Therapy (5) Broken TVs

So I've now been going to therapy quazi-regularly for 5 months now. I say quazi becuase he does not have a regular spot for me, and I don't really want a regluar spot… it's that whole "commitment thing" that I seem to have a big problem with, but that is a story for another day.

Conversations with my therapist go like this: I sit down in the chair. We make arrangements for the next appointment. We settle in. He then looks at me funny until I say something. I've never tested him to see how long he would go without saying anything, but I'm reasonably certain that he would go the whole session without ever saying the first word. Once I start, he will ask questions, offer directions, offer observations, but it is my job to start the whole thing off. Say whatever is on my mind.

Sometimes I start by saying "I'm hungry". Sometimes I say "I'm tired". Sometimes I say "you got a haircut." Sometimes I say "I need a new TV".

"Why do you need a new TV?" he asks.

I begin to describe that my current TV is 13 years old. That it no longer shows the colour white, but an off green. That it weights over 200 lbs and that I can't actually move it. That it takes up half the living room. That I can't replace my AppleTV (which no longer shows blue) because the new models only have HDMI and my TV does not have HDMI.

"Why don't you just go out and get a new TV?" he asks.

"Well, I have the money," I reply, "I've been saving up Christmas and birthday money for the last decade, but until my TV actually breaks I don't see the point in replacing it. Waste not. Want not."

"But it doesn't show white. That sounds broken to me." 

His simple statement caught me offguard.

The conversation continues and we discuss all of the things in my life that I keep using because they are not acutally "broken." There is a lot of it.

He then asks me about men. "How many relationships do you get into or stay in because they were similarly "not broken." Time's up before we get very far into this part conversation.

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The following week I talk about my looking for a new TV. I talk about not being able to find one that is just right. I babble on about technical specs and, generally-speaking, inconsequential stuff.

He waits for me to stop talking and asks, seemingly randomly, "how did you ask your first boyfriend out?"

"That's easy. i didn't," I reply.

"I don't mean the first man you dated. I mean the first person you asked out on a date. Tell me about the first man that you asked out for a first date."

"That's easy. I haven't. Ever. I have never asked a man out on a first date."

In all my years on this planet, I was never the one to ask a man out on a date. They always did. They always choose me. I never asked anyone out that I wanted to ask out. I always hoped that they would ask me. And if they didn't ask me? Well clearly, they weren't interested in me.

He looks at me, sumarrizing the notes in his head, "so when was the last time that you went for something that you really wanted?"

I pause. I think. I have difficultly remembering ANYTHING that I ever went for that I really wanted. I pause. I think some more. I smile. 

Epiphany.

I rarely, if ever, go for that which I truly want.

I don't know the "why?" but the brain begins to focus and the journey continues.

Therapy (3)

So I went to my third session of therapy last week and I had a (minor) breakthrough,

The therapist, as I was getting ready to leave, said "you have always had to figure everything out by yourself, haven't you?"

It's very true. And the longer that I think about it the more that it makes sense to me and puts so much of my life into perspective. (It also goes a long way to explaining the things that piss me off, the ways I react, the ways I relate)

From my earliest memories to the latest ones: it's all about me figuring things out. Early memories including never having my dad teach me how to shave and me having to learn to do it myself. To being gay in a smalltown and having to learn about "being gay" without any support. To figuring out what makes a relationship. To learning the computer (and teaching the school teachers), Right up to today and learning how to run a business.

All the big and most of the little things in my life i have had to figure out by myself. Either by having no other options or (more likely) preferring to do it myself—I have always tried to figure it out, Sometimes I fail, in which case I only have me to blame, but more often then not I, to various degrees, succeed,

I say succeed but only in regards to certain things. Things that follow rules, Things that follow logic, Things that are easily learnable. Computers, for instance, a piece of cake,

I have been completely rubbish at other things. Generally speaking, anything that involves emotions, And this is the main reason I'm seeing the therapist. Initially I went to him because I thought it was all about why I couldn't figure out all this emotional stuff. Now I'm beginning to understand that it's all about why I need to figure out everything by myself.

And that is where session 4 will begin.

P.S. As a side note, thus far this has been a positive experience, Yes I can get quite moody afterwards, but I feel I'm learning and moving forward. I fear that soon going to the therapist will feel more like a punishment than reward.