Therapy
There is a stigma to seeking help. I’ve never understood the stigma because if you are unable to do something or handle something, there are people to assist us with this. It may be because people sense a level of weakness from seeking help. However, I believe it comes from a place of strength to allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to ask for help. Let me use myself as an example. I used to work at a shelter in the Bronx. I live in Brooklyn. It was a 1 hour 45 min commute by train and I started work around 8:30 each morning. In order to get to work on time, I would wake up around 4/5 am. When I get to work I’m the most upbeat individual in the shelter. I know the clients are going through a tough time so I try to emulate happiness and hope my feelings rub off on them. After work I have homework to do until around 2 am. And then I sleep and wake up 2-3 hours later and start my day again. I did this for 4 months until I ended up in the hospital with terrible chest pains. Doctors couldn’t figure out anything because according to them I was healthy. I went to a heart doctor, perfect health. They thought it could be acid reflux and I see a gastroenterologist and they do an endoscopy, nothing found. So it seemed like a random situation. But a co-worker of mine told me that she had the same thing happen to her when she first started. She claimed it could have been an anxiety attack because I overworked myself. Now three years later and random chest pain from time to time, I realize that any time that I feel extremely stressed I get such a chest pain that I need to seek hospitalization. I began to seek therapy but everything with the pandemic put everything on hold for the moment.
Now I don’t want you think that I believe therapy is for everyone. I had an experience during undergrad where I wanted to speak to a therapist just to get some experience on the opposite side of the chair. Anyone that knows me knows I have my bachelor’s in psychology. I hated it. No disrespect to the therapist intern, but I didn’t like her therapy style. There are various styles of therapy and the one she used didn’t really mesh with my personality, but I understand the reason why she used it. She just met me and she’s trying to do an assessment. Now that I am a little older and a little more understanding, I feel that I would benefit from therapy because I have a lot of issues that I would like to have someone to talk to it about. This so far is a good outlet for my issues because I have a lot of thoughts in relation to mental health but no one that I feel comfortable enough to talk to about it.
So for anyone that is seeking therapy there are a couple of resources out there. Time for a shameless plug, Vent with Ken can be helpful. It’s a service that I provide where I talk to you as a friend. If you just want to vent that’s ok. If you want feedback, I could do that as well. And all for only $1. If you live in NYC, call 311. This is a great resource that connects people to different agencies throughout the NYC area. Psychology Today is another great resource as well. You could input certain filters and find people within that category. Say you have depression and you want a woman that deals with that, you could work by those parameters to find the help. My family has used it and I have not heard any issues with it so far. Because of the pandemic there are alternatives to actually going to the therapist’s office. Services such as Better Help or Talk Space. The services are out there for you, if you decide to take the leap. And if you decide it’s not for you, that’s ok as well.