Brave

[Papapickle]

Today I to9 the brave step of speaking to a counsellor to try and come to terms with my Behçets and how it’s effecting my life, along with the trigemin, neuralgia.

Has anyone else tried this and has it helped?

[jzeis]

Hi Papapickle,

Good for you for taking this step!! Having a counselor to talk with is what kept me sane during my earliest (worst) years of BD. At first I thought it was awful that I had to pay someone to listen to me, but it made a HUGE amount of sense the longer I did it. My own doctors, family, and friends thought I was making too much of a "little" problem (e.g. "everyone has mouth sores so get over it; you look fine to me; get a hobby" etc).

My counselor was wonderful, and I saw him off and on for about five years. He gave me the judgment-free support I needed, and it was best thing I ever did.

Wishing you all the best,

Joanne Z.

[Lovingdragonflies]

Good for you! I think it’s therapeutic to speak to someone neutral about what you cope with. Also it helps to find ways to cope with stress. I think stress management is probably one of the best medicines we can take!

[FrancisB]

Hey Papapickle, it's really helped me. After 10 years of constantly getting sick and suffering from debilitating major ulceration attacks in my throat, when I finally got the diagnosis I found it difficult to come to terms with what the label would imply for the outlook of the rest of my life. My counselor described the diagnosis as lens to look through and make sense of the experience, but it shouldn't be a limiting factor that means you will suffer for the rest of your life. I find therapy super helpful and have a very open mind towards it, I know it can be difficult at first and sometimes people don't want others to know they are seeing a counselor but those feelings should go away as you see the benefits from investing that time & energy into taking care of your mind. It does take time to build that relationship with you therapist and is okay if you need to trial a couple but once you find one you get a long with, I think they are an amazing resource to have in your tool kit if you are ever struggling with something. I personally did about 6 months of counselling in my early 20's when I had a traumatic life experience and then I went for nearly 10 years with out any need for it. Then surrounding my behcets diagnosis I went back to have a chat about it. It's definitely helped and I feel much more comfortable about having behcets and managing it. Hope this helped

[TheHud]

I did talking therapy and everyone should give it a go. Letting out all those years of pain, fear, anger and frustration to someone who will not judge, who lets you order your mind and focus your own thoughts, essential Well done!

[sian35]

In the uk we are very lucky to have clinical psychologist at each centre of excellence. I attend London clinic and have found this support very helpful. I recommend it , gives us tools to deal with the things our illness throws at us.