Guy's Therapist Shoots Him With Nerf Gun When He Speaks Negatively About Himself

It's a hackneyed phrase, but oftentimes thinking outside of the box is the only way to really solve a problem.

Sure, conventional methods have their place. Penicillin is pretty great at helping people kill infections in their bodies, so if that's worked for you, doing cartwheels while praying to a sack of quinoa is definitely an out of the box attempt at a solution, but you're probably better off with a tried and true method instead.

When it comes to our own mental health, however, answers aren't always so clear cut. Although most human beings are generally after the same thing: love and happiness, how we get to feeling loved or being happy varies from person to person, but it usually starts with truly loving ourselves, which can be tough to fully live out. I mean, I guess you could find your Doppelganger and get busy with them like in that episode of Broad City, but not all of us have that luxury.

The thing about out of the box solutions though is that they seem kind of crazy at first. Which is probably exactly what this guy thought his therapist was when he brought a nerf gun to their session.

He shared his story online and it seems just too crazy to be made up. It's a perfect example of a hilariously weird answer to a problem being just the thing somebody needed, all because his therapist had the stones to try something so "out of the box."

The story tells the tale of Paul, a no-nonsense therapist who didn't allow this one patient to feel sorry for themselves. According to Tumblr user anarchetypal, Paul is pretty much the GOAT when it comes to therapists.

Imagine you're sitting in your chair or laying down on a couch talking aloud about your problems and trying to wax on intelligently about them, when this guy whips out a nerf gun and points it directly at you.

That's exactly what Paul did.

Although I'm sure Paul was having a great time decking his patient with nerf darts, it became evident pretty quickly that the procedure was working. Every time anarchetypal began talking about himself negatively, calling himself stupid, Paul would correct his language with a swift nerf dart shot.

As much as the tumblr user didn't want to admit it though, the tactic worked.

The best part is that Paul seriously referred to his foam darts as "cognitive behavioral therapy tools." CBT is a practice that's meant to improve happiness by correcting and attacking destructive or dysfunctional behavioral practices in action.

Some people are applauding Paul's implementation of CBT.

While others joked about getting their own therapists to do the same exact thing.

Others couldn't believe that people were so surprised Paul is a cool therapist, as it turns out, a lot of people had great things to say about their own therapists and even challenged the way therapy's being portrayed in TV shows and movies.

It turns out there are tons of other people who use fun CBT tools.

There were some, however, who weren't really sure Paul's methods would work for them.

But, as one user pointed out, therapists get to know their patients pretty well over a few sessions, so it would be safe to assume that Paul knew his patient would be A-OK with this method.

What do you think?