When Hard Times Come
You are deep in trouble. Your parents don’t understand you. Your
boyfriend left you. You’ve argued with the dean. You’ve being sacked. You’re short
of time and money. All your life seems to be a great problem. You are always nervous. You
feel lonely and miserable. You labour under insomnia and cry at nights. You begin thinking
about committing suicide. Congrats! It is a depression! What should you do then? There may
be lots of different solutions. You can share your problems with Mum and Dad if you’re
really close to each other. You can also bother your friends, if you’ve got any. Being a
strong-willed person you may try to solve the problem yourself. But... Finally you can
visit a specialist. Yes, I mean a psychotherapist. Visiting such a special doctor is not
very popular in Russia, though in Europe and the USA it is a common thing to see your own
psychotherapist regularly. Some people even attend pets psychotherapists. With their pets
of course! Psychotherapy sessions have been described in many comedies and dramas. But
have you ever thought whether this process is so funny and... easy for both sides? Last
year was a real disaster for me. By the end I was completely washed-out and exhausted,
both mentally and physically. My problems were serious so I decided the treatment should
also be serious and proper. My GP doctor advised me to meet Zoe, a good psychologist and
an outstanding person. We met three days later. Zoe turned out to be a ginger-hair girl of
23-24. I am afraid she had just got her grade. She was slim and short with a tranquil
voice, supposed to soothe patients. I disliked her at the first sight. She wasn’t ugly
or stupid, but there was something in her eyes. Something cold. Well... nevertheless we
had a talk and decided to have sessions twice a week. At our next meeting she asked me to
say a few words about myself, my family, and the things I was anxious about. It was really
difficult to tell such things to a person you do not trust, though she may be a good
professional. You are wrong if you think that the psychotherapist will tell you what to
do. He or she just directs your thoughts. YOU are the very person to make decisions and
take responsibility for them. As for Zoe, she adored asking me questions. What is THIS for
you? What is THAT for you? What do you feel towards this boy? And so on and so forth. Her
favourite one, that always made me stuck, was What do you want? It’s rather a simple
question, requiring a simple answer... But when I began speaking about what I wanted, she
interrupted me asking what I wanted at that very moment. At that very moment I usually
thought about my problems, not desires. By our third session I was absolutely sick and
tired of Zoe and her interrogations. So when she asked me her usual question, I told her
the truth. At that moment I was longing to beat her mug! To my great surprise she smiled
(for the first time) and told me that was wonderful. Then... the alarm rang. Our session
was over. Fortunately I’ve never seen Zoe since. And my depression... My friends helped
me a lot.
By Anastasia Osipova, 4th year student
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