hellllllp!!!!!!!

I'm an independent kinda girl.  I'm also not one for dwelling in misery, let alone sharing it with others, and yet in the past couple of weeks I have found myself telling the story of my current family stresses over and over.  And over.  In fact its getting kind of boring, even for me.  My friends and SO have been incredibly supportive and positive, offering all kinds of help and insights and for this I am truly grateful.

Its incredibly hard to ask for help.  In some (yeah, screwed up) kind of way, to me to ask for help feels like a weakness. Like I'm saying I have failed rather than that I am just as human as everyone else.  And when that help needs to come from professional quarters it seems to me like even more of a failure, more of a weakness.  The reality is of course, that to ask for help - to acknowledge one needs it in the first place - is probably a good thing.  In fact the deep irony is that I ''help'' people for a living.  My job is to help people get better at what they do and to identify the areas they need support in.

But, seek help I have.  I have a list of things to do - a kind of action plan I guess, that I am hoping are going to make a difference.  A bunch of cheerleaders around me to keep me on track (and quite possibly, accountable).  A couple of very clear outcomes I want to achieve, and at last a sense of hopefulness that this thing, this horrible challenging, exhausting thing, might get sorted. Eventually.

How are you about asking for help?  Do you have a good support network?  Are you a lone problem solver or do you feel OK about enlisting the help of others?