File under "Illogical Crap"

2007 was a tough year. Or should I say another tough year, since I've had tougher. But I got to thinking that maybe I should see what is delicately called a "counselor." Ok, people, we're talking about a therapist, a psychologist. someone who will listen, be objective, tell me that I worry too much or don't relax enough or that I need to give myself permission to send mean people to hell, that sort of thing. I don't like psychiatrists because I know that the first thing they will do is put me on Prozac or on a combination of Ritalin and Wellbutrin and ask me to smoke pot if I can find it. That would put me in the loony bin faster than I'm headed there on my own. I distrust the FDA when it comes to three things: Food, Drugs, and Administration. So the strongest thing I ever take is Extra-Strength Excedrin coupled with two cups of strong coffee. Does the work for me.

Oh yeah, I like Vick's VaporRub too, it works on asthma AND arthritis.

I asked around to see if anyone had any recommendations. I think that word-of-mouth is extremely important in making a decision of this kind. If I needed a surgeon, or a dentist, or a contractor, or a lawyer, the last thing I would do is to blindly pick one from the yellow pages. I have always been careful that way to get referrals, recommendations, etc before choosing any kind of professional or non-professional.

One of my friends suggested a practitioner in the pseudo-science of human behavior that she had frequented a few years back. My friend said that this practitioner, a female, had been an excellent therapist. She did not go for the lengthy "You lay on the couch blabbing and I will sit on the chair pretending to take note for eons until you come to some answers on your own" style of therapy. Instead, she asked a few questions and got to the point quickly, making recommendations and cutting to the quick. I thought to myself that this kind of psychologist would be a good thing, since I'm in my early fifties and don't want to be in my 90's before I attain psychological enlightenment. So I took her name and number and resolved to call to make an appointment.

But before I could call, the following happened: This recommended psychologist has a very uncommon last name and I asked one of my coworkers at the Thanksgiving Day Parade fame department store if she knew her since they shared the same last name. It turned out to be my coworker's sister! My coworker told me that her sister was indeed a brilliant psychologist, had her Ph.D. and had worked very hard to get her degree. And then my coworker went on to tell me that she (the psychologist) had had a lot of trouble in her life as well. First, she had gotten married about 15 years ago to her sweetheart of many years. After 5 years of marriage she caught her sweetheart, now her husband, in their bed with another guy. OK...Then she had divorced this person but they had remained good friends. A few years later she met another gentleman, dated for a couple of years, then married him and had two kids. Just recently, they had divorced because she (the psychologist) had discovered that her husband had a parallel family (wife and two kids) who lived about ten blocks away. OK...

I ask you: Would it be a good idea to put my convoluted little life in this person's hands? Would you not expect someone who is going to help you unravel issues in your life to be, well, um, more aware of stuff in her own life? More, I don't know, help me here, "normal?" Or maybe this stuff happens to everyone but what she would be helping me with would be more coping skills for dealing with stuff like this in my life? Well, yeah, I guess she would be great in that sense.