Mental health has finally become a topic of discussion and people are coming around to accepting the fact that mental health issues need to be addressed. More and more people are now seeking professional health for depression, anxiety, eating and mood disorders, etc. Even mental health professionals are learning new ways of treating people – new therapies, new theories, new tricks and new drugs.
Tumblr user anarchetypal used to visit a therapist for her depression and a post on the blog reminded her of her experience with Paul.
In her own blog post, she describes therapist Paul’s unusual ways of therapy. She says it raised a lot of questions at first, but when she noticed it was working, she felt pretty amazing.
Her post read:
I saw this post earlier about therapists and it reminded me of my old therapist Paul, who in my opinion is one of the greatest men alive and who did not put up with my bullshit for even one second
Anyway I go in to see Paul one week in the summer of 2016, and I’m doing my usual bullshit which consists of me talking shit about myself, and Paul is staring at me, and then he cuts me off and says that he’s got a new tool for helping people recognize when they’re using negative language, and gets up and goes over to his desk
And I’m like alright hit me with that sweet, sweet self-help article my man, because I’m a linguistic learner and whenever paul’s like here I have a tool for you to use it’s pretty much always an article or a book or something
Paul opens a drawer, takes something out, and turns back around. I stare.
I say, Paul, is that a nerf gun?
“Yeah,” says Paul.
IÂ say, “Are you gonna shoot me with a nerf gun in this professional setting?”
He happily informs me that that’s really up to me, isn’t it? And sits back down. And gestures, like, go ahead, what were you saying?
I squint suspiciously and start back up about how I’m having too much anxiety to leave the house to run errands, like it was a miracle to even get here, like I’ve forgone getting groceries for the past week and that’s so stupid, what a stupid issue, I’m an idiot, how could I–
A foam dart hits me in the leg.
I go, hey! because my therapist just shot me in the leg. Paul blinks at me placidly and raises an eyebrow. I squint again.
I say, slowly, it’s– not a stupid issue, I’m not stupid, but it’s frustrating me and I don’t want it to be a problem I’m having.
No dart this time. Okay. Sweet.
So the rest of the hour passes with me intermittently getting nailed with tiny foam darts and then swearing and then fixing my language and, wouldn’t you know it, I start liking myself a little more by the end of the session, which is mildly infuriating because Paul can tell and he’s very smug about it.
Anyway I leave his office and the lady having the next appointment walks in and I hear what’s all over the floor? And Paul very seriously says cognitive behavioral therapy tools.
It’s hilarious how Paul uses a nerf gun to cognitively restructure her thoughts but it’s also amazing how it has the desired effect. More often than not, the things that make us anxious are made out to be worse than what they actually are because of the choice of words we use to deal with them.
Maybe we can all take a lesson from this and keep in mind to use our words carefully, especially when dealing with it in our heads, yea?