When is the Right Time to Seek Mental Health Care?

Knowing when to find a therapist for professional help with your mental health can be tricky. This is due to how much the answer can vary from person to person. Two people with the same problems are often affected in different ways and have different needs. Because of this, the suggestions here are more of a general guidance on what to look for in yourself if you’re wondering if therapy may be helpful.

Difficulty Coping or Unhealthy Coping

Coping looks different for everyone, but at its core it’s how we respond to stress and problems. When we have healthy coping skills we tend to feel resilient and feel capable of relaxing and unwinding even when stress is high.

Difficulty coping could mean that you are having a hard time finding things that help you to relax. Or, it could be that strategies that previously worked don’t seem to help as much as they used to. Lastly, it could be that we have strategies that technically work, but only short term and might even make the problem worse in the long run. Some examples of this are coping by drinking or isolating more to attempt to deal with emotions. This may also include thoughts of self harm or suicide.

Impact on Your Life

If you have a stressor, mental illness, or situation, that you find is having a negative impact on your life, this could be another reason to seek help. It could be prolonged stress at work, anxiety, depression, a past trauma, loss of a loved one, or really any stressful situation. If you find that following/during this event you are having a harder time at work, school, home, or personal goals, this could be an indicator that therapy might be helpful.

You Can’t Seem to Fix the Problem Yourself, Even if You Know How

It can be frustrating when something is wrong and we can’t figure out why or what to do about it. It can be equally frustrating if we know exactly what’s wrong and how to stop it, but just can’t seem to successfully put our knowledge into action.

In either case, talking with someone can help. Therapy gives us the opportunity to sort out our thoughts and create an action plan that’s tailored to your needs, situation, and energy level. Even if we can identify all of this for ourselves, it can still help to find a professional to help us implement it. Even therapists seek out therapy and find there’s something to gain.

You’re Experiencing a Mental Health Emergency

In some cases we may have a problem that feels it needs to be dealt with right now. If you experience this know that there is no shame in needing immediate help and resources are available. In the U.S., you can dial 911 for immediate medical help if you feel unsafe or 988 if you want immediate mental help. Dialing either of these numbers will connect you with caring professionals in your area who can help address your immediate needs. After the short term needs are meet, it’s often advised to seek out longer term therapy to address underlying issues.

This is not an exhaustive list of reasons to seek out therapy, but some general ideas and situations people find themselves in that come up fairly often. If you feel therapy would be helpful for you and you are located in Utah, you can book an appointment at burnoutpreventiontherapy.com to connect to help today. If you are outside of Utah, you can look up therapists in your area through search engines or therapist directories.