M6: #CounselorsHelp

Today I'm going to be discussing with you a story of my friend who had a counselor turn their world upside down. For disclosure reasons, I'm going to call this person Chris.

To start off with Chris's background, he was socially awkward going into our freshman year of High School. I was one of his very few friends for we have been neighbors for a few years now. He was extremely close with his family for he rarely left his house to go hang out with friends or just plainly do anything out of his comfort zone. Unfortunately, his parents relationship wasn't as close as he hoped for, as they were constantly fighting with each other as he transitioned into High School. A conflict that not only infiltrated his home life but his life outside of home as well.

Ever since I knew Chris before high school, he had such a glow of joy and excitement when coming home from a long day of school. As our freshman year carried on, that glow quickly turned into a rain of sorrow and depression. Day after day, he would drag himself towards his house, dreading the fighting that awaited his arrival. The effects started to hit the extreme when his parents finally got divorced. He would isolate himself from everybody he once loved. He would begin beating his head on the wall until blood was visible as well as cutting himself on the arm for he thought their separation was his fault. He had a feeling of guilt and selfishness for he thought he took up all their time before hand, leaving them no time to live their own lives. No matter how many times I, his parents, or any other friends reminded him it wasn't his fault, he wouldn't believe us. It got so bad to where he started having suicidal thoughts. When his parents paused their fighting to help their child, they decided it was best to take him to the counselor.

As you could imagine with most troubled kids, Chris wasn't to thrilled on the idea of going to the counselor. The counselors main objective in his first session was to get to know Chris a little deeper so they may get comfortable with each other. At the end of his session, he gave Chris a challenge to go hang out with his friends at least one hour for three days before his next appointment. From then on, his counselor would give him a challenge every appointment he had. After a couple appointments, the counselor understood the full situation with his parents and how that made Chris feel. The counselor then set his main goal to make sure Chris understands his parents separation wasn't his fault as well as get Chris more sociable. Every week Chris would not only complete his task but began to be more outgoing with his peers. He started joining extracurricular activities outside of school, hanging out with friends til his parents were begging him to come home, and just expressing the person he was all along. The funny thing is that before the counselor, we could barely get a peep out of him, after, we couldn't get him to shut up! Chris began to realize that his parents separation was not his fault and he learned to cope with that by talking to both of them. After going through majority of his freshman year with counseling appointments once a week, Chris was ready to stop. 

That counselor met more than the world to Chris. He never tried to force Chris to do anything, but rather provided him with new ideas or opportunities to better his own well being. Though he stopped after his freshman year with the appointments, he still went to go see him whenever something was troubling him or even to just have a plain conversation. If it weren't for the counselor, I have no clue where my friend would be right now.

-Sorry but i didn't really have any social media to post this too so that's why it's an ordinary blog.