Ten Signs it's Time to Start Therapy
Throughout our lives, we all face challenges and obstacles, major life stressors and day to day thoughts and feelings that get in the way of how we want to live our lives. Recognizing when it's time to seek professional help can be a pivotal step toward personal growth and overall well-being. Here are ten signs that you might benefit from starting or returning to therapy:
Persistent Feelings of Sadness or Numbness: If you find yourself feeling down, hopeless, or even numb for extended periods, it might be time to seek therapy. These feelings can be signs of underlying issues such as depression that can benefit from professional support. Oftentimes, depression can feel more like numbness than actual sadness. Signs of depression or low mood may include difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much, under or over eating, difficulty concentrating, and lack of interest in things that once brought you joy.
Anxiety that Interferes with Daily Life: Anxiety is a common emotion, but when it starts to interfere with your ability to perform daily tasks, make decisions, or enjoy life, it's important to seek help. Signs of anxiety can include a sensation of panic, nervousness, feeling irritable or on edge, excessive worry, or frequent muscle tension.
Experiencing Trauma: If you've experienced a traumatic event and find yourself struggling with its aftermath, therapy can provide a safe space to process these experiences and develop coping strategies. Signs of unresolved trauma can include intrusive memories of a traumatic event, nightmares, difficulty sleeping, restlessness, agitation, mood swings, anger, crying spells or substance abuse.
Difficulty Managing Stress: Some stressors can be small and relatively easy to manage, like a busy day at work or a small disagreement with a loved one. Other stressors can be harder to manage, like bereavement, divorce, or becoming severely ill. When stress becomes overwhelming and starts to affect your physical health, relationships, or quality of life, a therapist can help you develop healthier techniques to respond to stress. Signs of stress or burnout include: excessive worrying, a sense of dread, feelings of overwhelm, agitation, tense muscles, jaw pain, anger or sadness.
Struggles with Self-Esteem: Constantly feeling unworthy or having a negative self-image can impact various aspects of your life. Therapy can help you explore the root cause of these feelings and work toward building greater confidence.
Relationship Issues: Whether it's frequent conflicts, feeling disconnected, or dealing with a breakup, therapy can offer insights and strategies to improve your relationships with anyone in your life (friends, siblings, co-workers, partner, boss, parents etc).
Harmful Behaviors: Engaging in harmful behaviors, such as substance abuse, eating disorders, self-injury or is a clear sign that you should consider seeking professional help.
Major Life Transitions: Life transitions are considered some of the biggest stressors we face throughout our lives. Experts have identified the top life stressors and all of them involve a major change. Examples that have all made the top ten stressors list include marriage, divorce, a major injury, death of a family member and even moving.
Life changes, even positive ones like a new job or marriage, can be stressful and challenging to navigate. Therapy can provide support and strategies to manage these transitions more effectively.
Grief and Loss: Coping with the loss of a loved one is one of life's most challenging experiences. If you're struggling to move forward, therapy can offer a space to grieve and find ways to adapt.
Feeling Stuck or Without Direction: Sometimes, we may feel lost or unsure about our direction in life. Therapy can help clarify your values and goals and help you figure out how you want to live your life and the steps needed to get there.
Seeking therapy is a sign of strength and a proactive step toward taking charge of your mental health. If you recognize any of these signs in your life, consider reaching out to our team of therapists at Proactive Therapy for support.