Do I really need help?

Every day we watch, read, or hear about someone combatting mental health issues and yet, we continue to choose to believe that we are self-sufficient for our problems and remain reluctant to ask for help. Being part of a society where we are constantly bombarded with opinions that disregard the significance of mental well-being and therapy, it is high time we begin to realize the importance of it and allow ourselves to ask for help and feel better.

Out of the many misconceptions about therapy, the biggest and the most harmful one is our society’s collective belief that for someone to reach the therapy room, he or she must face something extremely insufferable and huge. It’s the need of the hour to say it: You don’t need to wait till it reaches your saturation point before asking for help. Contrary to popular misconception, you don’t have to be “crazy,” desperate, or on the brink of a meltdown to finally go to therapy. 

If you find yourself in a low mood on most days, or having a much less appetite than before, or getting fearful about little things in life, or if you’re just not feeling good, you may consider booking that session you’ve been delaying since a while. The earlier you work on your problems, the better and quicker you find solutions for them. The more you delay, the more you let the issues sink in, making them harder to deal with. Always remember, convincing yourself or pretending to believe that everything is fine does more harm than good.

Let’s take a moment today and see therapy not as whopping as it is believed to be, but rather as just a mental check-up, the same way you get your bodies checked up every once in a while. Therapy only gives you a safe space to express yourself, talk about anything and everything, ranging from examination stress to relationships to family struggles to loneliness to work hassles to grief to trauma. 

Allow yourself to heal, to let go of those abstract limitations, and just let yourself be! Additionally, if a friend or family member is showing one of these signs, it’s time to gently guide them towards therapy. It might just be the greatest gift you ever give them.