5 Ways to Know Therapy is Right for You

It’s no accident you’ve stumbled upon this blog post. But we’ll admit, because the internet is vast and wide, we may not know exactly what brought you here.

Maybe you’re struggling with things internally — you find yourself feeling anxious, in despair, or numb to certain situations. Or like no one really understands what you’re going through. 

Maybe it’s external — you lost a loved one. The dysfunctional dynamics in your family are getting hard to manage. Your parents are aging. Friendships aren’t what they used to be. Work is demanding. 

Perhaps it’s a combination of the two. 

Whatever brought you here, we’re just glad you’re here. 

In our professional opinion, we believe anyone and everyone can benefit from therapy. It shouldn’t take a life-altering circumstance to make you consider support for your mental health. But also, if you are in the midst of a major event in your life, there is no better time to reach out for help than right now. 

Whether you’re seriously considering therapy or simply entertaining the idea, scroll through this post and you’ll begin to see whether or not therapy could be your next right step.

Therapy could be right for you if:

Your Mental Health Has Become Unmanageable On Your Own

Just like your body needs daily care with nutrition and movement, your mental health needs daily care, too. 

However, when it gets to the point where your mental health needs serious, dedicated attention, you’ll know. 

If you don’t notice it yourself, your body will tell you. 

Your body “telling” you could look like constantly calling out of work or skipping class because you sincerely don’t have the energy for it. 

Or even if you do go, perhaps mentally, you don’t feel there. 

It could also look like not having the willpower to get out of bed in the morning or keep up with daily hygiene such as taking a shower, brushing your teeth, and so on.

Overall, poor mental health can become an all-encompassing state of lethargy. You don’t have the same drive to go about your day and you start to feel less like a person. 

You can manage these feelings with activities that do make you feel like a person — we wrote an anxiety management blog post you can skim through here. 

But even if after doing these activities, your mental health still feels unmanageable, that may be a sign that underlying issues exist and it’s time to address them with a professional.

You’ve Noticed a Negative Impact on Your Quality of Life

If you are facing some of these experiences — skipping work or school, not being mentally present in a room, struggling to get out of bed, or neglecting personal hygiene — these actions can take a toll on the quality of your life. 

Not being fully present at work or school means you can fall behind. You could get passed up for certain opportunities, overcommit to projects, and as a result, tarnish your integrity or quality of work. If this happens too often, you could accumulate failing grades or be removed from roles in your job entirely. 

Not addressing personal hygiene impacts the way you feel physically. Which can lead to even more feelings of inadequacy or overwhelm. Followed by caring less about hygiene. Then the cycle continues. 

And without the motivation to get out of bed in the morning, it’s easy to lose interest in social events, connecting with others, and then your relationships slowly diminish. 

Facing any of these issues assumes they’ve been building up for quite some time. And if those repercussions don’t feel like any concern to you, take notice. One of the greatest hindrances to mental health is apathy. 

You’ve Noticed a Negative Impact on Your Relationships 

According to The Mental Health Foundation:

“People who are more socially connected to family, friends, or their community are happier, physically healthier, and live longer, with fewer mental health problems than people who are less well connected.” 

But we don’t need a credible foundation to tell us how crucial relationships are to our mental well-being. In our core, we just know. There are certain people that bring us joy.  

Unfortunately, it’s hard enough to maintain relationships as an adult with all the loved ones in your life, including yourself, having varying schedules and responsibilities. 

However, if you notice you’re intentionally isolating yourself with last minute-cancelations or overall avoidance, take a moment to ask yourself why. 

This is more than being an introvert with a preference toward staying home. Isolation is emotional as much as it is physical. It means actively shutting out the opportunity to be open with others. 

You can be around people you love and still choose to keep them at arm’s length. Far enough to where you don’t have to confront what you’re really going through — neither with them or yourself. 

That’s not to say you have to let certain loved ones in. At least not right away. 

Simply see it as a sign that you could be ready to let someone in, who could very well be a therapist. 

You’re Relying on Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms

In therapy, we talk a lot about coping mechanisms. A coping mechanism is a set of practices someone can fall back on in the face of anxiety, depression, trauma, intrusive emotions, or any difficult situation in general.

While there is power in coping mechanisms, not all of them are made equal. And not all of them are productive, either. 

Without healthy coping mechanisms, it’s common for people to rely on substances like alcohol or compulsions like binge-eating to ease their discomfort. 

They provide an easy way to go “numb” or “feel full” without addressing the real root of the issue, which makes them more likely to be exploited. 

The danger of relying on these unhealthy coping mechanisms is that once the alcohol or substances or hunger fade away, you’ll want that feeling back. So you’ll continue to chase that feeling in larger doses. 

This is a delicate subject and, of course, we want to be sensitive to those who may currently rely on these coping mechanisms.

But if you aren’t careful, they can easily become too familiar and alarmingly second-nature. 

Instead, we want to create healthy coping mechanisms that support us. Therapy allows you to explore what a healthy coping mechanism looks like for you if you aren’t sure where to start. 

You’re Looking for an Unbiased, Non-judgemental, Third-Party Perspective 

At times, input from friends and family can be a good thing. But despite their good intentions, their input, wisdom, or advice can hold a certain bias.

That’s why it can feel difficult to talk to friends and family about issues around our mental health. 

Loved ones mean well, but ultimately, you are the expert of your story. You deserve to be seen, heard, and validated through any experiences you face without fear of what others might think or project on you. 

That’s what makes therapy a safe space. A therapist meets you where you’re at, without any preconceived notions. You’re free to disclose sensitive information with confidence it won’t leave the room. 

Not to mention, you get the chance to troubleshoot future conversations with loved ones in a non-judgemental environment. 

You could make the argument that your therapist will also have a certain bias, which is true. But it’s a bias that has your best interests in mind. 

And maybe, if you’ve read this far down the page, that’s exactly what you could use right now. 

Think Therapy is Your Next Right Step? Be Kind Counseling Can Help

If there’s any encouragement we’d like to leave with you, it’s this: look for help before you think you need it. There are professionals out there, ourselves included, who want to help you create a sustainable path to positive living and self-healing. Discover what the process looks like by starting here.