What comes to your mind when you hear that one should seek professional help or meet a psychologist? There is a still taboo to meet someone or seek therapy for mental health. As if the brain is not a part of your body.
To meet someone for mental health means either you are crazy or weak. But what if we all need help while everything arises mentally but not physically? Why can’t we think that as our body ills our brain also? So what is wrong with seeing someone and seeking help for emotional and mental health problems?
We all forget one thing 80% of our mind takes control of our body, actions, communications and everything. Only 20%of physical body involvement is there. So if some challenging emotions and thoughts disturb you, what is wrong with seeking help? Let’s understand this first.
When should you see a psychologist?
It is sometimes too hard to figure out whether you need professional help or if you can talk to your family or friends can solve your problem. In 80% of the problems you know which actions and communications help you to solve your problem but there is fear of the unknown.
Because your mind raises lots of anxious and negative thoughts about the unknown. One thing that is important for you to learn is that our mind works on the survival mechanism. Hence we all have a fear of the unknown. There are various reasons behind not being able to think positively or to take positive actions:
1) Fear of the Unknown (What will happen in future?)
2) Habitual cycle (Automicity)
3) Hard work (Change is hard.)
4) Non-acceptance
5) Why me? (Victimisation)
Apart from the above reasons there are various other reasons as well. It always varies based on the situation. Also, one needs to be conscious about his actions, feelings and thoughts. These are complicated things to follow and to be in to present state.
But when you learn to be mindful according to Dialectal Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and through continuous practice you can develop a present state of mind. There are various other factors also you need to consider which are the clear signs to see a psychologist.
1) When you are facing mood swings(depressive), anxious or overwhelmed.
It is normal when you feel depressed but when you face this disturbance for more than 2 weeks with at least five symptoms of depression based on DSM-5 then it is diagnosed as a Depressive Disorder. As we become faster in our lives.
Of course, we lost control of our consciousness. Due to that many people are unable to synchronise between their thoughts, emotions and actions. External factors take charge of your mind and then all become autonomous. Your moods depend on your external factors and due to that, you lose self-control.
This also builds a lack of self-confidence, over-dependency on others, and over-expectations but with a lack of ownership. You build your negative thoughts and become judgemental about lots of things. Assumptions are one of the phases where you do not clarify but reach to conclusion fast. Due to that, you are unable to take the right steps in your life.
Wrong decisions bring lots of other troubles in your life. And you feel nothing is working better. Nothing wrong if you are feeling this state of mind. But it is important to overcome it. Your Amygdala plays a major role in regulating your emotions.
Depression is very common and even feeling anxiety is also very natural. But if you do not take it seriously it creates lots of hassle and mess in your day-to-day functioning. Talk therapies are just not talking or sharing your emotions.
But it is about regulating them and channelise them in the better direction. We all made lots of mistakes in our lives. We also learnt that the major crux is how you have to manage your mind and train it.
2) When you are feeling you have eating disorders or a disturbing sleeping cycle.
Our senses play a major role in controlling our emotions. Because many people eat too much or very little when they have mood swings issues. Or in case of stress as well they overdose themselves with food. Food and sleep patterns will tell you a lot about your emotions.
Your emotions directly affect your breathing and your blood sugar. Many times after stressful events you feel exhausted and your body feels there is no energy. To overcome you used to take food or any of the vices to balance your emotions.
Sleep disturbance is common which we call insomnia or hypersomnia. Both are in a ways neurological as well as psychological disorders. But most people build this due to overthinking, restlessness, stress, depression and physical illness as well. Overthinking played a major role in this.
3) When you feel your emotions are not controlled or you cannot transform the same.
Crying or having anger shows that there is no control over feelings. The mind tells you that whatever it thinks is happening to you. And you become vulnerable towards your emotions. The majority of the people do not understand what they are supposed to do in this scenario.
They just sit ideal and feel of not waking up. They do not want to take charge of their lives and wait for some miracle to happen. This is a real scenario of emotional dysregulation. It is of course hard to work on the thoughts and feelings.
Overcoming this state of mind is again so much more difficult. But when you take therapy sessions and understand your problem you can work on yourself. With the slow and steady process, you can overcome your state of mind. Remember one thing your mind has plasticity. We can train it whenever we want.
4) When you see you lose interest from your friends and family.
