I do feel that I've gotten better at communicating in different kinds of relationships due to therapy. I have always been good at listening to other people and helping out when asked, but I really lacked good skills in the area of expressing my own needs and boundaries. Frankly, I'd allow people to walk all over me while I smiled and gritted my teeth.

I was one of those people you mentioned in your other post, who lived inside my head, jamming intellectual information into every nook and cranny; although I was probably a bit more "unhealthy" than the run of the mill clueless person. None of the information I got from clinical books, essays, self-help books was really helpful to me in handling my relationships. I just seemed to stumble around in confusion. In fact, I was totally out of touch with my feelings. When I finally realized that no one was going to give me that elusive manual of how to live life and needed some help figuring things out, I began to actually make progress in therapy.