Circular Balancing

By Roger Colins 

___________________________________________________________ Psychiatry is big business. A profession with whom can help in walking one through problems and suggest a course of action with a backlog of years of study and training.  Sometimes this will require nothing more than a chat, sometimes regular therapy sessions are needed and sometimes, a course of medicine is to be prescribed but is this, counselling and psychiatry what we think it is? A certain stigma has always been attached to the graduates of the mind. Hypnotists, shrinks and charlatans are the usual labels. Psychiatrists appear on the same gauge as dentists so far as trustworthiness is concerned because we value our minds just as much as we avoid dental torture. Fair enough? Perhaps not. A good friend of mine posed that counsellors usually have a counsellor of their own, and their counsellor has in turn another counsellor for them to complain to. My friend added that perhaps God is the last counsel of appeal where I wittingly filled in the last blank; 'And then God, pissed off at all this bitching and complaining screws up all the counsellors patients.' the circle begins anew. Council Let us examine the position of a counsellor. Anyone can be a council. Should one find themselves before a court of law their council is usually a professional but certainly does not have to be. A good friend is quite acceptable an advocate. A good friend is by definition, the best council one could hope for and for some, psychiatrists will fill that role should the need be. A counsellor is also a sounding board or forum for opinion where matters can be chewed over my some extra heads to work on whatever issue is in need for clarification. Two heads are better than one. Counsellors can also be a person to give advice which is why good friends are the best at it. They have an advantage over everyone else in that their perspective is trustworthy. Strangers too can be excellent counsellors. The local barman is a prime example, there for you to just double check whether or not you are talking incomprehensible bullshit or if he too understands the issue his patron is addressing. The good barman is a professional counsellor and here's why. Barkeep The perfect counsellor will sit and listen. The barman, faced with a semi inebriated customer already has a head start. He's used to it. He has to stay sober the whole night while everyone around him slowly descend into raving blabbermouths. He also has a job to do while this is going on, give change, swap barrels, wash glasses and maintain a polite and welcoming disposition. His interest here lies. The barman is therefore not allowed to deviate from this said propriety or he will be lacking in professionalism. The barman does not give advice because he is not dealing with a friend, he is dealing with a customer. He is also not allowed to retreat, stop caring because the customer can just as soon grab their coat, down the last pint and leave never to return again thanks to this unkind reception. The barman cannot go forwards, cannot go backwards. He may go sideways from time to time to prescribe alcohol. The barman is a perfect council and this is what counsellors are there to do, just listen. Here's What To Do Should a counsellor start telling their patient what to do, where to go, how to think the patient will simply not take this advice and probably do the exact opposite. On the other hand, if the counsellor simply doesn't care then the patient is lost and again will find somewhere else to frequent. The psychology profession hardens their trainee's emotions by trial of fire. A counsellor has the thickest of skins. Putting them through years of the most horrifying exposure from every quarter of mental illness, is to simply to prepare them for the real world. Nothing short of life experience, so that once the student has graduated and encounters their first real patient they will be prepared to listen without personal interest should the patient start screaming they hate the counsellor's guts. A bad counsellor gives advice, involving themselves in the patient's problems and subsequently becomes part of the problem themselves. The patient needs to immediately find a new counsellor when this happens. Blown Gasket Psychiatrists prescribe anti depressants for patients to stop their emotions. All emotions. Without emotions of love and hate we lose the trigger for not only the one problem that is bugging them but all of the others as well including those that are going along well, being solved. If a problem is not progressing then we deny ourselves - accomplishment. In order to process emotions, they have to be allowed to go through pain, mistakes, accidents, suffering and pure living hell. If you've never had the problem of a blown gasket you will have never experienced the frustration of sorting through a car manual for it, calling up a friend that knows about gaskets, being stuck under the car bonnet covered in oil. You will also never know the satisfaction that arises when you've fixed it, shelved away all that new information, knowledge and experience nor the calming effect this experience has on one's own being the next time it happens. Indeed, you will still be infuriated when it happens again but this time, you'll say to yourself that it is okay, because you know what to do to solve the problem, this time. Mind Altering Drugs Let's go back and say when the first encounter of a blown gasket happens, your counsellor pops their head around the corner and start digging in their bag for a pillbox. In a fit of rage you slug down a half dozen anti depressants and go back to the kitchen, leaving your car in the drive. The car will never get fixed because you simply no longer care. Things will get worse. You won't be able to go to work, call in and tell them your car's broken without a care in the world. The kids can't be picked up from school, you won't care if you missed the season finale of your favourite show or add the next wing to your model aeroplane. Anti depressants are also anti ex-pressants. You need more glue, the glue is in the DIY shop and you need a car to get there, but you simply don't care any more because that pillbox is still full. Having chugged the last one and it's effects worn off, your kids, your plane, your TV show and of course, your car all come crashing down around your head. Gating Mechanism Counsellors teach their thick skins to patients and do so by example. Going to the third world, hanging out with the homeless for a night or shredding your muscles at a gymnasium purifies these irrational emotions by use of burning pain far more intense than the issue that was previously the centre of attention. Quite the opposite to chemical interference, it also adds a little negative reinforcement. If your foot hurts, all you need to do is inflict a more shocking pain to a different part of your body and your foot will not hurt as much. The foot should of course be left to heal in it's own time but for so far as emotional stability is concerned, put it into perspective with real world influence and practical action outside of the confines of one's own head.

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