We Need to Talk More About Mental Health And Finding A Therapist

Mental health discussion has been a huge topic of late including the need to speak with a therapist. It’s real and needs to be discussed because it’s invisible. And just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Do you often go to work and feel a huge burden on your shoulders? Do you feel as though you are mentally incapable of changing your predicament? Or are you dealing with anxiety? These are just a few signs to encourage you to take care of YOU.

Knowing more about your psyche can be a gateway to discovering your strengths and with this knowledge, you can be able to use your emotions to empathize with colleagues or clients. Feeling authentic and open at work has been reported to lead to better performance, employee retention, engagement, and improved wellbeing.

Read: How To Use Social Media To Improve Your Mental Health

According to research, depression is more common among women than men, likely due to certain biological, hormonal, and social factors that are unique to women. Men have higher rates of addiction than women, while women have higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders. All the same, this means that everyone is to be conscious of their mental health as there are no exceptions.

• 1 in 5 persons experiences a mental illness or addiction problem in any given year.

• Mental and physical health are linked. People with a long-term medical condition such as chronic pain are much more likely to also experience mood disorders. Conversely, people with a mood disorder are at much higher risk of developing a long-term medical condition.
• Just 50% would tell friends or co-workers that they have a family member with a mental illness, compared to 72% who would discuss a diagnosis of cancer and 68% who would talk about a family member having diabetes.
• 64% of workers would be concerned about how work would be affected if a colleague had a mental illness.
• 39% of workers indicate that they would not tell their managers if they were experiencing a mental health problem.

Read: Workplace Stress: 8 Ways To Save Your Mental Health

Read: How Telehealth Can Help With Medical Advice

From several speeches, articles and these researches, it’s glaring that mental illness can be isolating for both the person with mental illness and those close to them. It makes everyone uncomfortable and this makes it even harder for the person with the illness to speak.

At a recent event for the Bell Talk Initiative, the speaker noted that most people are quick to applaud a person who speaks up about their mental health challenge as though it is a unique thing and this shows that there is a stigma attached. Her argument was that everyone should feel free to talk about their mental health situations, it generally shouldn’t lead to receiving medals and awards because it should be a normal conversation.

If speaking up about mental illness becomes a normal conversation, people suffering will seek help easily without the fear of being criticized or labeled as simply seeking attention. Mental health can be managed with counseling and/or medication and thankfully, there are now various platforms and ways that you can seek help through a licensed therapist.

BetterHelp is an online portal that provides direct-to-consumer access to behavioral health services and boasts of providing access to affordable, private, professional counseling from a licensed therapist. The online counseling and therapy services are provided through web-based interaction as well as phone and text communication and will be confidential.

Anyone can benefit from meeting with a licensed counselor as they can help you understand and deal with feelings or issues that you are struggling with. A therapist can also teach you the skills to cope with emotional or mental stressors you are facing. You can always review their areas of expertise and philosophies on counseling when trying to choose a therapist on their site.

If you are going through life’s challenges and find it difficult to talk to someone you can trust. You can get help, anytime, anywhere making use of BetterHelp’s services. This is particularly encouraging as from the comfort of your home, you can make steps towards improving your health.