CBT is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, you can easily find self help resources for this, same with Mindfulness Meditation. The app Headspace isn't free beyond a certain point, but is a phenomenal resource for managing mental health.
Also, aren't you a pilot? I have several pilot friends, none of whom have any professional issues seeking clinical counselling, one commercial pilot actually had it mandated after a crash. In your case, I think counselling is critically important. In addition, how would any employer even know you sought counselling?
Hi Malcat,
In the USA pilots are not able to openly pursue therapy. There is a movement to reform the medical process but those who are in control are not willing to accommodate that currently. Besides, I don't think that my issue is with anything other than disappointment, boredom, and frustration.
It also seems that people on this forum when confronted with opposition to the FIRE fantasy want to consider the source as obviously having mental issues. Everyone can benefit from counselling from time to time, however, being bored and dissatisfied with FIRE is not a mental malady. There are some downsides to FIRE.
It is not depression to be dissatisfied.
Forgive me if I don't take your word on it. I find it hard to believe that an entire, massive industry would hold such an archaic and dangerous position as being opposed to its employees getting therapy. That's just a lawsuit waiting to happen.
(But I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt that you are correct while I look it up myself)
Also, as I said already, if you paid out of pocket for therapy, your employer wouldn't even likely be entitled to know about it. For fuck's sake, even a decent coach would probably do you a world of good, and there's absolutely no way the aviation industry would have any right to know that you sought out coaching.
Basically, if you wanted help with being happier in life, you could easily get it.
Also, I am a trained medical professional with extensive training in psychology AND training clinical counselling. In no way is my assessment that you should seek therapy a frivolous or misguided one.
No one needs to be mentally ill to benefit from counselling. The vast majority of people who seek therapy are not mentally ill, just struggling with the normal challenges of life.
You have openly admitted many, many times that you are unhappy and dissatisfied with your life. That makes you the PERFECT candidate for counselling.
Even if I TOTALLY agreed with you about the cause of your misery, I would STILL recommend counselling for you. STRONGLY.
ETA: a quick google indicates that the issue for American pilots is not that they can't get counselling, it's that being diagnosed with a mental illness could be problematic for their careers. But as I said, you don't need to have a mental illness to benefit from counselling.
The catch 22 for working pilots though is that they can't get referrals to counsellors *within their insurance* without a diagnosis.
All in all though, it doesn't look like there's any barrier for an out of work pilot who doesn't have a significant mental illness to seek maintenance counselling to better improve their capacity to enjoy life and resolve their pesky, toxic external locus of control issues.