{"id":1865,"date":"2012-05-29T09:51:02","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T13:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hnetalk.com\/?p=1865"},"modified":"2012-05-29T09:51:02","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T13:51:02","slug":"seek-ye-a-therapist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/2012\/05\/29\/seek-ye-a-therapist\/","title":{"rendered":"Seek Ye a Therapist!"},"content":{"rendered":"

May is Mental Health Awareness month.\u00a0 Yay, mental health!\u00a0 I remember in nursing school getting my first copy of a DSM-3<\/a> (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Third Edition (now in its 5th<\/sup> edition, I think.) I read it cover to cover.\u00a0 Then I took it home on weekends and diagnosed my family members.\u00a0 Imagine how they must have enjoyed that!\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019d have the book open in my lap all weekend long, while silently watching family interactions.\u00a0 Then I\u2019d point to one of them and I\u2019d say, \u201cI know what your problem is.\u00a0 You know what your problem is? I know. You have Histrionic personality disorder<\/a>.\u00a0 You fit the profile exactly!\u201d\u00a0 Needless to say, I wasn\u2019t popular with my family during that stage of my life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet, it was then that I fell in love with psychology and the way the mind works.\u00a0 I enjoyed pondering why we do the things we do and how we would go about correcting behavior that didn\u2019t serve us well.\u00a0 I wanted to become a psychologist myself, but my parents told me I had already switched my major too many times and I had to stick with something or they\u2019d cut me off financially.\u00a0 So sad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I decided instead to start going to therapy<\/a> myself! Goodness knows I had plenty to talk about \u2013 what with my Histrionic stepmother and all.\u00a0 And what a wonderful opportunity it was!\u00a0 To divulge all my issues and then have an objective observer tell me what they thought of it all!\u00a0 I loved therapy.\u00a0 I loved everything about it.\u00a0 I loved the quiet waiting rooms with the little tabletop waterfalls. I loved the white noise sound machines outside the therapist doors. I loved the sofas and the little boxes of tissues they had. I loved all their scholarly books on their shelves. But most of all, I loved that someone helped me put all my stuff into perspective.\u00a0 To leave the office feeling a little bit less burdened, or more enlightened \u2013 it was wonderful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I decided that everybody should be in therapy!\u00a0 Even if they don\u2019t think they need it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I see having a therapist sort of like I see having a doctor.\u00a0 Just as you\u2019d see your doctor if you have an ache or a pain or a fever, you would have a therapist to go see when you have an issue here and there throughout your life.\u00a0 That\u2019s how I\u2019ve done it.\u00a0\u00a0 But you have to be sure to pick a therapist that fits you.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had some that just sat there and never offered any opinion; some that only offered sweet, innocent comments; and I even had one that talked more than me!\u00a0 I moved on until I found my favorite.\u00a0 He\u2019s an older man with a quirky sense of humor who says it like he sees it and really digs in with insight and advice.\u00a0 Now, at 47 years old, I\u2019ve been through so much in my life.\u00a0 He\u2019s seen me through my mother and grandmother\u2019s tragic deaths, my father\u2019s dramatic exodus, my never ending divorce, and my crazy relationships with my sisters.<\/a>\u00a0 I hope I don\u2019t need him anymore (knock on wood) but I\u2019m glad to know that I can call him if I do.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s celebrate Mental Health Awareness month and go hug a therapist!\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, as I like to do, I’ve included\u00a0a song which speaks to today\u2019s blog theme:\u00a0 http:\/\/youtu.be\/rZH5PdSK0rk<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May is Mental Health Awareness month.\u00a0 Yay, mental health!\u00a0 I remember in nursing school getting my first copy of a DSM-3 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Third Edition (now in its 5th edition, I think.) I read it cover to cover.\u00a0 Then I took it home on weekends and diagnosed my family members.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,19,1],"tags":[97,129,130],"class_list":["post-1865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-health-care-educational-series","category-mind-body-and-spirit","category-uncategorized","tag-mental-health","tag-therapist","tag-therapy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ZZxW-u5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}