21 June 2017

I was suffering from a personal problem since a long time. As the day passed it was getting tougher for me to overcome my problem despite taking help from the friends. It was then I decided to take help the consultant. Initially I was too hesitant to take the help as I thought consulting is only for the losers and people who are mentally challenged and me being an IIT-ian, it will be against my pride to take help of some consultant, but I had no other option left and thought let’s give this a try. To my surprise, it was an overall good experience for me. It helped me a lot. It would have been very tough for me to catch the right track, had I not taken the help of the counsellor. The counsellor was very patient with me and heard me carefully without any signs of judging me. Counsellor was friendly and made me at ease. It was easy for me to find the building. The counsellor listened every bit of my issues patiently and then used some of the techniques to make me feel better. Counsellor made me comfortable by offering to the help in any possible way even for the small stuffs like preparing time table, planning the week etc. so that I can gain focus back on my work. Counselling gave me a new way of looking at my problems which really helped me to take strong decisions which I was not able to initially. I gained my confidence back to independently deal with my problems in the future. The counsellor used to message me regularly to take an update of how I was doing and what was the status of my work ensuring that I do not lose on my set targets. Whenever I needed some help I had the freedom of calling/texting the counsellor anytime I felt the need to. I never faced the problem with the frequency of meetings as it was schedules according to my convenience of time and venue. As promised by the counsellor, my information was kept confidential. Finally, I would like to extend heartily thanks to the counsellor for the support and help I got. In a place like IIT Bombay it’s very common that people undergo depression due to various reasons and it is perfectly normal, but students should realise the need of taking the help when situations are out of their control. I feel whenever a person is down he/she needs a person to listen to him/her patiently. This solves the problem of anxiety to a greater extent which was the case for me during the counselling. I would certainly recommend students to take the help of the counsellor if they are not feeling OK. The counsellor is not just someone to speak to but a friend and shoulder to cry on, who with the help of their experience will give you the best possible help/advice they can.