Sticking your head in the sand is a great strategy for never helping to enact change. Knowledge is power, learn what you can.

Wow, I feel this lately. One day at a time, but you're telling me Christmas is in...18 days?

I wonder what he'd do if he were here...

Woah woah woah... selfish behavior? What do you think you know about procrastinators?

I love that I procrastinate. It helps me to think about the issue/task for a longer period of time and allows for freedom to complete other tasks or relax instead of constantly stressing about getting things done immediately. I used to complete jobs right away and was rewarded with ever increasing workloads until I broke down from the amount of stress put on me daily. Procrastination isn't something done to spite or hurt another person/entity...you have me a deadline and I completed it before it was due. Shouldn't matter how I went about completing it.

Procrastinating has taught me how to work under intense pressure when it's absolutely needed, and I can respond in the moment with confidence in my ability. It helps me to find time to be more connected with my coworkers without being overburdened with an ever-increasing workload. If I don't take the time to be true to myself as a procrastinator, you will get less and less quality work out of me as my mental capacity becomes overloaded. It's selfish to abuse those that want/need to take their time while still working under last minute pressure to get it done.

Not everything is so black and white just because it doesn't fit with your style of working.

Calling people out on their BS is the right line to draw for me personally, but I still want that person to have the right to express their opinion. We just need to teach people that it's ok to be wrong as long as you can admit it and learn from it. No idea gets processed until pushed from an opposing party.

Sitting back and doing nothing teaches nothing. Calling it appalling and informing the person why they're wrong is the right step toward change. But if you can't say it in a way that makes them hear you, then you're doomed to have the argument all over again.

That's may be true for you, but a lot of these type sites are a great source for news and information about the world. Ignorance is bliss as they say, but the world keeps spinning whether or not you pay attention to it. I'm not saying you HAVE to get news from social media, but that's what I primarily use it for.

I'm sorry mister, "you got any sources for that?" guy, but I just gotta ask....

You got any sources for all this bullshit you're spewing?

This is actually very interesting and gets at the heart of the problem in many different ways. Very true that there's a money barrier that excludes some that might be most in need of services. There needs to be a more focused effort on providing assistance to those who need it at reduced rates or with additional insurance help.

But the bigger problem still remains with helping men (and women frankly, but moreso men) to understand what therapy/counseling is and is not. For years psychologists have been naming symptoms and diagnosing individuals with such and such disease or shortcoming on the part of the individual. Just like everything in the corporate world, they rely on statistics and numbers to come up with definitions for problems and for solutions.

I'm currently enrolled in a master's program to obtain my licensing for professional counseling, and I can tell you that the attitude on that is finally starting to bend. I hear what you're saying about not wanting therapy to simply be a self-affirmation circle-jerk because it doesn't feel helpful to be told how wonderful you are by a person just to be knocked right back down again in a real-world experience.

But beneath even your resistance there's still an admission that support can be helpful. In my personal opinion, I think counseling/therapy is a purposeful space to open up about experiences and feelings that you wouldn't otherwise have an opportunity to express. Talking to yourself or talking to animals is helpful, but simply being able to unburden your thoughts to another human being that doesn't know you and won't judge you (or at least... they're paid not to judge you) for your opinions or past mistakes can be a hugely beneficial step towards true healing.

Ultimately no counseling or therapy techniques can be effective until you decide they can be. It's about helping to reframe your thoughts in ways you might not have considered, and it's also meant to give you useful tools for coping with feelings both now and in the future. Successful counseling is one in which the client feels comfortable and confident about how to deal with the hardest parts of human existence.

More needs to be done to educate people about what they can expect from counseling so they can make their own decisions about whether or not it would be useful to them. Being able to word vomit my insecurities with a stranger for an hour is surprisingly uplifting and helps me clear my head towards whatever's coming next.

Well, either you're really bad at expressing yourself through online comments...or you forgot to add a /s to the end of your comment. Certainly seems to me like you're still a bit confused.

That and so you can close the door and just try to pretend there's nothing in there

That's what I was thinking. Pretty much what I would expect them to say publicly. Who knows what they actually think...you don't find it in the news, that's for sure.

My cat has pretty much free reign of the place...with two exceptions. Whenever she wants my attention and isn't getting it, she ALWAYS goes where she's not allowed just to force me to get up and yell at her. Her reaction is just "oh you're up now? Ok come on let's go play"