Mental Distress: Therapy...Or What?

In life are we destined to repeat the same patterns of behaviour
With the atheists blaming fate and believers seeking a saviour?
Is it, as Philip Larkin said about Mum and Dad,
That they mess you up and drive you mad?
 
Or is it as a wise old man once said to me
That we suffer more in our minds than in reality?
And that what anyone may say about you
Is merely their own point of view?
 
And what they say says more about their personality
Than it does about objective reality?
Well I don’t know:  I am still learning
As I continue through this living journey.
 
Is life predetermined, or can we take control
Is it governed by chance, luck, or our soul?
I guess each of us tries to find a way
To keep us sane as we live each day.