How Seeing a Therapist Can Improve Your Life
Growing up, we realize the world is not made of unicorns and rainbows. As soon as we step in primary school, we have responsibilities. For most people, it doesn’t end until we die.
If it’s only about personal responsibilities, then the majority of the population can cope with it, until life decides to throw curve balls. When things fall apart, the stress and the pressure is enough for some people to fall into depression.
We turn to our friends and family for help, while others turn to professional therapists.
How to start seeing a therapist
There are a lot of reasons why people turn to a professional instead of their friends and family. The most common reason is our friends or family can lend us an ear and give advice, but they aren’t really trained to handle other people’s problems. Most have their own lives and problems too.
They can offer us a bit of their time, doing their best without jeopardizing their own responsibilities.
There are other reasons choose to people go to a therapist. Confidentiality, court order, and referrals to name a few. For voluntary patients, selecting a good therapist is an important step when seeing a therapist for the first time.
Professional counselors adhere to different methodologies and schools of thought. By schools, it’s not about where they got their degree, but a particular Psychological theory that they follow.
It is also important for walk-in patients to like their therapist. A certain level of chemistry between the patient and the counselor increase trust and understanding. A high comfort level makes sessions meaningful, fruitful, and fun.
A lot of modern professionals offer free consultation. It helps them gauge the level of treatment necessary to help the patient. It also tells them if they can help at all. Most therapists specialize in a specific problem, they would like to know if what you need, is something they can treat.
The benefits of seeing a therapist
Licensed therapists have one major advantage with just discussing things over with the people you trust. They can prescribe medications -bet you didn’t think of that.
A therapist can offer a safe place to discuss your feelings and guide you in resolving them. A smart and loving family member can do that for you. Professional counselors also are well trained in getting to the bottom of the problem and teach you how to prevent them from happening again in the future.
A good friend with a lot of experience can also help you with that. However, unless they are doctors themselves, they cannot issue medications if you need it. There are some problems that cause mental and emotional breakdowns preventing a person from living a normal life. Only a licensed therapist and a few pills can help with that.
There are other benefits to seeing a therapist, as a professional, they have plenty of training and experience helping a person with what they are going through.
Other people can rely on their own experience for advice, but only a counselor who does it every day can have a deep insight into the situation, especially when the patient has difficulty discussing it.
There is one disadvantage when counseling with a professional
Unlike discussing your problems with your friends and family, you will have to pay a therapist for their time. The cost of seeing a therapist is not expensive, but it isn’t cheap either.
But money isn’t cheap.
You will have to give someone your skill and time to make it. It requires mental, emotional, and physical health. If you are troubled with something that affects your mental and emotional well being, it will also affect your ability to make money.
Seeing a therapist is no different than investing in yourself.
Seeing a therapist for anxiety
Anxiety is a broad term. It can range from anything between cold feet to a full-blown panic attack. Fear and anxiety manifest its ugly face in many ways that there are dozens of adjectives to describe it.
Depending on the person and how well they can handle it, anxiety attacks can stop the brain and body from doing anything. If a person is incapacitated due to stress, they can’t fulfill their duties. Bills will still come like clockwork, and more problems will pile up. The longer it goes on, the harder it would take to recover.
Anxiety is like a debt with compounding interest. The longer it stays in your pocket, the heavier it gets. The heavier it gets, the harder it is to throw away. A vicious circle.
A person in that situation feels trapped and helpless, it makes them lose hope and further exacerbate the problem. Only a professional will have the time, patience, and understanding to guide a person out of that situation.
Seeing a therapist after a breakup
One of the most common reasons why a person breaks down with depression, anxiety, and other reasons is a bad breakup. Only people who truly cared about their relationship and imagined a future with their partner will go through it. If the relationship is purely physical, the pain and anger would not last very long.
Assuming that a person did lose their most important life investment, it takes a very strong person to pick themselves up from it and continue moving forward. Unfortunately, not everyone has that kind of fortitude.
A therapist will be your friend, counselor, cheerleader, doctor
Most people continue their close relationship with their therapist outside the paid sessions. Issues such as separation anxiety can happen again, which is why therapists and their patients keep in close contact with each other to prevent a relapse. There are also cases where they act as a love doctor to prevent falling in love with the wrong type of person again.
There is a saying that all you need in life is a good doctor, lawyer, an accountant. These days you also need a good therapist and the internet.
There may not be any world wars in the past generations, but the demands on our daily life and fierce competition from our peers are enough for some people to break down. Seeing a therapist can help anyone get back in the saddle and continue on and contribute to society.
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Sylvia Smith loves to share insights on how couples can revitalize their love lives in and out of the bedroom. As a writer at Marriage.com, she is a big believer in living consciously and encourages couples to adopt this principle in their lives too. By taking purposeful and a whole-hearted action, Sylvia feels that every couple can transform their relationship into a happier, healthier one.
