I came across the term \u201cterminally unique\u201d and it struck me as a really good description of what a lot of people feel like when they first come to see me. The term refers to the idea that you\u2019re the only one (or one out of only a few) who feels a certain way or suffers from a certain illness.<\/p>\n
When it comes to our mental and physical health I think most of us wants to be average. We don\u2019t want to hear from a health professional \u201cI have never seen such a bad case before<\/em>\u201d or even worse \u201cI\u2019ve never seen this before<\/em>\u201d or maybe the worst \u201cwait till I tell my colleagues about this!<\/em>\u201d In other areas we would like to be above average (e.g., in intelligence, beauty, creativity, wit, compassion, sense of humour) but when it comes to our health we want to be textbook. We want to hear that the psychologist\/psychiatrist\/doctor has seen it a million times before and knows exactly what to do about it. We don\u2019t want to be unique.<\/p>\n And yet often deep down we fear that we are indeed terminally unique \u2013 that we are that special case that makes the health professionals throw their hands in the air and give up. I think an important element initially in therapy is being able to openly name what\u2019s troubling us and have someone say: \u201cYeah okay, I know what you\u2019re talking about and I can help you with this<\/em>\u201d. In other words, you\u2019re not that unique.<\/p>\n In this context, I’m sure that’s a relief.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I came across the term \u201cterminally unique\u201d and it struck me as a really good description of what a lot of people feel like when they first come to see me. The term refers to the idea that you\u2019re the … Continue reading