I'm glad you were able to get help.
My mother used to say these things when I was like 10yo, nowadays we will speak once every 6 months and she will mostly tell me about her retirement plans and the new internet app she found.
I like how you wanna also play my psychologist
, you are welcome to do it, shows empathy. I'm just expressing my skepticism when it comes to psychologists in the role of paid single-serving friends, displaying some real-life examples. Maybe I'm wrong or my examples are not the best.
If you ask me, I have certainly received advice from people that helped me define my life. The most relevant example is probably "one step at a time" by a 70yo electronics professor.
We were trying to build some electronics and I was trying hard to complete a project fast, go from zero to hero, but I was failing miserably. He told me that when I do something, I should take a breath, realize the level that I have reached, and steadily keep moving forward, go one step at a time and the project will be completed in no time. It worked and I'm doing this with everything in my life, even here in Apruz I may take 5-10 seconds to review my posts after posting them.
Another piece of advice, maybe not as fundamental but it can relate to Apruz and it is also quite funny. I was in a pub as an exchange student in the UK during the economic crisis, being depressed by both Greek politics and the way Greeks were portrayed in the West (the whole PIIGS, lazy Greeks situation). Some boomer-tier drunk guy comes and asks me what is wrong, I explained to him my situation and a discussion similar to this followed:
-I see, are you hungry?
-No
-Are you handicapped?
-No
-So you are just a celebrity correct?
-It's not like this...
-How it is not? The media used to trash celebrity "A" last week, now they honor her. Don't be butthurt, if you put some good work together you have a greater chance to get recognized.
-Eh
-The way I see it you are a young man with nothing to lose, no real constraints, who can do anything he wants.
I trashed this guy and I deeply regret it. Over the next days, I stopped caring about the media and even used some of this fame to my benefit (started configuring jokes around it, and people believed me when I debunked some stereotypes).
Now, if I were to compare this advice with what
I and only I believe I would get from low-tier psychologists:
Instead of "one step at a time", I believe that I would get something like that I should find a stable and organized version of myself. I'm not stable and no person in the world is, we are constantly moving and changing, it is only tools that remain stable until they get rusty. "One step at a time" is the tool, not myself.
Instead of a boomer offending me, I believe that I would get someone telling me to find a safe space and start sweeping things under the carpet, if he offended he would risk losing a customer. Ultimately, he would show me the way I can feel more comfortable but not the way I can actually become stronger. Stereotypes will always exist and a lot of the time there is a fair reason for them to exist, if you cancel them you also cancel critical thinking (like it happens nowadays). The problem lies with the media abusing them for sales and the idiots falling for them.
Anyways, this is my impression.
Maybe I'm wrong and there are actually some good psychologists who can help people. A relevant question may be the percentage they make out of the total.
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