A Treatment intended to heal or relieve a disorder A place you go to avoid dealing with your disorder A Treatment of mental or psychological disorders by psychological means A hamster wheel for the overactive gerbils running around in your brain The attempted remediation of a mental health problem A place all your friends commend you for going to, then later pretend they didn’t An important part of treatment for PTSD and depression An expense your health insurance company doesn’t cover Not just for the middle class Not usually available for the people who need it the most A way to develop healthy coping skills A way to learn when and where it is appropriate to cry in public A place you go to when you have low self esteem A place where you learn how to pop those hateful thought bubbles that pop up in your mind at inopportune times. A way to help decease your anxieties A way to create new anxieties you never knew you had A place where you learn to deal with thoughts, feelings, past behavior and emotional disturbances A way to avoid community service An essential part of drug abuse treatment for many people The only place you can tell an authority figure about your drug use and not go directly to jail A place to get a diagnosis 150 dollars an hour When a person speaks with a trained therapist When you tell a total stranger your most intimate thoughts and darkest secrets. (You should probably kill them.) A personal space that can help you cope with and resolve childhood traumas A space where you get to bitch about your parents and how they fucked you up and someone has to listen. A way to foster positive self-improvement A place where you go inside a room with of your all past selves and a gun and see who comes out alive A safe and comfortable space A place that rarely has a couch Somewhere to get a new lease on life File thirteen Part of a program that will help you quit smoking A place where you can pick up smoking More effective than talking to your friends Worse than talking to your friends Only the work you put into it A thing you don’t ever want to do the work for The only place where you don’t feel like you’re crazy The only place that makes you realize that you’re crazy A way to move on A thing that helps you face the shit in your mind that goes bump in the night A place you don’t make it out of alive A place that teaches you how to make it worth staying alive. A place that destroys your ass A place that saves your ass. “If I was going to kill myself I would tell you You’re only young once but you can’t be immature forever.” Jimmy Urine, Mindless Self Indulgence
Therapy is.
Hannah Searsy writes poetry and essays about mental illness, cosmonauts, laundromats, and haunted cemeteries. She lives in Fort Worth, TX, with her partner, Luc, and their two Siamese cats, Mojo and Scrambles. You can catch her writing floating around the internet on Mad Swirl and on her blog, herarising.tumblr.com.