Counselling...your thoughts?

Well after considering some of the issues I have had in my life I have finally taken the courageous decision to sign up for some counselling. I have issues surrounding loneliness and rejection that may affect me in the future with my new relationship. The high times are wonderful but the low times feel like devastation.

I am wondering how people out there have regarded counselling and whether you thought that it made any difference?

Also those that have never tried counselling, how likely do you think you are to try counselling?

I found it useful in the short term in that it helped keep me focused and helped me feel like i was doing something. That was for depression so it is something of a different matter and may not apply to your case.

I have never had any. Well my mums friend is a therapist and I have had many talks with her and regard her as a close friend as well. But we have never talked on a professional bases so I do not consider myself to have had any counseling. I do think it can work wonders for the right ppl and for the most of us like anything else in life would have to work at what ever problem we go there with.

End of the day it can not hurt to try. We/none of us have anything to loss by it.

I think counselling is good if your just looking for someone to talk to. They can offer you a different "oppinion" then just your own. Of course it costs money. I would be careful of expecting them to be able to actually solve any of your problems as only you are able to do that. I think a great many people make the mistake of instilling them with powers that they do not have. Believing they know things they do not know. Concellers(sp) are just people like everyone else. As such their advice and oppinions can be wrong just like everyone else. I think a good friend or family can do more then counselling ever can. Sometimes though that is not an option.

I have in the past resorted to counselors for both academic (when I was a student) and personal reasons. While it obviously helped in the short run, looking back I think counseling is absolute bullshit, which is why I am here. I believe the concern that people show here and the willingness that they display to listen to you is much more genuine than that of a bunch of folks who get paid to make a concerned face and talk about your problems.

It is definitely good if it helps you take the first step in solving your problems, but as lonely and hopeless as it sounds, you're responsible for sorting out your problems. Not that they don't concern me or others on this board (they definitely do, which, once again, is why we are here - to help each other out), but what you do with all the help that you can get and how you use it is, in the end, all up to you.

Just my brutally honest two cents...

Thanks for all the comments folks. You are all right...and then again we may all be wrong. I guess like everything else it is down to personal experience and what happens to each and everyone of us. The reason why I am going to see a counsellor was rammed home to me again yesterday. My partner and her kids were coming to stay at mine on Friday through Monday. They are all ill so they wont be over until later today (Sunday). This left me with 36 hours of free time...not good for me. When plans are changed at the last minute the down that I feel is terrible...worse than anything else. That cannot be normal. Last night I resorted to sleeping through by having a drink...not a lot...but enough to make sure I slept. That cannot be good.

The things that have gone wrong in my personal relationships have left me struggling to cope with time on my own. Don't get me wrong, I am really happy being the person I am. I love being the person I am but I must get control of this sadness in my life that re-appears everytime something minor changes that affects me being with others or on my own.

Thanks for the comments.