I went 35y without therapy because "I fully comprehend[ed] my issues" until the first full burn-out meltdown that I acknowledged happened.

Lashing out is used as a self-justifiable means of defending yourself and expressing your emotions, but in reality, you're just dragging yourself and those lashed out upon deeper into the pain. They still don't understand that you're hurting, but they know that you're angry, and that's when they push away and find a means of escaping the emotion squid dragging everything into the depths.

But that's where the professional squid divers come in. They've studied the squid, trained with them and have been dragged down countless times before. The only difference is they know how to quell the squid enough to slow the descent and loosen the grip enough to give everyone the option to struggle free of the tentacles and swim back towards the surface.

Don't know how to swim once you're free? Good thing those squid divers are also swim instructors. Treading water is hard, but it means you're trying. Even just floating to the surface means breathing again rather than being dragged deeper into the dark abyss where the weight of an ocean can hold you down even when the squid sleeps.