Self Medicating - In a discussion with my mentor at work last week a fact of life came to my attention; though I have been taught and know a lot of things, in practice and in my day to day routine, I act ignorant of that knowledge. We were discussing good practices and disciplines for our clients, for our staff, and for our own sanity. He asked me what I had going on that we needed to talk about and my response included not only what problems I was thinking about but also the answers to those problems. He listened as I seemed to solve all the problems myself that I had been having the past few weeks. I already had the head knowledge to solve the problem when I sat down in his office, but hadn’t identified the problem and therefore didn’t know that I needed the knowledge. I do this a lot. I acknowledge the fact that something is not going the way that I would like it to go and I go on about my day and my week hoping that something will happen to remedy the situation sooner rather than later, all the while having the solution floating around in my head. Why do we not fix our own problems? Why does it take someone else to facilitate our self help? It sure would be easier if I didn’t need other people and I could diagnose myself, operate on myself, rehab myself, and recover myself. Sitting in my mentor’s office and knowing that he gave a care about my week and that he had solutions if I would admit my problems, freed me up to be open and to address things that I don’t often sit in my own office and think through. I appreciate the people in my life that create that type of safe haven for self-scrutinization and self medicating, but who are also willing to inflict some pain to inflict some learning that I don’t already have. My mentor not only facilitated my self realization of the solutions to the problems that I was facing, but he also took a step back and identified a common thread that ran through each of them and gave me a more accurate view of the big picture that I wouldn’t have been able to see on my own. Wounds from a friend can be trusted only because you know that they’re not hurting you for their benefit, but for yours.