Generally speaking, there are two cases in which we turn to therapy. One is when we are dealing with a recognised mental disorder, of ourselves or a loved one. In this case, we may have already been diagnosed, or we might be suspecting something to be wrong. The list of symptoms occurring is long, and could include a sense of depression, anger, eating and sleeping disorders, repetitive thoughts, anxiety etc.

In another case, we may turn to therapy because we feel discomfort, doubts, difficulties in relationships, in our professional or personal paths, difficulties in adapting, in finding our place, in finding balance in life, etc. These may inhibit our day to day function to lesser or greater extent.

In any of these cases, I find Erich Fromm’s following quote useful in reminding us that psychological difficulties and so called “insanity” are sometimes the best proof of sensitivity, of morality even, and in any case, of humanity.

 

“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet "for sale", who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence - briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing - cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity. He cannot help suffering, even though he can experience moments of joy and clarity that are absent in the life of his "normal" contemporaries. Not rarely will he suffer from neurosis that results from the situation of a sane man living in an insane society, rather than that of the more conventional neurosis of a sick man trying to adapt himself to a sick society. In the process of going further in his analysis, i.e. of growing to greater independence and productivity, his symptoms will cure themselves” (Erich Fromm).

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If we take off from this idea, and remind ourselves that normal doesn’t really exist, that our “symptoms” are natural reactions to a complex mind, in a complex world, and that we all in a way, suffer from life itself, I believe we have already done a lot to help ourselves.