Therapists keep telling me I’m “too self aware” for therapy, when I give them logical reasonings for my “nihilistic” views, they can’t argue them, I want to be better, but I can’t just drop reality, what can I do?

[Answered on Quora.com by David McPhee, Ph.D.]

“Too self aware” could be kind code for “too self-absorbed,” based on the rest of your question, especially the part about “I can’t drop reality.”

Logic is a poor tool compared to true knowing. Folks who meditate regularly know what I’m trying to say, as do young children.

I hesitate to suggest remedies, since I fear you will have logical reasons why none of them will work, since every one of them will require you to drop your “reality” and open your heart and mind to the vast and limitless realities available to you.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. When you are ready to “just drop” your narrow version of reality and take the risk of opening up, you’ll ask the question again and there will be answers for you. I promise.

Right now you resist and defeat the psychotherapeutic process because (I imagine) you fear considering deeper realities. It’s not uncommon at all, and there is nothing wrong with you at all, either. You are just at a fairly early stage of psychological development and understanding, which means you have a lot of joy in your future, if you can let go, even a little, of your “logic.”