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Therapy helped me step away from a self-destructive lifestyle AND create a new career!
At age 43 I was earning a huge salary, living in a million dollar house, driving around in a Jaguar convertible - and feeling pretty unhappy with my life. Every weekday morning the alarm would go off and I'd have to psych myself into getting ready to face another stressful day. I was I was drinking, smoking, eating poorly, not exercising.....all, I rationalized, because my career in
marketing placed such demands on me. But, in fact, I had chosen that career twenty years earlier primarily because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, and marketing seemed somewhat glamorous and was likely to be lucrative.
At a friend's urging, I went to see a therapist to talk about the general dissatisfaction I was feeling with my life. At my age, I confided, I felt that the best years of my life were behind me, and I was worried about the toll staying on the treadmill was taking. But I was convinced that, without the trappings of success, I wouldn't be respected by my family or my peers.
In a series of sessions over the next six months, my therapist helped me to see that my success had created a trap for me: I was killing myself to achieve things that I wasn't really enjoying, but that I felt were necessary to have because of what they said to OTHERS about me.
I decided to go back top school, earn a degree in psychology, and become licensed as a therapist - and, years later, I am truly fulfilled
in my work, have stopped my destructive habits, and look forward to the work I do every day. And, while I'm not earning what I was in my old line of work, I live a very comfortable lifestyle and find that I enjoy the things that I have far more now.
- Mitch L.
Palos Verdes, California
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