Code Is Therapy

We all probably know someone that was so stressed out, that they quit their [insert title] job. I sympathize with having too many responsibilities, code or not. Without getting too personal, I wanted to share my experience as a beginner and how it has affected my life.

Last fall, I was so stressed out by the demands of life I began to fall apart from the inside out. My health was deteriorating mentally and physically for a myriad of reasons, which I will spare you.

Before I quit my dead-end job, I started to fantasize about coding and how cool it would be how to "know how to do that." I started to pick at some courses online when I could find time. That was the beginning.

I quit my job after a "poor performance" review. Never in my life had I experienced something like that. Within 30 days of leaving I had surgery and was stuck on the couch for a month. As a busy-body, this was absolutely dreadful. No, I have a laptop, I can do things! And so began my hyper-focused journey on learning to code.

When I'm trying to comprehend the finer details of a new language, I'm not thinking about all of the 'problems' I think I have in my life. No, you can't be knee-deep in learning CSS animations and React, and thinking about your 900 problems at the same time.

Code has changed my inner dialogue and self-talk. Something no therapy could accomplish (at least for me). Why? Because all of those bad things don't take up that much space in your head when you are playing find-the-bug. And what do I have at the end of the day? A sense of accomplishment and understanding.

I have made new friends and connections because of learning code. It's been a really positive thing for me. You could argue that code saved my life. As a beginner I have a lot to learn. But I ain't goin' nowhere.