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For those of us who can never get enough therapy, there is a new place to challenge yourself. Facebook, in addition to being an outstanding destination for world class procrastination, is also an excellent environment for working through old relationships and achieving closure on emotional loose ends from one’s earlier life.

When I started to reconnect with college friends on Facebook, I began to experience a familiar kind of dread that I hadn’t felt for many years. It was the social apprehension of my college years resurfacing now in my relatively placid and self confident 40s. Would people from college still be haughty and patronizing to me? Would I once again be the nerdy, second rate guy who never got a date?

The apprehensive feeling itself was a useful thing to go through on its own. It reminded me that old emotions from years past often follow us around later in life, lurking just beneath the surface. If I’m anxious about social situations today, perhaps it’s really just an artifact of those miserable college years. I always say, take advantage of negative feelings and experiences to learn about yourself and try to grow. The apprehension I felt around Facebook was a tip off that I was onto an opportunity for growth, even if it might be a little painful.

I need not have worried so much. With Facebook, I found that some of the people I had once feared socially had matured and were quite gracious and friendly to me. Others wanted to be “friends” but not interact much… and that was fine with me. Okay, I thought to myself. Let’s be friends here, but we don’t have to be best friends. Others still I saw, but chose not to connect to – ultimately Facebook has proved to be an empowering experience for me.

At the same time, some characters from the past have revealed that they have not grown at all. Once a need narcissist, always a needy narcissist, it seems with some folks. Blowing one’s horn gratuitously on Facebook seems pathetic to me, and once again the experience was one of empowerment. I had grown, but the other person hadn’t. Facebook gave me some closure on the relationship. I need not dwell in that person’s aura any longer.

Finally, Facebook can be fun. And we all need some fun therapy. I know I do.