It feels like just yesterday when I was in kindergarten and my class was learning about how important it was to talk about your feelings. The teacher explained why we feel sad, happy or mad in certain situations, and that has always made me believe that it was important to talk about your feelings, no matter what.
Nevertheless, as simple as the concept of communicating your feelings is, it has always been a struggle for me to do so.
I never understood why I always felt so “nervous” about quizzes and other everyday activities when my friends and classmates were fine.
“It’s just a test,” one friend would tell me. “It’s just a simple performance,” another would say.
Since fifth grade, it was almost as if the whole circle of people I knew was utterly unphased by everyday things that made me overthink all the time.
I think it’s safe to say that I didn’t realize how important mental health was until my later years of high school. Recognizing how much the small signs of anxiety affected my everyday life opened my eyes to the fact that I needed to listen to my body more. However, that didn’t always work out in my favor, so I knew I wanted help.
Viewing therapy as a sign of strength, not weakness
When the topic of therapy comes up in social settings, it is laughed at without any hesitation. Growing up, no one ever made it seem as legitimate as I wanted it to be. Therefore, I quickly began to view the idea of getting mental health help as a joke. They thought the concept itself seemed humorous, and for that reason, I began to as well.
Nonetheless, I was still intrigued by the thought of going to therapy and receiving the counseling I always yearned for—in other words, the type of counseling that would allow me to talk about why I was always so tense and never knew what to do about it.
According to “14 Common Misconceptions About People Who Go to Therapy,” one common misconception is that mental health patients are weak. Surprisingly enough, I learned that whole theory was completely wrong.
Going to therapy and being open about your mental health help is one of the most courageous things you can do.
As Kohli says in her article, “One has to be open to facing every corner of their mind and heart and be completely, unabashedly open about fears, truths and experiences in order to really get the most of what a therapist can offer. That requires strength—strength to explore your own emotional and mental limits and boundaries, strength to be guided in directions you wouldn’t go and strength to learn and actively seek a better place.”
Reading that paragraph made me understand that getting therapy should not be seen as a weakness, let alone a laughing matter.
Becoming acquainted with the CWC
The process itself is not always easy to accept. Having to call the University of Florida’s Counseling and Wellness Center (CWC) by myself was nerve-racking. However, the process of getting paired with a counselor wasn’t as complicated as it seemed.
When I called the CWC, the first thing I did was schedule a consultation appointment. The purpose of doing so is to get you paired with the counselor that would best fit you. However, before having the consultation appointment, you must fill out some medical history paperwork and briefly describe your mental health history.
Once I’d filled those out, I was able to have my consultation appointment within the next couple of days on Zoom. During the consultation, I described what I felt and why I was experiencing it the way I did. The consultant took notes throughout the session and made sure I was comfortable confiding in her.
Afterward, she asked if I wanted to try short-term counseling at the CWC where they offer seven to ten sessions with a therapist on campus (due to COVID, meetings are now done on Zoom). Alternatively, the other option is to find a therapist in the area and start with them instead of a therapist on campus.
I decided to choose short-term therapy to try it out since I was still skeptical about the process back in August. Since then, I have had a much more positive outlook on my anxiety. I can easily journal about things that I can’t control instead of harboring them inside me. Therapy has allowed me to prioritize my mental health instead of ignoring it.
Thankfully, I have immensely benefited from the experience that I was initially scared to try.