Smash Therapy

I am watching Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.  People make fun of this stuff but this stuff is real.  People feel pain.  They use substances to hide their pain.  They use people to hide their pain.  I get it.  I see it every day I go to the shelter. 

I am past the point where I want to “save” someone.  A few years ago, I probably wanted to do that.  I can’t do that anymore even though I probably try to every time I see someone that needs help.  At 32, I keep thinking I am going to stumble across someone who is healthy, happy, and ready to give themselves to someone else.  My dates prove otherwise. 

This show really promotes what they call “expressive therapy”.  Basically, imagine being able to take out all of your rage on a car or an art board.  You can throw thing, beat things, smash things, etc.  It’s like Sally’s Smash Shack in San Diego. I am not sure I believe in this type of therapy. 

People beat the crap out of cars, TVs, whatever they can get their hands on.  I don’t believe in it, because it is being destructive against something else.  It is taking out your anger on something else physically.  I work every day to help protect people that need to get away from that.  Then I see what it is like, when someone can take out those emotions in a very controlled environment.  There is something that can heal people when they let their physical anger out on a controlled object and have it contained in that situation.  I get it.  I understand it.  Then again, I feel like there are other options. 

Obviously I am a little conflicted.  What can be good in some situations can be bad in others.  I guess what it comes down to is that everyone needs to be able to let his or her emotions out somehow.  In no way, shape or form should anyone be allowed to take those emotions out physically on someone else.  But doesn’t physical exercise serve kind of the same purpose?  I have taken kick boxing classes, and trust me, after a long day, it feels good to get in there and punch the hell out of something. 

I had dinner this evening with a person that I absolutely love – someone I have known basically for as long as I can remember.  They are a good person.   I like having these types of people in my life.  I need more of them.  If you find one, tell them to call me.  I am taking applications.  They make me not need this type of smash therapy.