Eoin Dixon Murphy, 29

#MyTherapyJourney

Eoin Dixon Murphy, 29

📍 Oakland, California

“A few years ago I was having a really tough time with anxiety and depression. I’d wake up every morning feeling awful, and would struggle to get through the day, counting down the hours until I could go home and hide away from the world in my bed. I thought that everyone was out to get me, that my friends and family hated me and that no matter what I did I was a failure and wasn’t good enough. I had no energy, no interest in anything and I’d completely lost hope. I knew I needed to do something proactive about it, and that’s when I decided to speak to a therapist about how I was feeling and what was going on in my head.

My therapist helped me understand that even though certain negative thoughts came into my mind, it didn’t mean that they were necessarily true. She explained that thoughts aren’t facts, and that I needed to assess them and put them on trial - weighing up the proof for or against them, and not immediately believing them for truth. If I was to leave my negative thoughts unchecked, they would quickly lead to becoming negative feelings and low moods, so I needed to tackle them head on. Because of past experiences, it was easy for me to make incorrect assumptions about people or situations in my life, but my therapist helped to equip me with the tools I needed to combat my negative patterns of thinking. Speaking with a therapist has been one of the best things I’ve done to help manage my anxiety and depression.”