Shooting has proven very psychologically helpful for me. When I first began shooting, I was more or less very downtrodden and lacking in any sort of self respect or spine, having had it literally beaten out of me for the better part of a decade. I started shooting and noticed how I quickly could achieve some small measure of skill. It became a point of pride and something I only I could do which my brother could not; I had a practical skill of my very own which I enjoyed to exercise and nobody could take that fact away from me. While I was firing my gun, I was in control; nobody could hit me, abuse me, or coerce me to do anything. I needn't fear anyone and I could act freely. Destroying targets gave me an outlook for the pressure and fear I endured all day every day alone. If I felt badly bout something, or stressed out, or worried, or on those rare occasions where I felt anything like anger or sadness, then I'd make an excuse to leave the house. From there, I'd grab my gun and go shooting. It evaporated those worries and gave me an outlet, for friends assumed I was joking, parents would ask me if I wanted therapy, and my brother would give me a physical and verbal beatdown. I dared not to tell my teachers, because it was not their place to be my psychiatrist and anything I told them would somehow come back to haunt me. The best and cheapest therapy I ever got was to take a large size photo print of whatever was bothering me and blaze away at it until it disintegrated. Me before shooting: "You seem very tense and anxious." Me after shooting: "You seem happy about something." I've never run into anyone who could fret when handed an FAL and faced with a menacing group of paper plates.
+10000 for shooting as therapy. It calms those feelings of autophobia and hoplessless for far less money and stigma than a therapist would need. Sp, come on, if it sounds much cooler to say that you run tactical courses than to say that you give somebody $120 to tell them about your problems. I'm not a disbeliever in therapy, but most issues and downers don't need that sort of attention.
