for the hour. It wasn’t much like that. I did, however, get to spew out all of my feelings and my anxious thoughts. I thank my mom every day for giving me the opportunity to have a tool to help myself find a little bit of peace again.
Now, however, therapy isn’t as easy of a thing for many other people to do. The topic is whispered about, tip-toed around, and hardly normalized. It’s embarassing and a stupid cry for help, or even an attention seeking thing to do in the eyes of so many adolescents. All of that is so wrong. You should never be embarrassed to see someone if you need to. There’s nothing wrong with needing help to figure out your thoughts. There is such a stigma around going to therapy that it discourages so many young teens from even considering it. Social media influencers try really hard to normalize therapy, but their efforts don’t always break the offline surface of many young teenagers. They advertise therapy as “brave.” Getting help when you need it is in fact so brave, and everyone should be applauded for doing what is best for them. But therapy is reality. Regardless of how self-aware you may be, you still may invalidate your feelings.
You don’t have to commit to therapy. There were so many days I didn’t want to drag myself out of the house to sit for an hour. I wanted to just sit and rot. But the feeling after is something that makes it worthwhile. It’s not easy at first. Nothing ever is. Sometimes you don’t know where to start or what to say. The best thing about it all is that there is no pressure. There’s no need to say anything sometimes. Asking for help has never been a weakness, and society should have never made it seem one. Everyone who has the ability to go to therapy should, and therapy should be a service that is made ten times more accessible. Everyone needs a punching bag for their feelings. Just don’t hit your therapist. It might not end up well.