Elon Musk telling the world he’s never been to therapy as if his wretched life isn’t a giant monument to that obvious fact. Oh, really, Elon? Wow! You seem so well-adjusted! How do you do it??
I'll bet that's a lie. I bet he went once, was called out on his bullshit, tried to outsmart the therapist who ran circles around him, and felt uncomfortably vulnerable. Then, instead of confronting his issues and doing the hard work, he decided that therapy was just woke bullshit that only """females""" need. Out of shame for either turning to therapy in the first place or failing at it, he boldly proclaimed this on his personal propaganda platform so that everyone would know what a genius, manly, alpha-male, gigachad he really is.
literally the therapy scene in Succession where Logan Roy says "Everything I did, I did for my family," and is absolutely rocked when he doest "win" and the therapist doesn't instantly proclaim them cured.
With pretty much everything in human behaviour, if a person makes a grand show about how they're so <some human quality>, they're almost certainly overcompensating because deep down they themselves don't believe it.
It's funny because, viewed at the correct angle, Elon's tweet is actually saying something truthful: if you don't get help, it'll be the reason you die an early death
The masculine narrative goes something like "if you ask for help, you're too weak to achieve what you want and get your shit together by yourself"
I'd like to look at it from a different perspective. There's a lot we can reach on our own - but with a little push, we can do much greater things and end up being way better to ourselves and others. We also retain contact with society, combating narcissism and alienation that lets us down.
Wanna show how strong you are? You better not stand in the mud, then.
At the end of the day, it's the effect we cause on this world that matters, not whatever shit is in our heads. And for the former, you do need support.
Elaborate it further: the biggest muscle growth is achieved with those 1-3 reps you need a workout buddy for, compared to those reps the other 40 are nothing.
i talked to my therapist a few weeks ago at the end of a session, and he told me that narcissists seldom go to therapy - if they go, it's because they feel that everyone out there is wronging and belittling them.
they have low self-esteem, which doesn't feel good - but they can put others below them, which feels nice for them. it's a personal insult if someone else knows something better.
in the view of the narcissist, the therapist as a professional is insulting them every session, which results in them insulting and belittling the therapist. it takes years to make any progress.
i compared it to a garage project for tinkerers, something you don't expect to ever work - he loudly burst into laughter and agreed with my analysis.
I can't shake the feeling that Elon is a garage project for tinkerers.
Going to therapy might help and if it doesn't, then at least you tried but if you think that therapy is for the weak, then you absolutely need to go for it.
For those who might already think they know what their issue is it still helps to go and recognize it too.
For me, I already knew I was my own worst enemy, and all of my depression stems from my own incompetence and failure. Talking didn't help in that respect, failure is failure, but I least I know that it's not a "chemical imbalance" thing after trying meds, it's a "I hate being a joke of a human" thing lol
Did it help at all to have someone understand where you're starting from and thus be able to congratulate you and give you praise for whatever small victories you had on your path to self improvement? I think therapists can be incredibly helpful when someone is trying to start from ground zero and just needs to hear a sincere "good job I am proud of you" for something as simple as passing up an opportunity to be an asshole.
For those who might already think they know what their issue is it still helps to go and recognize it too.
To add to this, I learned from therapy that diagnosis is only the first step. There's medication but also learning techniques that allow you to function in daily life.
tbf a lot of quirky "neurodivergent" tweens online are also self diagnosed and use it to justify their own selfish/immature behavior
the only difference is that you're supposed to be insufferable as an adolescent and you're supposed to grow up and out of it, not be proud you're in a perpetual state of arrested development well into middle age and beyond
I would genuinely rather be myself and live paycheck to paycheck than be rich and have to be Elon Musk. Once you get over how infuriating he is, he's just so deeply pathetic.
I agree. He may be fabulously wealthy, but he also has no real friends because he's both loathsome and because people that rich don't have friends. They have sycophants, people who can make use of them and people that are paid to pretend to like them.
Financially, things aren't terrific, but I'll also take that over being Elon.
As long as he's dead he can have whatever he wants on his tombstone. I'll try to trace the letters with my piss. It'll be a fun game, and I'll help to keep my hydrated.
The most narcissistic people I have ever known in my life always refused to go to therapy. There is always a substitute whether it be zealotry or substance abuse. Knowing what I know about Elon, it's hardly surprising to me that he never went to therapy.
When I had a full length beard I would casually mention going to therapy every now and then on the slight chance someone within earshot was on the fence because of some ridiculous notion about manliness.
Therapy is really a kind of self-reflective medicine; the more you give to it the more you get out of it. I think people often think the therapist is there to "cure" them of a disease like a doctor. But in fact, they were there for the patient to see their own troubles and discover their best means to manage them.
My point is that just because therapy may not instantly provide a cure doesn't mean it isn't worth it. I think most people today could use that kind of help and need someone they can talk with openly about almost anything. Don't knock it - it's a great resource that really can turn your life around for the better.
I've done therapy a couple times in my life with good results. I just told myself that this person has taken years and years of schooling with the intent to help people, and to make money.
My plan was to use them like a prostitute (without sex of course). It worked so I kept going till I felt better. Gotta get a good one.
If you have money you might be able to pay some therapist that you know and respect, but if you have cheap insurance, all your therapists will be young idiots who will be treating cigars a dicks...
I have a chip on my shoulder yes, my nephews therapist was an idiot
I went to therapy and it was very good. Expensive though!
Seriously, price tag is one of the first barriers for more people to get help. It's not alright to promote mental health and then make help unaffordable. That should be the first focus.
But high price is still a giant barrier for entry, and a huge cost in general. Back when prices didn't skyrocket further and cut me out, I was spending as much on an hourly session as I spend on my groceries - y'know, things to sustain the very living - in over a week.
Because our society is so deeply flawed that it literally causes mental illness. And when someone is able to actually get mental health treatment, it's a big fucking deal. Also our parents have spent our whole lives telling us therapy is for the weak as we watched them destroy the world and our economy.
Also, therapy is inadequately covered by most health insurance plans, along with dental and vision. I wonder why people think that you can have "comprehensive" health insurance that neglects your teeth, eyes, or brain.
And while I can get separate health insurance for vision or dental, I've never seen any employer offer a separate mental health insurance program.
It's awesome that therapy has been accepted as a means to cope with problems that hinder you in your daily life in recent years. Going to therapy is important if you have inner struggles that need resolving. It's important to encourage people to go to therapy if they have problems that need discussing.
Elon Musk is an idiot and the other person was trying to help people that would potentially not go to therapy because they're Musk fans and think highly of his opinions. That's it. Spoken as a European
Teens are dating less, playing fewer youth sports, spending less time with their friends, and making fewer friends to begin with. In the late 1970s, more than half of 12th graders got together with their buddies almost every day. By 2017, only 28 percent did.
Teen loneliness has surged in the past decade, alongside teen hopelessness, depression, and suicidal thinking. According to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, the share of teenage girls who say they experience “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” increased from 36 to 57 percent, and the share of girls who said they’ve contemplated suicide increased 50 percent in the same decade. Neither the decline in socializing nor the surge in mental distress has any precedent on record.
You know something odd? My daughter was in public school and practically never left her room. She was seriously bullied, which didn't help, to the point that we had to take her out of school and put her in online school. Now she wants to go out and do things constantly and has an actual friend group.
She still spends half her time on TikTok or whatever, but she's actually got a social life now and it required us taking her out of the environment where you would think it would be best for her socially.