Did counselling help you?

Hi. I’m new to the forum.
I thought I had problems but when I see what others are coping with, they all seem trivial by comparison.
The support on here looks very good, both with practical information and people reaching out.

Anyway, counselling has been suggested to me, by someone I know, as something that might help.
Trouble is I don’t know how talking about the situation will help. Either with the day to day routine or the dread that thinking about the future inevitably brings.
But I need something to help me deal with the emotions which can take so much energy. Talk about over reacting. I am literally grinding my teeth down at night, and dropping a piece of bread on the floor the other day, had me first enraged, then in tears. I avoid the news as I can’t take any more “bad” news.
I can’t see an end to any of this.

Hi Marie. Welcome to the forum.

I don’t know what your situation is, but I can relate to your emotional situation as I was feeling very much the same three years ago. Having no one to share my feelings with I saw my GP. His only suggestion was counselling and I too was reluctant to try this but thought I had nothing to lose. Of course counselling offered no practical help but I found it surprisingly helpful to share my feelings with another person, and it did enable me to get things into perspective and to see that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

I wish you well and hope that if you do try counselling that you will find it as helpful as I did.

Jenny

Thank you, Jenny.

Hi Marie, hope the counselling helped?. I had a short session ,talking therapy, via the phone, due to covid. At my first session ,I was like ,how is this going to help, but held out for the second one. Personally I found it very helpful . Different techniques to relax and not overthink…I found that actually talking to someone that wasn’t in the least biased was a breath of fresh air. I suppose at first I was expecting them to sort my life out :joy::joy:. I realised there is only me that can do that, and I have to find the way to do that. My counselor listened very well, and got me to think more, hence arriving at the decisions that were right for me. I guess for me I talked myself to find the right way for me. I still use the techniques to this day , although some days are more difficult. I hope everything worked well for you, and you have found yourself again .

I helped my mum for ages take care of my papa towards the end of his life a couple years ago and we would do his shopping and visit him in between NHS carers coming in, so we were all like a team doing our own roles. It actually got really difficult towards the end for him to still live at home and it really affected all of us individually because caring for him become so so challenging and a lot of anxiety stemmed from the experience for myself and still lives with me the now. I would 100% advocate doing counselling if you feel the same or are under pressure because talking about how I was feeling really deeply helped me get to where I am now and can reflect on how hard caring for my Papa was and all the family dynamics and issues that stemmed from it. So yeah counselling truly works! I recently decided to help my mum pay for dental implants link removed by moderator as well after getting lots of stress related dental issues that screwed up her teeth round about the time we were caring for my Papa. Things get better! you just need to make sure you are taking care of yourself too and balancing your own wellbeing. Hope this helps, and thanks for letting me vent.

Counselling was really helpful for me. I missed my husband dreadfully, we always talked everything over together, I felt very lost after he died.
Despite being newly widowed, disabled in a recent car crash, disabled mum, and brain damaged son everyone wanted a piece of me even when I was struggling to run our business.
Initially just me talking seemed an utter waste of my time, but gradually the counsellor got to know me, to set my priorities, and my boundaries about what I would and would not do.
Most of all I realised that I wanted to help mum, I was doing things out of love, not duty.
We were different as chalk and cheese, she frustrated me beyond words at times, but she was my mum, and I loved her.
The counsellor supported me through the death of my brother, and mother, and the aftermath. She helped me feel proud of what I could do for mum, not guilty about what I couldn’t.

Counselling helped me. I could say things that I could not tell anyone else.