Does going to therapy mean I’m crazy?

There is a common misconception that seeing therapist means you are crazy, unstable, weird, or maybe even broken. However, any of those adjectives could not be any more further from the truth.

Therapy is useful for different reasons for different people; but one thing that every client has in common, is that they are seeking help. Assistance from a therapist may be required to:

• Work through a specific current day issue

• Find better ways of coping

• Better understand unhealthy patterns/symptoms/distress

• Validation and support, or

• Help with healthy decision making

Although this may seem like a short list, there is nothing in that list that suggests ‘craziness’ is a reason. Sometimes distressing emotions can feel like loosing control and that can then lead to questioning of experience, capacity, and general sound-mindedness. However, there is no clinical definition of crazy (that I know of at least!).

I recently attended a two a two day seminar where the distinguished presenter put it quite eloquently: “we are all bozos travelling on the same bus”. So whatever your reason, there is nothing crazy about wanting or needing to speak to a therapist.