Lori Streator walks through signs you might benefit from therapy: major life changes, shifts in your mood, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and unprocessed trauma. She covers when talking to someone actually helps.
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There's no bad reason to see a therapist. There are also a ton of reasons to go to therapy. That's entirely up to you. But there are a few specific things that I like people to keep in mind, that if this stuff is happening or has happened, maybe it's something to look at, that maybe professional help and support would be a good thing. If these few things have again happened or are currently going on in your life. What's going on? Welcome back to my channel. Let's go through some signs that maybe you need therapy. The first one is if there have been any major recent changes in your life. A divorce, a job loss, a loss of a loved one. These are really big events that you might be doing okay with now. That's awesome. If they don't necessarily negatively affect you or what you want to keep in mind if they're not negatively affecting you, is if there's any kind of ripple effect or effect down the line, because maybe when it happened, you didn't really process it or deal with it. So I'm not saying if you've been through a divorce, if you're doing fine and that was what you wanted, that you should see a therapist. Not at all. If you're doing well, great. But if down the line you start to struggle, or if down the line you maybe haven't dealt with it or other things come up or. Or the change that that divorce creates in your life impacts other things, then maybe it's time to seek some professional help. So even when we go through a big event or a loss, it doesn't necessarily impact us right then or even a few months later, but the ripple effect or the effect down the line can impact us later and cause some issues. So if you've been through some big things or there's been some big changes that just keep an eye on it, it's not waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's just acknowledging that, hey, I'm good right now. Let me just take inventory and make sure as life progresses and as I continue to move forward, that nothing else is impacted because of this one instance or this loss or this major change. Another sign you might need therapy is if you're not feeling like yourself. I. I'm not talking about having a rough day. Although again, you could totally go see a therapist for that. That's fine. But I'm talking more about feeling more angry than you ever have, or sad or anxious. Right. Major changes in our mood that aren't like us, that are off our baseline, that are not typical for us, or behaviors like eating or sleeping, these kinds of things are indicators sometimes that there's something else going on. People who struggle with depression sometimes sleep a ton, and that's their first sign that maybe their mood is starting to go downhill because they start sleeping more and more. So the instance that maybe you're eating more than you have, or not as much as you used to, or sleeping too much or too little, or you're more anxious than you usually are, that's not necessarily an issue. Again, it's fine if you want to go see somebody, but it's what it looks like in comparison to the rest of your life. And especially if these moments or these feelings of I don't feel like myself lately, or they're leading to feelings of hopelessness or wondering if life is worth living, or thoughts of certain suicide and things like that. So again, you might be able to manage a rough day, but pay attention. If you're sleeping or eating more or less than you used to, or you don't feel like yourself for a period of time and things just aren't getting better, seek some support and have a professional help you look at what's going on and help you with the coping skills you need so that nothing gets more out of control. And then maybe it's already starting to go toward. Another thing to keep an eye out for is if you're using things like alcohol or drugs or sex or gambling behaviors to cope or numb your feelings. Those things, drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, they're not necessarily bad. But if you're using them outside of your norm or you have an addictive personality, or those behaviors of those things that you're using to cope with life are impacting you in a way or it's an addiction or out of the norm for you, that's when it becomes an issue. So it's not that gambling is necessarily a bad thing. I'm not a gambler. But if all of a sudden I started gambling and I was gambling away our life savings, that's a problem. Maybe there's a sign that something else is going on. So it's not necessarily that thing, the drugs, the alcohol, the sex, the gambling, that is bad, but it's how you're using it in your life and it's something to keep an eye on. Again, if it's out of the norm for you, if it's impacting your relationships, your work, your finances, if it's impacting your life or you have an addictive personality, things like that. I am not an addictions counselor. But these are things to keep an eye on. If you're like, whoa, I am drinking way more than I ever have, huh? I got divorced six months ago. Maybe there's a connection, right? The drinking is not the problem, it's how you're using it. And is there a connection or is it impacting things negatively? So it's not my place to say that if you drink that things are bad or that you struggle with something, but it's something to keep an eye on. If it's impacting or if it's changed, if it's out of the norm, if it's a compulsive behavior, if it's an addiction, you know yourself, you have to be honest with yourself. And only you know if you're using things like this to cope in an unhealthy way, or numb out feelings or avoid a situation in your life. The last thing to keep an eye on, or maybe a sign that you might need therapy is, is if there's been some sort of trauma. Trauma is usually defined differently, depending on who you ask. I tend to think of it as something that has happened that's impacted your life, probably in a negative way. So abuse, sexual abuse, maybe it's a divorce, maybe it's a medical procedure or an interaction with somebody. There's all kinds of different things that trauma fits in, that trauma can be defined as. But if something has happened in your life, it doesn't matter how long ago, but if you're still thinking about it, or it impacts you, or you struggle with it, or you're having nightmares, or it impacts your ability to have healthy relationships or hold a job. There's so many things that trauma can impact. Might be something to see a therapist about, to talk about, work through so that you can not necessarily change the thing because we can't change the past, but it might be something you can work through so that that trauma or that event, no matter how long ago or how recent it is, doesn't impact your life negatively and you can keep going in a healthy way. There's so many reasons, again, to see a therapist, that's up to you. But those are just a few signs that I encourage you to keep an eye on. Or if you see somebody in your life struggling, don't say, hey, you're drinking a lot. You need to go see a therapist. It's something to maybe say, hey, is everything okay? Or can I support you? Or would it be helpful if you talked to somebody about this divorce or this loss or about that thing you just told me that happened 20 years ago. Everybody's different. Things are going to impact people in different ways. What impacts you might not affect somebody else and vice versa. So these aren't rules that if this has happened, you need to talk to somebody, but if they have happened and you do struggle with them, or you're like, I could talk to somebody about that, that it might be a sign that you could benefit from seeing a therapist. Sam.
