Daniel (name changed) is a 21-year-old student from IIT Mandi pursuing his bachelor’s in Electrical engineering.
He was a silent and obedient kid who never got into any quarrels. Daniel explains that he was an average student until fourth grade, but as he shifted to the city, he saw himself becoming competitive and focusing on his career.
“During my school days, I was inspired by the armed forces and wanted to join the army and serve the nation, but due to my eye optical issues, I couldn’t pursue it. I even considered medicine as I still wanted to serve people, but that didn’t work out either.”
Daniel elaborates that he chose engineering as the next obvious choice and joined IIT Mandi. He adds that he started focusing on his interests in geopolitics and national-building topics during his free time and pursued learning about them as a hobby. Daniel also enjoys playing badminton and chess occasionally.
Daniel saw himself slowing down as he entered one of the country’s top universities. He was also in the initial stages of a new relationship, and Daniel and his partner found it hard to understand each other’s feelings. Daniel started feeling stressed and overwhelmed when facing difficulties in both his personal and professional life.
He explains that he decided to seek therapy and immediately approached the experts at YourDOST, as his college had a subscription to the platform.
“It was difficult to handle everything as I struggled to understand myself and how the people around me perceived me. Amidst this, expressing myself to someone was even harder, especially when I was feeling hyperactively stressed, but the counsellor was extremely patient with me in the first session.”
Daniel elaborates that the counselor gave him enough time and space to let out his thoughts and listened to everything he had to say to understand his mental state. He shared about the tussle he was having with his partner and his productivity issues.
“Initially, I was doubtful about my emotional capacity in the relationship and did not know how to respond in situations or comprehend my partner’s emotions.”
Daniel explains that he had an image of himself in his mind, and he felt the image threatened when he was hurt, which caused him a lot of negative emotions. Daniel felt like he wasn’t the person he thought he was, triggering anger, sadness, and disappointment.
Understanding Daniel’s issues with communicating how he feels, the counselor made him realise that letting everything out in the open was the only way to avoid accumulating emotions that later built into a pressure point.
“The therapist asked me to be blunt about my feelings for a change and express them to my partner. Working on this aspect helped me improve my relationship quality to a greater extent.”
For his productivity issues, the counselor suggested breaking down the syllabus of every subject and made him organise his study time, portions, and syllabus every time he sat down. They also gave him techniques like the Pomodoro to help avoid distractions and improve concentration.
Daniel shares that he tried every activity and technique taught to him in therapy and that they yielded the best results. He explains that he could improve himself and learn to communicate better with people close to him.
“After all those sessions, I had a lot of self-realisation and learned to see this from the other person’s perspective as well in a situation. I also started responding rather than reacting while dealing with them.”
Daniel adds that his studies’ prospects improved too, and he secured a job towards his final year that he could join right after college.
As Daniel continues with his accomplishments and moves forward, he thanks his therapists for helping him understand different perspectives. He rates himself 4.5 out of 5 and works on being the better version of himself daily.
We wish him all the best for his future and are happy to be part of his process towards improvement.
Daniel’s Warrior Tips:
1.“Your mind is the CPU of your body; maintain its sanctity to have a healthy lifestyle.”
2.“Mental health should be everybody’s primary focus in day-to-day life.”
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