Posted by JenStar on November 12, 2004, at 21:22:55
In reply to Hello, I'm Daisy and I go to therapy a lot..., posted by daisym on November 12, 2004, at 17:24:41
I get what you're saying about telling people about 'things.' When I was seeing a therapist, I wanted to tell my friends -- not all the details, of course, but at least that I was going. It was frustrating because some friends had what I call a somewhat negative response. Here's what they'd do:
1. Silence, eyes widen.
2. Then they say in an overly careful and very cheerful voice, "Well! I GUESS, if it HELPS, then....WELL, OK, GOOD," or something like that.
3. Then, for the rest of the lunch, I feel that they're sneaking looks at me, checking for cracks or fissures or snot hanging from my nose or god only knows what.
4. Conversation flows almost just as naturally, but I feel that there are small micro-pauses in which I am being examined.
5. The friend never, ever brings it up again, almost as if I'd talked about something really taboo.
With a handful of people, I felt untrusted after that point. It was as if I'd told them that I was convicted of drunk driving, or that I had stolen things from a store, or that I was secretly a porno star. I felt that I had been relegated to the bin of 'lesser' friends, the bin reserved for the losers / the unreliable ones.
What a horrible feeling! Just for saying that I was seeing a therapist! I mean, geez. It's not the end of the world!
My GOOD (true) friends didn't have this reaction. It only came from the friends who were more-than-an-acquaintance-and-it-would-be-weird-if-I-didn't-tell-them-but-who-I-didn't-TOTALLY-want-to-tell.
OH well...such is life...it just makes me (us?) stronger, right?
JenStar
poster:JenStar
thread:415161
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20041104/msgs/415248.html