If you’re like me and many other millions, you watched the finale of Mad Men on Sunday night, and got to see the end of the story for everyone, including the central character (I don’t know that I’d call him a hero) – Don Draper.

I was reflecting, as a therapist, about how real the journey of Don’s character felt. It reminded me of many truisms I lean on in my work.

Truism #1) When you can’t feel emotions, you can still feel pleasures, and often over-do them. – Don was shut down emotionally for about 99.9% of the show. But he was otherwise a hedonist, with the nicest cars, the prettiest girls, the finest booze. This self-medicating on pleasures of the senses can be a way of trying to feel alive when you’re depressed.

Truism #2) You’re only as sick as your secrets – this is an old AA saying, and not one I lean on much myself. Don, though, started to change as he was able & willing to tell the truth about what happened to him – first as a boy growing up, and then more recently in Korea. The release of holding secrets can cause a lot of positive change.

Truism #3) We give out what we crave most, but which is hardest for us to receive – Don’s genius as an advertising executive was being able to evoke emotion in people through his work. To understand them and make them feel something. Don clearly had a hard time feeling any of the things he ever used to sell his customer’s products.

Truism #4) Rescuers are gonna rescue, when really they need the help themselves – Don loved riding in like the white knight to help a situation. In the last episodes he ran into women who refused his help, overtly! “Firing him” from this job was part of the big final transition.

Truism #5) The lesson is going to hit you in the head, harder and harder, until you pay attention – What’s to say here? People repeat their mistakes until they finally wake up to the fact that they need to change. Which leads to the final truism:

Truism #6) To change your life, you need to change yourself. – Like the old Dalai Lama/hot dog vendor joke goes, “change comes from within.” When Don was finally stuck at that retreat, he surrendered and let that change really begin.

I was left feeling hopeful at the end of Mad Men, that Don may have had the epiphany he needed to feel, to feel human again, to find actual love and acceptance, to find peace.

I am grateful for the ride the show’s creator Matthew Weiner gave us, and the ending he gave Don Draper.