I've suddenly gained a whole lot of respect for psychiatrists. Sure, it might seem simple: go to psychiatrist school, set up a practice, have patients lie down on the couch, tell them whatever they need to hear, get paid. OK, that's oversimplfying things, but at least there are no scenarios where one false move causes patients to die on the spot. More pressure on medical doctors.
Anyway, I've just discovered one important trait that psychiatrists ought to have: the patience of a saint. Now, I'm no psychiatrist. And though people occasionally ask me for advice regarding their lovelives, I'm the first to admit I'm no expert on the subject, but I do the best I can based on logic and reasoning.
With that in mind, it's incredibly disconcerting when someone whom you regard as smart and mature fails to see what someone with the I.Q. of a retarded gnat would consider as so bloody frickin' obvious. Like I said, I'm no expert, and certainly no genius. But God...
And you know what's worse? There's more than one person I know who's like that, and I'm sure there's many more out there. We're led to believe that women are more mature than men of the same age, but as far as I'm concerned, that's a huge pile of steaming bollocks. Though on the other hand, maybe I'm the one who's taking things too seriously vis a vis my male contemporaries, thus proving that the perception that the mental development of the average adult male is severely stunted is also a giant crock.
Judging from the above diatribe, I guess you could say that I'm sick of giving advice. Well, not totally sick. My first instinct is always to give help when called upon, but...it's hard. I'd never be a good psychiatrist or be able to write a self-help book, because I'd be too pre-occupied with wanting to gut my patients like the hapless fish they are.
Or maybe it's just me who can't accept it when people don't want to take my advice. I tend to think it's because people only want to hear what they want. That certainly applies to me: I rarely ask for advice, because I already know what people will have to say will not be what I want to hear, so why bother setting myself up for that fall? Can't really call that self-denial, as I'm usually aware I'm doing something incredibly stupid without the need for people to point it out for me.
I see that asking for advice is an invitation for people to bring you down, so you don't realy have any grounds for complaint. Pop the question, have them say their piece, and SHUT UP. You asked for it, so take it. People take time out of their own lives to help with your problems, so the least you can do is take them seriously and hear them out. Whether or not you want to do what they tell you is entirely up to you, but have the decency to not piss them off.
