While one in five adults suffer from some form of mental
illness, only about forty-six to sixty-five percent with moderate-to-severe
impairment are in treatment. Most
individuals who go to therapy have a desire to heal emotionally, and not
because someone else told them to. Therapy treats problems, and can advance a
normal life to an even better one.
When you’re
feeling a bit off, it can be hard to know if it’s time to see a professional
about that issue. People can at times feel like they’re in a rut in their life.
Life can be hard at times. Why not have
a professional to help you deal with the stressors that come up occasionally? Therapy is a useful tool in handling challenges.Therapists know the sooner you seek out treatment, the faster you’ll heal emotionally. We live in a society that believes physically working hard enough will cause our mental health to follow. Therapists are trained not to judge as they help with strategies to make life better. Below are ways that therapy can assist you. Therapy helps with…
1.
A new perspective - When we hold negative thoughts in without processing
them, they become ingrained so that we see the world through that lens.
We
make lots of assumptions that may not be true. When we do a reality check by
asking a friend what they are thinking when they said something, we are often
surprised to hear that they had a totally different take. Without the clutter of your own assumptions,
it’s a lot easier to understand others’ motivations.[i]
2.
Anger Management - Today we face more
demands on our time with constant stimulation from technology. Many individuals
feel unable to cope with the stress of everyday life, and find discover explosive
in anger inside themselves.
Learning healthier
ways to communicate and cope with anger can be beneficial to not only the
individual seeking help, but to their friends and family as well.
3. Avoidance - Humans wouldn’t have survived for thousands of
years if we didn’t have the instinct to avoid threatening situations.
A
therapist could help you with role playing a difficult conversation, or
challenging you to be more objective about the people you dislike. You may find
yourself rebuilding the bridges you’ve burnt down, and taking brave leaps into
new territory.
4. Behaviors – Therapy is a laboratory for you to explore, experiment,
and practice behaviors that are scary in the rest of life.
Shy people can practice confrontation. Detached people can
experiment with expressing emotion. When you’ve tried this out a few times in
session, you may be ready to take it out into your life.
5. Being truthful to self - Approval and recognition are basic human needs. When
you live your life for the praise of others, you might find yourself making
compromises that aren’t true to who you are.
People
who turn into emotional chameleons to fit in are often the unhappy people. Mentally
healthy people make decisions from the inside out. They don’t put their beliefs
up for a vote.
6.
Catastrophizing - Feeling overcome with
anger or sadness on a regular basis could indicate an underlying issue. When an
unforeseen challenge appears, do you immediately assume the worst case scenario
will take place?
This intense form of anxiety, in which every
worry is super-sized and treated as a realistic outcome. Catastrophizing can be
debilitating. Professionals often use cognitive behavioral
therapy (CBT)
to restructure irrational thoughts into more realistic ones.
7. Coping
mechanisms - Few people
suffer from the symptoms of depression without having tried to reverse the hopeless
feelings they have.
Sometimes coping
skills stop working, or become less effective than they were in the past. If
you’ve tried many different things already, and nothing has made a difference.
This may be a sign for therapy.
8. Externalizing - Some of the kindest people in this world have a
secret battle being waged in their brains. Nothing they do is good enough, and
they relive mistakes over again.
As
much as they care for others, they struggle to extend the patience they have
for friends towards themselves. One therapy technique is called externalizing.
This is where problems are not seen as external forces rather than character
flaws. By not taking problems personally, one can start to prioritize the health of mind and
body.
9. Helplessness - Constant reliance on others to calm your emotions
can cause problems. Good mental health is about taking responsibility for your
own distress rather than depending on others.
People
who feel they have no control over their environment are more at risk for depression, low-self esteem, and even physical health
problems. Therapy generates healthy reactions to stress by helping someone deal
with a tough day.
10.
Rewiring your brain - Therapy
brings change to one’s brain chemistry. With brain imaging methods,
psychotherapy has been shown to alter activity involved in your thoughts, behaviors,
emotions, and fear.
One
very effective method (cognitive behavior therapy, CBT) helps people identify
the negative thought patterns they fall back on habitually, and replace them
with new and more positive mental habits. CBT helps people experience fewer
symptoms of depression and anxiety. It seems to bring brain changes that are measurable.
11. Substance
abuse - When we’re
feeling overwhelmed; sometimes we look to one of those trusted mood-altering
substances of choice and start over-using it. We risk adding another disorder
to our existing problems in an effort to self-medicate.
Getting to the root of your past stuff in therapy
will provide the need to no longer live by the negative experiences. When we anger
is turned towards another person in our lives, we make someone else’s existence
miserable as a way of trying to feel better about ourselves.
12.
The Bigger picture - A
huge benefit of talk therapy is that its effects are long-lasting. The whole
talking-with-the-therapist process gets internalized so that it picks up where
the actual therapy leaves off. The getting-to-the-cause aspect of therapy is a
big reason why antidepressants and therapy together are believed to be most
effective.
“Self-care means honoring
and respecting the miraculous being that you are. Self-care means learning to
listen with the ear of a dedicated mother to your physical, emotional, and
spiritual needs, and then taking full responsibility for getting them met.
Self-care means taking 100% responsibility for creating an environment that
nurtures your physical, emotional and spiritual selves.” (Carl Benedict)[ii]
[i] What’s the
difference?
Psychiatrists
These are medical doctors who have specialized in
the field of psychiatry, and they are able to prescribe
medication. Patients are sometimes shocked to find that when seeing a
psychiatrist, you will typically meet with them for ten to fifteen minutes at a
time, and that you meet with them every couple months for medication
management.
Psychologists
There are many different types of psychologists
with many different specialties and functions. I would recommend that person
see a psychologist who specializes in working with your
needed disorder.
Therapists
Typically when people say to themselves "I
want to see a psychiatrist but I don't want to just be medicated. I want to talk to someone." Chances, are
what you're really wanting is a therapist.
If you see a practitioner with any of these initials
after their name: LPC, LPC-Intern, LMFT, LMSW, LCSW, that means they are a
therapist. We perform therapy sessions with clients, either
one-on-one, couples, families, groups, children, teens or adults, you name it.
Typically these are one-hour sessions, once
a week. We place our focus on the client. This is the therapeutic
relationship of trust and rapport. Our focus is you. Not letting your diagnosis define who you are as a person.
We are trained to help people discover the answers for themselves.
[ii] Sources used for this post:
“8 More
Reasons to Go to Therapy” by Ryan Howes
“8 Signs You Should See a Therapist”
(www.huffingtonpost.com)
“5 Sure
Signs It’s Time to See a Therapist” by John M. Grohol
“7
Surprising Signs You Need Therapy (Not That There's Anything Wrong With
That)”by Kathleen Smith
“The 6 Things You Should Know Before Seeing a Therapist”
by Lane Ingram
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