People are not perfect and neither are our problems. Sometimes these problems can be too much for one person to bare and asking for help can give us the tools we need to better ourselves. There is no shame in therapy and reaching out because everyone needs some help every once in awhile.
Anonymous 1:
I have always been someone who believed in counseling, therefore, I have been going ever since I was young. Primarily my mother put me in counseling to help deal with my parents’ divorce. Even though it happened when I was three, as I got older I started asking why I spent some holidays with her and others with my dad, hence the counseling. I stopped going to therapy for a while and then in my senior year of high school, I started having a lot of issues with my father so I started going back – until I came to college. Once in college, I stopped because I was more comfortable with my counselor from back home.
The summer of 2017, proved to be the hardest time in my life because issues with my father rose again, therefore I sought out counseling at school. Slowly I began to heal my soul and that helped improve my studies, and my physical self. Now, I decided that in order to have a healthy life, I first need a healthy soul which is why I will always go to counseling from now on.
I don’t go because I am “crazy” or have meltdowns but to keep myself healthy. Some people are scared to seek help and go to counseling but I would say: give it a genuine chance, I say genuine because just going is not the same as going open-minded. If you genuinely give it the chance and it’s not for you, that’s okay, at least you tried.
Anonymous 2:
Staged under the flourescent lights of the local Giant Eagle, a box of cereal fell off the shelf landing right by my feet — not a big deal, right? Wrong. I flipped out; I saw red. It had been almost two years since my dad died and all I ever did was repress, repress, repress. An ineffective strategy for anyone, I was filled to the brim with all these emotions I hadn’t dealt with. Because of the lack of room to filter and sort through emotions in the present I had turned any annoyance into an outright expression of anger. A sort of anger that not only was always far too aggressive for anything that triggered it, but also a sort of anger that could scare the actual Devil himself. I mean, Hell hath no fury like a woman afraid to deal with her true trauma and pain and is instead filtering it into anger… right?
I promptly picked up the generic Cheerios and found my mom about two aisles away by the cart. I distinctly remember pulling her away from the enticing ingredients on the back of the soup can by saying “Hey mom, I think I need to call that woman you were talking about.” Just like that I had made my first appointment, and to this day I maintain that it was the best decision of my life. Who knows where I’d be and what enemies I would have made if I hadn’t dealt with anything. It was hard, but you owe it to yourself to make the jump and go to your first appointment.
Anonymous 3:
There came a moment in my life that I knew I needed therapy, a moment that I knew that the stuff I was feeling was not going to get any better without professional help. There was one specific night during the summer going into sophomore year of high school that I felt like I hit rock bottom and knew I needed help. The feeling hits you when you know you can’t do it on your own anymore. But that moment was one of the best moments of my life because at that moment I knew that I should seek help and that is what I did. I had a talk with my parents telling them everything that was going on and that I wanted to go to therapy.
Soon after that I had an appointment with a therapist in my hometown. It’s something that has easily become the turning point in my life to this day. Going to therapy took some time to get used to, spilling all of my thoughts and feelings to a complete stranger was hard, but after a few times, it became really comfortable. It was really nice to have someone that wasn’t a family or friend that was there purely to help me better myself. My therapist helped me through the toughest times of my life and honestly helped saved me. It was comforting to know that someone was there for me all of the time to listen, help, and not judge. She was able to help me get through one of the toughest points of my life, and even now when I’m a lot better I still see a therapist to keep my mental health in check.
Therapy is something that I cannot recommend more, no matter what you’re going through or if you don’t think you need therapy, it’s never a bad idea. It’s never a bad idea to have someone in your corner that will listen and help. Sometimes talking to someone that you don’t have a connection with already or someone that is unbiased is exactly what you need.
Anonymous 4:
The first time I saw a therapist it was my junior year of high school and I was having a really rough time in my life and in school. I can remember that year I cried or vented a lot to my English teacher, and if it wasn’t for her I would not have been as successful as I was that year. Which is mostly where my story with seen a therapist started, my English teacher, let’s call her Mrs. Smith for this purpose, had known just by seeing me that I was having a rough time and encouraged me to talk with her. That eventually lead me to fill out a report with the Student’s Assistance Team, which is made up of teachers and one is assigned to each student who fills out a report and as a team, they decided how they can help a student and what resources are available to them.
Well, Mrs. Smith was assigned to be my “case manager” and it was then that I spoke with a therapist that would come into the school for the students that needed help with everything. And it was in talking with her that I talked to my parent’s about getting me a therapist outside of the school setting. Since then I have seen several different therapists and honestly, it has been a game changer for me. I am now in a much better place, mentally and physically, and a lot of it has to do with taking that first step and admitting I was not okay and I needed help. I promise you it is okay admitting that you need help, it will make such a large difference in your life and it is worth it. So, take the step and reach out to the resources that you have available, especially here on campus.