Last week was a week of firsts for me as far as my health goes.
On Monday I went to the dermatologist for the first time. There were a few spots I wanted to get looked at, and since I'm approaching mid-life I wanted to add it to my list of health stuff for the year.
I didn't know what to expect, except that I might need to get nekkid and that I had to shave. I did the requisite shaving and steeled myself for the unknown.
All of my areas were normal wear and tear, according to the doctor. Actually, he said something quite hurtful.......he told me that I have Middle-Aged Skin. What the hell, man?! We just met! Ugh. He also said that he could tell I'd been naughty in the sun in my youth. I had to agree with that one (reference the #s in my previous post). Otherwise, I'm good to go and don't need to come back for further examination. I passed!
On Wednesday I had my first therapy appointment. I was so nervous that I almost canceled. I didn't know what to talk about, or what she'd want to know. I paced for 30 minutes and logged on 15 minutes early just to make sure I was there. I'm doing this over Zoom which is not ideal (except I don't have to wear pants). I'm only in two places most of my time: home and work. I was hoping to get out of those spaces and into someplace neutral for this, but it is what it is.
My therapist is very nice and even graciously put up with my rambling. She already gave me homework and had suggestions as to why I want to kill everyone lately. She would like to address the issues in a short-term fashion (3-4 months) and set me loose with the tools to maintain for the long term.
She's still in the assessing part of the sessions. I kept interrupting, I think, with my verbal diarrhea. We discussed a host of different things. I gave brief-ish summaries to her questions and was doing well, until any time we talked about work. Any time that came up, I started to get teary and shut down because I didn't want to cry.
Incredibly, with just one session, I immediately felt better. Just that one 55 minutes had a positive impact on me, and we haven't even gotten to the heart of things. It's almost as if Mental Health is Health. 😏
