Adi’s Saga of Coming Out of the Woods with Counseling

This is the story of Adi, an ambitious and confident individual who loves to start each morning with a fresh note! Adi is an extrovert and has been born and brought up in Chennai. 23-year-old Adi is currently working at a logistical company in Bangalore and wishes to move soon. He is an avid traveller and wants to gain awesome experiences of travelling after the Covid situation gets better. As if this wasn’t fascinating enough, Adi likes to call himself a morning person and loves weightlifting too! Widening his love and enthusiasm for fitness, he even joined Boxing classes two months back.

After glimpsing into his life, you probably might be wondering why Adi sought counseling in the first place? Well, sometimes you might be going through something but haven’t probably reached the tipping point to seek help. Adi was going through something for the past three years. He never shared his concerns or issues with anyone and kept them trapped inside for him.

“Since 12th grade, I was in love with a girl. I proposed to her as well, but she did not return my love as it was too late. She was in a relationship with a guy five years older than us.”

Adi truly, deeply loved the girl but fate had different plans for him. After knowing that the girl will not return his love, Adi was undoubtedly hurt. But, he didn’t share it with anyone. Adi was a topper throughout his school, but after this incident, his academics got hampered. He started failing in his exams and also lost motivation in his daily tasks.

“I stopped working out. My overall health went for a toss and above all this, due to Covid lockdown I couldn’t even graduate on time.”

The incident and events that followed in Adi’s life took a toll on his mental and physical health. Moments after turbulence in Adi’s life, the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed and he was forced to go back to his home and be there for the time being. Broken spirit, lack of self esteem and the added pressure of unemployment pushed Adi in the dark cave of stress and anxiety. 

Adi was all alone, bearing little to no positive thoughts and suddenly in the early 2021, he received the news about the girl he liked. She had moved to another country to start a new life with her boyfriend. This news was not only heartbreaking but also demotivating for Adi, as he was left alone with the notion of not being able to move forward. 

He badly needed a place to vent out and give his restless emotions a sense of purpose. He was adamant to make changes in his life. Adi recalled some of the emails being forwarded to him from REC’s emotional wellness partner, YourDOST and decided to give counseling a chance. YourDOST helped him connect with one of the Experts from the platform, but due to the age gap, Adi decided to give a chance to another counselor and thus began his sessions with Akanksha Jain, former counselor from YourDOST.

“Akanksha was merely 3-4 years older than me, so I was looking forward to her relating to my issues.”

Upon listening to Adi’s concerns, Akaksha assured him that it’s alright to feel lonely sometimes. In fact, it is inevitable for people to always grow if they are surrounded by people and not pay enough attention to themselves. Adi took this lesson positively and realised that in order to be the best version of himself, it is okay to feel alone at times. Akanksha acted as a great listener to Adi and suggested that he let his bottled emotions out in a healthy way. She suggested a unique method to him, of letter writing.

“Akanksha suggested that I should write a letter addressing the girl I liked, with no word limit whatsoever. I wrote my heart out on a google doc, never sent it to her. But it felt good to translate my emotions into words.”

For Adi, this process brought the positive change he was craving for. He finally saw some of the weight being lifted off of his chest.

Despite being an extrovert, Adi never expressed these emotions in front of anyone, so he felt light after giving his emotions and feeling a space to vent. He was finally able to acknowledge his emotions. Apart from this, Adi extends his gratitude towards Akanksha for closely observing and dissecting each and every sequence of events that had occurred in his life. 

“In many instances, I used to feel that I was at fault. Only after Akanksha’s suggestions, I understood that I was not actually wrong in many places.”

The guilt that Adi was carrying all this while had finally been bethrown. Adi summarises his counseling journey with the word he was most afraid of – “Increased self-esteem”. In terms of getting and feeling better, he rates his journey a bang on 5 on 5! We at YourDOST are glad that Adi could find a safe space to vent out with us by getting an outsider’s perspective. Though the counseling journey was time-consuming for him, Adi believes and urges people to seek help whenever needed. Adi’s journey was impactful, and he leaves us with a powerful message to always trust the process as, after all, we are all Work in Progress!

Adi’s Warrior Tips:
1. Venting out always helps.
2. Sometimes venting to the counselor itself can relieve you, even if you don’t go through more sessions.
3. Just seeking help is half the battle won already.

Are you someone who has gone through a difficult phase and emerged stronger and better, with some professional help? Share your story with us to encourage thousands of others who might be struggling. Click here to submit your story.