If you find out that your new love interest sees a therapist, how do you react?

It would totally depend on a few factors.

Did the new love interest tell you him/herself? Or did you find out some other way? If they told you themselves, then you could have a reasonable discussion about what the problem is, how serious it is, and if it is likely to be fixed or manageable. Only you can decide that for yourself, whether you can deal with it. But sex addiction would be a huge deal breaker for me, but a person trying to deal with a fear of flying might not be a problem.

Like @noelleptc said, people get therapy for all kinds of reasons. It depends on the problem, the severity, the disgust factor, and how likely it is that the person might be a danger to you or to himself or to anyone around you. I might be a little wary if the person him/herself didn’t tell me and I found out through the grapevine, but I would still want to have a discussion with the person to find out the details before I made any rash decisions.

Seeing a therapist is not always a bad thing. There are a plethora of reasons that people go to see a therapist.

I wouldn’t have a problem with that, since, in the past, I have seen a therapist over sleep issues, abandonment issues, and my psycho ex-boss.

What is wrong with taking care of one’s mental health? Would you react negatively if you found out someone had a membership to a health club? I’d be more concerned if someone refused to admit that they might benefit from seeing a professional.

Seeing as how I’ve only met 3 people so far that didn’t have their own baggage – dumped at the alter, bad relationship with a parent, parents divorced, sibling died, work stress, etc – I like to see therapists as more of a “crazy filter” and a sign that they’re trying to work on themselves, and not heap all their baggage onto me (especially for me to not only deal with but fix), but rather make sure they’re actually keeping their self-destructive crap at a minimum in our relationship.

’‘You, too?’’

Haha.

No big deal. Plenty of people seek out different forms of help for a lot of things. In fact, I’d be happy and proud that they’re doing something that they think can help them, and would support them however I could.

Depends why he sees a therapist.

Good on him for:
A.) Recognizing he has a problem and needs help working through it rather than spewing some bullshitty “hurr hurr I’m too masculine to ask for help” crap
B.) Realizing there is absolutely no shame in therapy
C.) Taking action to help himself instead of wallowing in self pity

Be happy! I think knowing that he needed one and actually perusing the help says measures about him. I think even people who think they don’t need a therapist should see one. Sometimes you just need to talk to someone.

It is a sign of sanity to know that you need to talk to someone. A therapist is a neutral human, with him/her you don’t have a role to fulfill as you would if you talked to a friend, because in that instance you are a friend too, with a parent your role is the child, with a spouse, your role is a partner. That’s why a shrink is so good, you can just be you.

Thankfully my wife was totally accepting of my seeing a therapist when I told her.

I think being in a relationship with someone seeing a therapist wasn’t an issue for her, as long as the counseling wasn’t court-ordered.

I feel the same way.

As a matter of fact, we saw my therapist together a few times.

@Brian

You must have been reading my mind about the court ordered part :). That’s just not a good sign.

But most people seeing therapists are doing so because they have enough awareness to recognize that they need help sorting through their issues.

The only deal breaker for me would be someone with significant addiction problems.

I’ve already put in my time in the salt mines, so to speak. I grew up with two addict parents so getting into a repeat of that pattern would just be tremendously self-sabotaging for me. I’ve spent enough of my own time in therapy to recognize that just wouldn’t be a good fit.

Yes, I’m aware that sounds pretty selfish but when you’ve spent your entire childhood being a parent to your parents and younger siblings, learning how to be selfish in a HEALTHY way is one of the goals of therapy.

The main life lesson I’ve learned FOR MYSELF about dealing with or becoming involved with addicts can be summed up quite succinctly:
DON’T.

Of course they need help. But that’s somebody else’s job, not mine. I don’t have the necessary objectivity to be helpful.

But that’s the primary deal breaker for me.

Therapy for most other issues wouldn’t be a problem for me and I’d basically view it as a positive self-growth effort on his part. I’d be fine with it and actually encourage it.

I would not worry that they were crazy, I would worry that if I get to like this person (a lot) and they are going through some life changes or some other episode where they are doing some soul searching, they might conclude thru therapy that they don’t want to be in a serious relationship right now, and break up with me. Otherwise, I don’t think I would think of them as crazy, because people go through problems and decision making issues that might make them seek a therapist. I don’t think “therapist = crazy.”