Should I Stay or Should I Go!

I mentioned in a post that I started seeing a counselor. My decision to see a counselor didn't happen overnight. In fact I have toyed with the idea for several years. However, I always felt that going and seeing a counselor meant I was weak. That I didn't have the intelligence, will, or strength to figure out my own crap.

This attitude quickly changed when my oldest son's life started to spiral out of control.

Then there was no question whatever it took, no matter the cost, no matter the hits to my pride I was going to get him the help he needed. So he entered counseling.

Let me be clear on this point. He was in counseling I was a parent working in tangent with the counselor. I was not in counseling. But my exposure to counseling significantly increased.

Here is what I learned.

• Counselors aren't all great. Sometimes it takes a few different counselors to find a good fit.
• Counselors specialize (who knew? duh?) my son saw a counselor for teens.
• Counselors will not tell you how to fix your problems. They will help you understand how your behavior impacts your life, but they will not tell you what to do.
• Counseling is not what we see on TV. Frasier and Dr. Laura are not good examples of counseling.

I also learned a lot about mental health through my job. As a teacher we are required to participate in suicide training. As part of our training I have learned several interesting facts about us Utahans.

• Utah suicide rates have tripled since 2007.
• We have one of the highest suicide rates in the country. Don't believe me check out this graph.

ibis.health.utah.gov

• There are a lot of theories about why Utah is so high. However, the one I think is probably the most true is we don't get help. This is my personal feeling and not statistical or researched in anyway.

In fact, Utahan's are far less likely to seek help for depression and other mental illnesses than people in New York. 

Why is this? The theories are plenty but for me it comes down to just plain stubbornness. Remember at the beginning of this post when I said counseling was admitting I wasn't intelligent enough, strong enough, or faithful enough to handle my own crap.  That kind of thinking is just plain stupid.

There is more but my word count is jumping and you are probably getting bored. So lets just say after seeing the positive results of counseling in my personal life and realizing Utahans have an attitude problem when it comes to getting help I decided to see a counselor. 

I am learning a lot about myself and how I interact with this world. Next week I will share my most, "Ah ha moment."