blond_elf_bard
Major
★★
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2017
- Posts
- 2,191
For the record, I do see a therapist, and I'll be able to get another one with insurance after my sessions with the university run out. I'd say that I don't have much in the way of friends, either, although I have one now, and so I do appreciate him for that.
I believe that telling someone to see a therapist is rather invalidating, because it represents an eschewing of any potential help on the side of the person recommending therapy. One may try to make the counterargument that the person recommending help is doing so not out of a place of callousness, but because they genuinely do not know how to help the person suffering.
However, I think that the counterargument falls flat for the majority of people. Most of us do try to help our friends; I believe it's natural. Moverover, research suggests relationships boost quality and duration of life and so allowing both parties to benefit from emotional vulnerability, the vulnerable person from the easing of psychological burden, and the listener from the benefit of gaining some "power" in the relationship as a result of gaining vulnerable information, may be preferable to deferring the exchange of vulnerability to a third party. However, I admit the listener only has so much stamina, and dealing with depressed people, especially for a person not trained in therapy, can be quite exhausting.
Telling someone to see a doctor if they complain to you about a physical condition may well be meant in good faith, but insofar as healthy (i.e. beneficient and emotionally open) interpersonal relationships promote psychological health, relegating someone else to a stranger hardly seems productive, especially for someone whose psychopathology stems from a lack of social connection.
What solution is there? "Doing the inner work" prior to seeking out social relationships seems incomplete insofar as the psychological health obsentibly promoted by inner work, I would imagine, is largely constituted by socialization.
Have you ever been asked to see a therapist by a friend, acquaintance, or family member? How did it feel to hear it?
I admit I'm looking for looking for answers here because I'm getting rather desperate. I've been in therapy for years....
I believe that telling someone to see a therapist is rather invalidating, because it represents an eschewing of any potential help on the side of the person recommending therapy. One may try to make the counterargument that the person recommending help is doing so not out of a place of callousness, but because they genuinely do not know how to help the person suffering.
However, I think that the counterargument falls flat for the majority of people. Most of us do try to help our friends; I believe it's natural. Moverover, research suggests relationships boost quality and duration of life and so allowing both parties to benefit from emotional vulnerability, the vulnerable person from the easing of psychological burden, and the listener from the benefit of gaining some "power" in the relationship as a result of gaining vulnerable information, may be preferable to deferring the exchange of vulnerability to a third party. However, I admit the listener only has so much stamina, and dealing with depressed people, especially for a person not trained in therapy, can be quite exhausting.
Telling someone to see a doctor if they complain to you about a physical condition may well be meant in good faith, but insofar as healthy (i.e. beneficient and emotionally open) interpersonal relationships promote psychological health, relegating someone else to a stranger hardly seems productive, especially for someone whose psychopathology stems from a lack of social connection.
What solution is there? "Doing the inner work" prior to seeking out social relationships seems incomplete insofar as the psychological health obsentibly promoted by inner work, I would imagine, is largely constituted by socialization.
Have you ever been asked to see a therapist by a friend, acquaintance, or family member? How did it feel to hear it?
I admit I'm looking for looking for answers here because I'm getting rather desperate. I've been in therapy for years....