If you’ve ever danced with depression, or any other type of mental illness, chances are that at some point or another someone has recommended seeking counselling, or seeing a psychologist to you.
This can be a super daunting thing, for anyone, at anything, for any reason. Particularly if you’ve never been to one before.
So far in my life I have been to see four different psychologists.
- The first time I went, I only lasted one session.
- The second time was a few weeks later. I think I lasted two sessions this time.
- The third time didn’t come around until four years later, early last year. This time, I lasted four whole sessions with the same guy. Then I was done.
- The fourth psychologist I started seeing around September last year. I still see this woman.
The reason I never stuck out the sessions until now, is that I just didn’t click with the people I was seeing. Having a rapport with the person you’re telling all your deep dark’s to is super important — if you don’t like them, you won’t want to talk to them. I’m certain that the first three people I saw make great psychologists — for other people. They just did not work for me. For whatever reason, I wasn’t 100% comfortable/trusting/willing to work with these people.
But it’s super disheartening when you’re going to talk to someone to try and help you to feel better, only to find that nothing they’re saying is helping you. Or even worse, when you’ve gone to see someone to talk about your depression, and they tell you that you’re not depressed — you’re just stressed. I sure as shit was stressed, but this was stemming from my depression, lack of motivation, and the fact that I was sad. It was at the end of our fourth session while I finally managed to hammer the point home that I was sad for no discernible reason, and he started to realise that I may actually have depression. I’d had enough by then and I didn’t go back.
What all this means is that I have a hard time admitting that I may need to talk to someone professionally, and even when I do know I need to, it’s hard to work up to finding someone. I was lucky in that my most recent psychologist was recommended to me by a friend, so I didn’t have to go through the whole rigmarole of trying to pick someone off a list and basing their ability to relate to me purely on the number of letters after their name. If I hadn’t had that recommendation, god knows how many more psychologists I would have gone through before I found one I liked.
As you may or may not know, Fed Uni has counsellors available for all staff and students to access and see for free. I have met a few of these guys during training for mentoring, and they are fantastic people. I would definitely recommend calling up and booking an appointment with them if you want to talk for any reason. Going through a rough patch at home? Starting to wonder if this really is the course for you? Feeling homesick? Stressing about assignments? Go, talk. I find it helps.
You may be wondering why, if I’m hailing the praises of the guys and gals here at FedUni, I choose to see someone off campus. I pretty much live and breathe here at Uni, I study here, I work here and I play here. At the time, I wasn’t ready to admit to the wide world that I needed that little bit of extra help. I had nothing to be ashamed of, but I just wanted to keep my work life and my mental health separate for a little bit longer, at least until I started to get my head around what was going on with me.
What I’m trying to say is, I find talking to someone good. It helps me, and it could help you too. Please don’t be disheartened if you’ve been to talk to someone before, but just didn’t click with them. Please don’t be too ashamed to admit that you might need a bit of a leg up. Everyone struggles with life sometimes, and it’s more than okay to seek out help when you need it 🙂
-Emma
Editor’s note: Don’t forget that, if you need someone to talk to, FedUni has a free, confidential counselling service for students available at Mt Helen, Gippsland, SMB, Horsham and even by phone. You can find more information here.