Not the retail kind

     "Why is it that no one seems surprised when I tell them I'm going to therapy?"
          --a friend of mine, who told me he was going to therapy, and I wasn't surprised

The more accurate reaction was that I wasn't concerned that he was going to therapy. It's because therapy is just therapy, not the end of the world. I think people need to be more afraid of needles and surgeries and chemicals being pumped into their body than a little one-on-one therapy during which you spend most of your time talking.

If you've elected to go to therapy (because really, it's rare that anyone can MAKE you go), then it can be seen that you're looking out for your mental health. Just because you go and join a gym doesn't mean you were overweight - it means that you're interested in getting your body into a healthier state. That's the same way I view therapy - you're trying to get your mind into a healthier state.

Anyway, mental health conditions have become so numerous and commonplace nowadays that to admit to having (or be diagnosed with) a mental health disorder is no longer taboo. It's practically the norm.

Nervous? Stressed? Anxious? Can't stay still or focused for longer than 2 minutes at a time? Those could all be due to an imbalance and therapy is the right way to treat it. Sure there are words like "bipolar" or "depression" that people still find scary or threatening, but really, the sooner you acknowledge and treat those issues, the less negative impact they will have on your life. Going to therapy? Sticking to it? Good on you.

p.s. Yes, drugs can be prescribed to help a lot of those conditions, but I've always believed that the best healing comes from you and comes from the inside out.