Justin Back In Therapy: Week 1 (Patreon)

Comic can be downloaded from this post from the Attachments section!

In May I finally got to meet with my therapist at a behavioral hospital. Before we truly began, there were two sessions dedicated to intake assessments. It was boring process of filling out procedural paperwork, during which I received a PHQ-9 score of 20. They recommended weekly sessions, and were it not for financial assistance this would be an impossibility.  

All this to say these comics are technically from my 3rd week of therapy, but since it's the first sheet of its kind we'll call it Week 1.

As you can see I was in a really bad place. There's at least four Ideation episodes and a lot of rumination. From my perspective this was the 4th or 5th straight month of dealing with these difficult emotions/episodes daily.

Ironic to think at the same time "In A Word: Trans" would be arriving at my doorstep soon as a published book, and I'd be off to NYC for an amazing trip.

I'd describe this entire week as being set on "Tunnel Vision." When you're in the deepest depths of Depression it is nearly impossible to get a sense of "the big picture." Friends who saw me during this time experienced low energy, and a monotonous/detached outlook on everything.

But as we'll eventually see, this isn't me dealing with negativity so much as me not dealing with it.