Seeing a therapist

[Quartet]

I made a thread not too long ago about not being able to sleep.
It's been... well quite a few days since the last "good" sleep. I have generally been getting maybe an hour or two of sleep the last 9 days and it's severely effecting me. I have a constant headache, my eating habits went down, I am "restless" and have little energy throughout the day.

I finally asked my school's psychology instructor about the schools program for therapy sessions, which offers us 4 free sessions per quarter (every 3 months) and so I spoke to a woman about that today and she helped me set up an appointment, I''ll be getting a call later this week with the exact date and time.

I'm terrified to go, but I know I need to. I am so afraid they will put me on some sort of medication and I would rather not go that rout with this. I don't want to have to rely on a form of medication.

I wish I had money for the ILovePanicAttacks.com CDs, I just keep wishing and wishing for it.

It's been years since I've been to a therapist... and when i went it was very fake. I am scared I will have to deal with someone that doesn't understand exactly what I'm going through or that they will try to push ideas in my head to say that it's because of something that happened to be in my past... I dont know, I know i'm over thinking it... I am just uncertain =/

[Celestial.]

Hey there.

First off, I think it's great that you're willing to see a therapist. It's hard enough realising that something's not quite right, but it's harder actually asking for help, so well done on that!

It's natural to be nervous about an appointment like this, but try and overrule that with the knowledge that it will really help, and probably won't be as bad as you expect. If you don't want to be put on medication, just tell them that. Good therapists will help you find a solution you're comfortable with; and of course, nobody can force you to take medication if you don't want to.

If you're not comfortable with the therapist you see, then it may be worthwhile trying to find someone else. It can be better to be seeing no therapist than one you're not happy with.

You won't find a therapist who knows exactly what you're going through. You won't find another person who does. The best people can do is empathise, sympathise, or try to understand. A good therapist will try to understand you, and work with you, despite the fact they can't understand all about you.

The last bit of advice I'll give you is this: try not to think about it. I know when I'm worried about something, I tend to think about it, picture different ways it could happen, and focus on the worst. So maybe, if you just accept that what's going to happen will happen, and thinking about it won't change what's going to be, then you might feel a little less anxious.

All the best.