Healing through helping others?

Vincent · Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:40 am Post subject: Healing through helping others?

Social work/worker...

isn't this the opposite of social anxiety?

I'm wondering how I can really myself heal and then it struck me, I could be a healer, of others and then indirectly, myself.

At the moment, I am posed to leave teaching in Taiwan and return home to New Zealand to study psychology. When I researched the careers with this study, much of it is social work.

It seems impossible at first, but now I think, by working with others with mental health or social issues, then perhaps I'll heal myself as well.

Certainly my background of twenty eight years of depression and severe anxiety has equiped me with empathy and compassion? But, although I am a teacher, I don't feel as though I really give anything to the world, either socially or environmentally.

In order to give, you need to have something to give. You need your cup to be full before you can add to others... well, by learning psych, then I might just have something to give. That is, knowledge to go with empathy.

I feel as though there are alot of healers on this forum, everyone that offers support to others. How does this make you feel? Does it help with your own problems or just compound them? I worry about this,....if I am with others with mental health problems, will they just compound my own? Would that depend on whether they had the same or not? I don't have bipolar, OCD or agrophobia, so being with those examples wouldn't increase my SA?

Thoughts? Really appreciate any comments. Thanks.

Vincent.
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I love acting. It is so much more real than life. - Oscar Wilde

littlematchgirl · Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:55 am Post subject:

I found this topic quite interesting because I have noticed that there are many people who themselves experienced anxiety, depression and other disorders before going on to become psychologists and the like.

In fact, what you're discussing here reminds me of the Introduction to Gloria Thomas's (a UK-based therapist) Anxiety Toolbox:

"When I was in my twenties and thirties I suffered long periods of anxiety and depression due to a combination of post-natal depression and other life events."

"... I am now incredibly thankful for that period of suffering, for had I not gone through it I would not be equipped to do what I do today. I now have an incredibly strong sense of purpose and, one day, would like to look back on my life knowing I have contributed to humanity. Given my experience, I feel that the best contribution I can make is by helping people let go of their self-limiting fears so that they can be the best they can be."

I think that the empathy and insight of someone who has actually experienced social anxiety/phobia for themselves could be a valuable asset in helping people with social anxiety and other disorders and have the healing effects you describe on the healer themself Very Happy

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