Losing interest in your interested tasks or hobbies are clear sign of depression. Losing interest means you think negatively that everything is meaningless. You feel what makes a difference even if I do or do not do. This is creating lots of problems in your day-to-day life.
When you can assess that you are losing interest in your hobbies or interesting things you were earlier interested in doing then it is advisable to meet a psychologist or psychiatrist.
5) When you going through a rough phase of your life and you find yourself directionless.
Stress builds up when you find yourself directionless. You might have achieved a lot in your life. You might be satisfied with those things which you do. But it may be possible that you find yourself directionless. You find where to go and why? This is not called some psychological disorder but it is called an emotional problem. Many therapies help in curing this state of mind.
CBT, DBT, Psychodynamic Therapy, Interpersonal Psychotherapy, Humanistic Therapy, Behavioral Therapy, EMDR, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy(ACT) and Exposure Therapy help in regulating emotions. Also, it helps you to go to the right direction of channelling emotions.
6) Past traumas and stress related to that build more emotional burden.
Trauma becomes stressful when you think over it again and again. When you do not accept your trauma like financial losses, divorce, separation, or loss of a loved one it creates stress.
Post Traumatic Disorder is divided into four clusters as per DSM -5. Intrusion, avoidance, negative cognitions and moods and arousal. If one is facing this stress related to trauma for more than one month with PTSD symptoms then it is considered to be a disorder.
In this phase, one can’t be deattached from the event that has happened. It requires lots of effort to regulate that stress. Cognitive Process Therapy (CPT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy(CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Prolonged Exposure therapies proved to be the best therapies working on PTSD.
7) Relationship Issues and family problems.
Relationship and family issues are not uncommon. It is hard for parents to understand kids and vice-versa. The same is also applicable to couples as well. A happily married couple nowadays end up divorced in small matters. As none wants to adjust. Over expectations and external orientation dropped emotional bank balances.
There are more bad memories than good memories. Separation, divorces and lack of adaptability have ruined so many lives in the last many decades. As we got more exposure to those fake worlds of entertainment it blasted real-life scenarios.
Social media also played a bigger role but it is all up to us how we can use these platforms. It is free but in a way, it is not. It costs you too much in terms of your mental health, relationship, productivity and your consciousness.
There is a major effect on your social life. Because one stares at the screen like a zombie and is not even ready to pay attention to what is going on? We slowly lost social communication and exposure hence we are afraid of people. What people think about me and how they perceive me matters a lot rather than being natural in social structure.
This has created lots of social anxiety and many kids and adults decided not to be socialised, ultimately loneliness turns into anxiety, stress and depression. We all need to remember once again that this world is to live a good life and pursue the ultimate goal of self-realisation.
But now it becomes a pressure cooker. We all are feeling so much pressure and ultimately we want to find happiness in the external world. We all forget to look within.
8) Problems in business or profession which bring a lot of negativity about yourself.
“What if?” is a big question when you think of your future. When your attention is more on results rather having on actions. If you are completely attached to your results how would you act and communicate? How would you perform when you have a fear of failure and people’s perseverance? We all forget that life comes with the seasons.
All seasons are not the same as usual. But we forget to accept that. Also, success, name and fame are the only seasons we taught in our childhood. Money matters but we did not learn that only money is not everything. Profession and business come with its season but we want to keep going for a lofty desire.
This creates lots of stress about perfection, and anxiety about the future and a small downfall creates depression. All these can be manageable if we learn to be resilient and more acceptable. Working on more is not important but rather important is to be qualitative. There are so many misconceptions about professions and business. People in the major areas of business and profession need to take the support of psychologists to grow their substantial goals.
How a Psychologist help you in this?
Unless you do not understand your problem you are unable to work on the same. Periodically taking the help of your psychologist brings more clarity to your life. Same way when you have more clarity you are more confident.
A psychologist helps you work on the weak areas of your thought pattern and conceptual cycle. CBT is one of the proven therapies which help many people to overcome their issues. Unless you do not know what troubles you, you cannot get solutions.
Unless you do not understand yourself you can’t make others understand. So psychologist helps you to bring back your consciousness. Cognition is one of the complex things but through psychology only you can understand your tendency.
A psychologist brings lots of clarity and makes you able to understand certain emotions. Acceptance, resilience and change can be possible through therapies. There is no quick fix to it. One needs to work with the support of a professional to bring back happiness, clarity, positivity, acceptance and many more.
