My Brain's Not Broken

I’ve been to…a decent number of therapists over the years, and though I’ve found short-term success with a few, I’ve never been able to find long-term success. Part of that is the transitions I’ve made in life (high school to college, and then college to post-grad can make that difficult), but part of it is also that I had no long-term goals with therapy. I didn’t always know what I was doing with therapy, but I few years ago I made a goal for myself to create a more sustainable and reliable approach to therapy, and I’m proud to say I’m close to achieving it!

For a very long time, I was focused on going to therapy every single week. It was an important part of my growth and commitment to bettering myself, and I thought that this was the best way for me to accomplish this. I also wanted to build a solid foundation with my therapists, and I thought meeting on a weekly basis would also be an efficient way to connect.

But goals can change on our mental health journeys, and that’s exactly what happened here. While meeting every week was beneficial in some ways, it was also draining for someone as empathic and emotional as myself. At a certain point last year, I realized that if I wanted to have a more sustainable relationship with therapy, I was going to have to figure out how to have it in my life on a longer-term basis.

There are endless reasons that therapy can be helpful for people, and whether they’re short-term or long-term, setting goals in therapy is one of the major ways that we can begin to make changes and shifts in our lives. It took me a long time to realized how important that aspect of therapy is, but being mindful of goal-setting has been a big step forward.

For me, I decided that going to therapy every other week was one of the ways to build a more sustainable and healthy relationship with therapy. It’s a goal I’ve had for a long time, and even if it’s not successful, it’s something I haven’t tried before. Part of therapy is pushing ourselves and stretching our wings, and this is an attempt to do just.

Whether I succeed or fail, I know I’ll feel better because I gave it a try. And when it comes to my mental wellness, I’ve learned just how much power there is in making that attempt. Here’s hoping it lasts!