Seeing a Psychologist Doesn't Make You Crazy
“I go to a psychologist and I’m not crazy. Besides, crazy is a label that should never be used to refer to people with mental problems. I go to a psychologist to help me change my bulb when it seems to have blown out.
I go to a psychologist because I need to organize my thoughts, manage my emotions, and learn how to live better. I go because it makes me feel good, because it helps me find the resources I need, in order to face life and find happiness.
I know the sound of stones crashing at my feet and blocking my path. I know how much it burns when you can’t find meaning in life, when you can’t put your feelings to words, when you can’t stop thinking that everything will go wrong, when you can’t find an exit that leads back to life.”
This could be said by anyone who goes to therapy. Regardless of one’s reasons for going to therapy, there is nothing wrong with it. On the contrary, it takes a lot of courage to take that step and allow a professional to help you untie your most intimate knots.
The stigma surrounding mental health
Going to therapy is viewed negatively. In fact, if you do, it feels like society is pointing its finger at you. However, as many professionals rightfully say, you don’t have to have uterine cancer to go to a gynecologist. So why doesn’t everybody go to a psychologist when they feel bad (i.e. anxious, distressed, or stuck)?
Maybe it’s because overcoming certain problems isn’t as easy as taking a pill. Maybe it’s because we live in a society of quick fixes, in search of the happy pill. Maybe it’s because we too easily scoff at the importance of working through an inner pain that has no name.
The thing is that we don’t pay enough attention to psychological problems. Emotional difficulties seem secondary to us, and so we don’t allow ourselves to look into them more deeply. What’s more, doing so seems like a sign of weakness.
We scratch our heads when the wound is more difficult to heal, but we don’t realize that, obviously, if we had paid attention sooner to the signs and symptoms that indicated something was wrong, the pain wouldn’t have spread like that.
You have to be really brave to acknowledge that twinge in your stomach caused by your emotions. You have to be really brave to open your mind and your inner world to a professional. You have to have a lot of courage to acknowledge that there’s something that you need to change.
You have to be incredibly strong to have the courage to change yourself and work on yourself. It’s a psychological achievement to recognize this and give yourself the opportunity to manage your expectations.
Because questions can often help you find the key to progress. Because the support of a psychologist is key to making sense of your problems and figuring out how to conquer them. People who go to therapy don’t always have a mental disorder, nor is psychology simply common sense.
What you achieve through therapy goes much farther than ordinary listening. It’s more than just an intimate conversation. It involves changing the light bulb using a balanced and objective framework.
The knowledge and techniques used by psychologists are based on scientific research, which validates the therapeutic process. That is the value of psychology: professionally supporting the search for answers; the creation of questions; the knowledge of emotions, thoughts, qualities, resources, and negative patterns. This is therefore a beautiful path for those who have the courage to follow it.
