Have you ever heard of mental health or emotional health? Well, it’s just as real as any health concern that you would go to a doctor for, it just revolves around emotions and feelings on deeper levels. And I know what you’re thinking, “Oh, god… Here goes another pointless research paper trying to persuade me to do something I don’t want to.” But that’s not the case what so ever. If your mental health is unstable, it can destroy your life; your confidence can be torn down, and unintentionally even hurt the ones closest to you because they sit back and watch you suffer. Basically, I strive to make my point known… This is that people who suffer from emotional health issues should seek professional treatment.
Generally speaking, you can tell whether or not you’re happy. You’re the first person to realize any change in emotion and helping how they feel isn’t something you can argue about. Being upset every once in a while is nothing to fret about, however. Everyone has little issues in their lives that they find hard to deal with, but if it comes to the point that you feel like being continuously kept to yourself or your life revolves inside your bedroom… You might want to take a look around and see what’s going on. “Mental or emotional health refers to your overall psychological well-being. It includes the way you feel about yourself, the quality of your relationships, and your ability to manage your feelings and deal with difficulties.” (Melinda Smith) The first characteristic that will probably be the key to starting problems is low confidence and self-esteem. If you don’t feel good about yourself, the lack of participation comes along which, in the long run, gives you less appealing results in your life. Your emotions and feelings determine whether or not something is good or bad for you and if you have a bad feeling, you can count on not wanting to act upon the upcoming opportunity. Situations like these are what lower your confidence and when the next opportunity comes knocking, there’s no self-assurance left to act upon them in any way but negative. In addition to confidence, the relationships you form in life affect how you feel. For example, if you believe that you don’t have many friends or the ones you do have don’t treat you the way you think you should be treated then you begin to wonder why. And everyone being their own worst critic makes for the worst reasons or expectations. That’s where the feelings of uselessness and not being accepted come into play. The bonds you have with other people create support systems and when that isn’t available, it creates unstable emotions. The role of resilience plays a big part in this game of life, though. Resilience means that you’re able to bounce back from traumas and stresses in your life… You can imagine how not having that could cause a problem. When you can’t accept the past and let things go, you start to obsess about them and in the end, you’ll be swallowed whole. All things considered though, when you come to a point in your life that you feel like there’s nothing left to live for or even just that you don’t like yourself; you should start considering a solution.
Assuredly, the first move anyone should make if they’re worried that their mental state isn’t stable is to just talk to someone you feel comfortable with, like a guardian or sibling. If you’ve had problems with the “inability to sleep, feeling down, having concentration problem that interfere with everyday tasks or above all, thoughts of suicide,” (Caruso) you need to do something now. After talking with someone close, you should always go speak with a physician. They’ll be able to tell you off the bat whether or not you’re honestly diagnosed with an emotional disability. The first step most people take is getting a medication. Antipsychotics, antidepressants and antianxiety prescriptions are the most common for solving emotional health concerns but what the doctors don’t tell you is that that it won’t help the overall picture. Sure, a medication masks your feelings and thoughts but they will never clear up and solve the real, deep rooted hindrance. To do so, however, you need to figure out what is causing that problem. Sometimes someone already knows what’s wrong, but for others a real hurt or painful experience has just gotten ignored and left on the shelf. Hopefully, like my doctor, yours wouldn’t only give you a medication, but refer you to therapy. Yes, that dreaded session in which you just get to talk about yourself... And since when is that a bad thing? I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors that counseling is for “crazy people”, that therapy is self-indulgent or it’s for “whiners and complainers”… But therapy is hard work. Complaining won’t get you very far. Improvement in therapy comes from taking a hard look at yourself and your life, and taking responsibility for your own actions. And, of course, there’s the “I don't need a therapist. I'm smart enough to solve my own problems”, conundrum. We all have our blind spots. Intelligence has nothing to do with it. A good therapist doesn’t tell you what to do or how to live your life. He or she will give you an experienced outside perspective and help you gain insight into yourself so you can make better choices. Still not convinced? Well how about this… “By comparison, suicide is the 11th leading cause of death for all those age 10 and over, with 33,289 suicides for all US citizens in 2006.” (Caruso) Do you know why suicides happen? Because those people are not happy with themselves and most don’t even know why. Imagine how it would be to lose a friend, relative or your own child because they were “upset” and the majority of causes being heaps deeper than that. If you could’ve made a difference in one of those 33,289 people’s lives, wouldn’t you have? So make that decision for yourself… Say yes to life and make a difference.
Be that as it may, I confidently know and believe that therapy, if going in open-minded, would surely solve general problems relating to depression and anxiety. Take it from someone who’s been there. Admittedly, yes, I’m suffering from on-going depression. But I can assure you, it’s getting better. You do know why, don’t you? To this day, I attend weekly counseling sessions and since I’ve began I’m leading a healthier lifestyle. I don’t blame myself for things that happen and I’ve got that resilience that we all rely on so much. Beforehand, I was struggling. Everything was hard, including school, family and even my own birthday. Never would I ever admit to myself that something was wrong, I just put on my makeup, a smile on my face and if anyone asked me, everything was “Okay.” Sound familiar? Well, school was probably one of my weakest points before, though. I couldn’t bring up the courage to go and face the day with all those people who would stare at me with such disdain. Thanks to therapy though, I’ve come to realize that even though I may not be ‘perfect’, neither are my critics. Through it I gained confidence as well as being able to appreciate myself - Flaws and all. Also, being more confident, it’s made me branch out in new directions. My family and friends grew closer to me and I’m slowly learning how to trust again. You’ve played that trust game, haven’t you? The one where you fall back in anticipation, hoping that the one waiting to catch you is going to break your fall when all the while, you’re worried that they’ll let you hit the ground. Well, to my surprise, I’ve learned when you put in effort so do the people around you. Do you know who those people are? They are the ones who caught me and kept me from hitting the pavement. They are my new support systems and I don’t know where I’d be without them. In all honesty, I believe that if I hadn’t endured that first counseling session that I wouldn’t be the same person I am today because now I have a healthier mentality and I say yes to life… It’s healthy and I think you should do the same.
In final analysis, after explaining how important being psychologically healthy is, it’s proven that seeking professional help to better your life is one of the best decisions you could make for yourself. Also, earlier, I stated that I have tried therapy and that it had an outstanding effect on my life. I’ve also heard and seen, hands on, the difference it makes in other people’s lives as well as my own. So take it from me, someone who’s been there, if you’re suffering from feelings or issues that were inflicted by your own experiences and it’s causing problems in your everyday life, you should seek professional help. After all, seeking that treatment when having emotional health issues helps lead a healthier lifestyle and that is something any therapeutically cured patient or I would agree with.
