The Appointment

So about my first therapy appointment…The therapist was probably late 50s-ish. I liked her and felt comfortable with her.  I told her that I just feel like I’m having an identity crisis, that I almost feel like I need to reinvent myself because for once in my life I’m nobody’s daughter, wife and now my role as a mother has drastically changed and I don’t know where to go from here.  She asked about my past and all that stuff and I told her  that I think I’m more emotional because I just started perimenopause.  She said – Oh yeah, that is definitely doing it and then she started telling me some stuff that she went through with menopause. She said that she has this really good book on it that helped her and that she’ll bring it for me next time.  She said that she didn’t want to take medicine for hers so she used the holistic/natural method to get through it and that’s what I want to do.  I've started looking into it.

 

She didn’t really give any advice on the empty nest, she just said that it is normal for me to grieve about it and to do things that make me feel good.  I told her about the emotional eating and she said the usual stuff that I already know – that I’m eating to fill a void and I have to find another way to fill the void. She said to worry about things that I can control.  Like, if I’m bored, I can control that. Instead of eating to find an activity to do so I won’t be bored.  She said to use the $ that I would spend on bad food to buy myself something that I want that’s not food.  She asked my thoughts on some stuff like about the emotional eating and how I feel when I'm going for the bad foods or overeating.  She said that when I feel the urge to eat for reasons other than hunger to journal about it, using I feel.  (Ex:  I feel like eating becasue I'm bored, upset, lonely...)

 

She asked where I want to go with the rest of my life and I said I didn’t know and that’s part of why I was there because I feel like I’m stuck in a rut that I can’t get out of.  She said that she thought I was on the right track and that I was very wise.  That made me feel better and like I'm really very normal and just going through life changes instead of losing it. 

 

I know that my mood will improve immensly if I start eating better and exercising again.  Now to only make myself do it...

 

The therapist asked me if I'd like to come back and I said yes, so she made me an appointment for 2 weeks.  I'll give it another shot.  The more information that I can be armed with for the rest of my life the better.  I'm going to set myself up to become the best me that I can be so that when the right lucky man comes along for me I can be ready.

 

Have a beautiful day.