The Anarchist Counsellor

I would like to note firstly that writing is a skill best practiced regularly and I am rusty in the extreme.

Where to begin , well the start of my story as I like to describe the last few years of my life seems like the best spot.
To help you readers understand my life let me set out some parameters.
I was one of six children raised by extremely religious parents in the state of New South Wales in Australia of whom four were the victims of chronic sexual abuse over a period of years. To be absolutely fair I will make a clear point that it was not at the hands of parents although they were complicant in their total lack of empathy and disregard of any treatment for their very damaged children.
Those events led me to become a troubled teenager constantly involved in crime or any other activity which would upset my family for a few more years before seeking out what proved to be the completely wrong woman to marry. You know that saying "Birds of a feather", well the same applies for damaged people seeking out other damage people. It never ends well.
So there I was from ages 22 to 37 married with four children to a woman that by her own word was only there for the children and the house. Queue the GFC in 2007 and it was soon after goodbye house and goodbye wife and children. I had been a good and faithful tax paying sheeple my whole life to no avail.

Now queue a couple of years of chronic depression , complex trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder with a side order of alcohol drugs and suicidality with an assortment of even more toxic and broken relationships and friendships.

The date was June 29th 2012 and into my life wanders the most unlikely of saviors, infact to this day he probably still does not realize the impact he had on my life. To be perfectly honest although I am a listener of his he may not even know or care although I really kind of hope he reads this and finds hope for his own depression, it was Mr Jeff Berwick of the dollar vigilante.
You see readers I had spent my life helping people. I had been a foster parent to some 15 to 20 different children for various amounts of time , a mentor to young offenders through the Department of Corrective Services and a Counsellor to other Men and boys that had suffered the same injustices I had as a child and youth.
Then one day while trolling the internet looking for some way for my mind to escape its semi permanent state of decay I clicked a link to one of Jeff's youtube presentations where he talks about how he lost virtually all of his net wealth in the DotCom collapse and set to rebuilding his life and fortune in Mexico. This intrigued me so I dutifully began to click away , ANARCHY , FREEDOM , STATISM, WEALTH CREATION his words his ideas and arguments seemed to literally pop off the page into my greedy heart and mind. Not greedy in the way some might think but greedy for a new way of thinking and a new way of living. His links took me to yet other people like Mike Maloney from Goldsilver.com and Stefan Molyneux from freedomainradio.com and the powerful Doug Casey.
At 39 and 364 days I was a lifelong Christian and staunch defender of the church and state and at 40 I was born again as an Anarchist and Atheist.
My Atheism was not a part of Jeff's work it simply seemed to be a logical extension of my throwing off the chains of Statist thinking , religion is after all the ultimate statist power structure.
My life was forever changed by the quite crazy Mr Berwick albeit for the better. This has not been an immediate fix mind you. You see changing a lifetime of bad habits and adopting a brand new and diametrically opposed belief structure was to put it mildly an exhausting enterprise.
The good news is that now I am quite completely a new and different person. I have a small and very new counselling practice of my very own which I am intent on building using on volunteerism and Anarchist principles to do so and am entirely well and healed from what was previously a lifetime afflicted with Depression and associated conditions which I assure you is no mean feat. I specialize in helping primarily men deal with more chronic cases of depression stemming from abuse or trauma however my caseload certainly includes women as well.
"I am an equal opportunity Anarchist".
I mean to share the message that was shared with me as loudly as I can for as long as I can from whichever soapbox or pulpit I can be heard from because Anarchy saved my life.

For those of you suffering from depression I can tell you that the reality is that DRUGS DO NOT WORK.
Not prescription drugs not recreational drugs infact anything that alters your state of mind will likely make it significantly harder to get well.
Do the self work , get counselling from someone that clicks with you and love yourself.

In the words of Jeff ' "Peace Love and Anarchy".