Question: What Psychological Advice Do You Have for a Patient Who Believes That They Cannot Affect Change?

Imagine a small square-shaped building at the center of a public park. The walls and ceiling of this building are made out of thick unbreakable glass. I feel like I am trapped inside of the building. I can see the world outside, but I am not allowed to leave. I can see green grass growing in the park; I can see clouds passing overhead, I can see parents and children playing in the park. However, but I feel trapped inside the glass room. I can look, but I cannot touch. I feel like I am trapped behind plate glass.

I often know how to solve problems in the world, but am not allowed to solve them. It is as if can see a broken car, and I know how to fix the car, but I am not allowed to actually touch the car. I feel like nobody ever listens to me.

Example 1) I recently bought a cellphone screen protector. The screen protector came with some installation instructions. The instructions were written in very bad English. I re-wrote the instructions to be better. I wish I could give my improved instructions to the company. I wish that, in the future, the company would print pieces of paper the instructions I wrote.

Example 2) I used a website. The website asked me to enter my mailing address.
In mailing addresses, it is standard to write:
“st.” instead of “street”
“dr.” instead of “drive”
“ave.” instead of “avenue”
I wrote something like “123 somewhere st.”
The website said something like, “error: no special characters allowed in mailing addresses”
The website consider the dot/full-stop at the end “st.” to be a special character.
I am fluent in several computer programming languages. Therefore, I know how to fix the website.
It is trivial to write a computer program where the input is a string of text containing fulltstops and the output is the same text, but with periods removed.
such as “apple…grape… kālī mirch.amchur”
Website have something called a front end, and something called a back-end. The website could simply remove the dots before sending the mailing address to what is called “the back-end.”
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HISTORY:
I am an adult male.
I have been depressed for more than 10 years.
I have not had any friends since I was 11 or 12 years old.
I attempt to rationalize their feelings to a great extent.
I have a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.
The idea that I live "behind plate glass" is a very old deeply held conviction.
I imagine that a person suffering from paralysis might view the world the way I do. However, I am not physically impaired. I am **NOT** paralyzed. I have full use of my arms, legs, etc... I am **NOT** wheelchair bound.