What I Learn on the Orange Couch: Creating Boundaries for the First Time

(Stitching by Alisa Burke) His shoes are almost always brown. Sometimes, like last week, his socks match his bright green jacket, which I think is worn on days with rain. But I can't be sure; my evidence is sketchy, inconsistent, and random. I sit across from him, on a nubby burnt orange sofa that feels sturdy and new-ish and is so dark it is almost red; it is long enough for a family of four, depending on the capacity of that family for closeness. Which, perhaps, is the point in his line of work. In May of last year, I started seeing a psychiatrist; it is time for us to shed the stigma that rides alongside mental health interventions, like a puppy in a sidecar, but not as cute. Too many people suffer and die for not stepping into the sunshine to say, "Help me, I'm not waving but drowning," like my mother, and I won't be a party to that for myself after spending more than 40 years trying to bring sunshine to her or at the very least, trying to give her the information she needed to know that there was sunshine, somewhere. Note to self, step one: Stop caring about what others will say. It doesn't matter and they don't care anyway. And if they do care? Then they are caring about themselves and not you. Step two: Stop believing you can bring sunshine to anyone. My visit on that day in May 2015 wasn't exactly by accident but by proximity instead, an appointment of convenience, you might say. We needed to find a new psychiatrist for Felix (formerly known as Tess) to get a form...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news