Forward from the author: There are exceptions to every rule. If your husband, boyfriend, or father is the exception, consider yourself lucky.
It feels like Lubbock men have found approximately 47 ways to avoid going to therapy. They’ve chosen new grills, big trucks, and “going for a drive” over addressing their mental health and digging into traumatic events in their lives that often lead them to do and say questionable things.
West Texas Men
For some reason, men in West Texas would rather spend 11 hours rebuilding a carburetor than 30 minutes talking about their feelings with a licensed professional. They post on Facebook all day long about their “trust issues” and then turn around and trauma-dump on their buddy on Xbox Live. Buying a new pair of boots or a pocket knife has become their idea of self-care, and it just isn’t cutting it.
West Texas Women
Meanwhile, my gal pals are reading books about attachment theory, sharing posts on bettering themselves, and all but journaling under the moonlight in an effort to get more out of their personal lives and relationships. Women here are looking within to solve their problems while their husbands are taking fishing trips. That’s not therapy, guys. That’s just another form of avoidance, with the addition of a cooler full of beer and sandwiches.
You Are Loved
But, in true Lubbock fashion, we love them anyway, don’t we?
We stick with them through the ups and downs and encourage them despite it all. Even if they can’t open up about what’s really going on, they still show up to fix our flat tire and grill us the best steak we’ve ever eaten. Maybe it’s their version of telling us that they’re working on themselves, but just think of the difference it could make if they really got to the root of the problem?
Changing Times
I just wanted to take a moment to tell Lubbock men, and men all around West Texas, that there is ZERO shame in therapy. None whatsoever. It’s okay to cry, and it’s okay to ask for help. Times are changing.
We Believe in You
If you grew up thinking your only option was to solve the problems of the world on your own and that the answer to it all was to just “tough it out”, please, consider this radical idea: call a therapist. They’re cheaper than a cooler full of beer, and they could save your marriages, your relationships, and even your lives…