Society these days is so fast. People seem to have forgotten values that families took for granted in days gone by. Technology has meant that the speed life is lived at imposes all kinds of stresses on lives at all ages, and learning how to cope with these stresses has fallen into the lap of professionals in many instances, because people seek solutions.
The traditional manner of seeking solutions would be to talk with friends and family, though what has changed over the years is that priorities are different, and people don’t have the time that it takes to listen. Does this mean that an individual needs psychiatric help ? Not necessarily. Self help is on the increase and people can find solutions to their problems even hidden within the pages of a self help book, though many leave it too late for the book to be of use, drowning in an abbess of uncertainty, not knowing which way to turn, until their state of mind needs professional help.
Deciding whether you belong to that group of people who needs the help of a psychiatrist is an individual choice for most, and the fact that those who are reading this article are seeking answers probably means that the reader doesn’t yet need psychiatric help, because they are still searching for solutions, and have ended up here, on an Internet page, with doubts in their minds, and wanting answers to questions they cannot answer alone.
Let’s assume that mental illness can be put into categories and try and make that decision a little easier. Circumstantial mental anguish may be what has brought you here. Loss, sadness and uncertainty may be other contributing factors, though here you are, on this page, reading an article that will help you to define if indeed psychiatric help is what you need.
Symptoms:
*Sadness
*Out of control suicidal and dark thoughts
*Withdrawal from society
*An inner feeling of being lost
*Anguish over past events
Any one of these could indeed be a reason for wanting to seek help, though before deciding on what kind of help, let’s take a step into understanding where all these dark feelings come from. For example, sadness at loss is as natural as giving birth. It’s normal to feel pain, to break up inside, and is all part of the process of grief. Those feelings of being out of control need curbing to alleviate danger, not to others, but to yourself. If the out of control feelings are taking over what you feel, then exploring where they come from and trying to understand them better would be a first move. Here, if you cannot do this alone, talk to your doctor, or someone that will set aside time to talk in an effort to get feedback as to whether these feelings are normal given your circumstances.
If you feel suicidal, think about why you feel that way, and whether it’s a passing phase and also if you feel you can find the way out alone. Many can, though it is no failing on your behalf to feel that you cannot do it alone. Here, do seek help, as your life is precious, almost like a jewel that hasn’t yet been discovered. There it lies in the soil with it’s true value not recognized, and just as it takes a miner to dig out that stone and turn it into a recognizable jewel, in your case, it takes work, and talk, understanding and effort to get out of that place where the dark soul lies. Seek help and you will find it. You are a valuable human being.
Withdrawal from society.
One of the classic symptoms of mental anguish is to lock oneself away. What this creates isn’t healthy. Depressed people with no need to co-exist with others will neglect themselves, feel that there is little incentive to interact, and in what they see as the safety of their chosen cocoon, will lose incentive to improve, taking the easier road that leads downhill, instead of the hard road out of the depths of depression. Looking at the logic of uphill or downhill, taking the easy option seems the only logical path, and in these circumstances, seeking the help of the professional will help guide you out of the depths to another place, where life doesn’t seem so hard to bear, or the weight you carry too heavy.
The inner feeling of being lost.
Here, perhaps it is easier to lose ones way, rather than to face those ghosts that haunt us. It’s a relatively safe place that forms a bridge between past and present. That lost feeling isn’t something you cannot overcome, though is a place of safety away from making decisions that enable you to move on. Being lost in life is more common than perhaps you realize and doesn’t mean that you need psychiatric help. It’s certainly not uncommon for a human being to feel the transition during times of change, though being careful that the lost feeling doesn’t find that slippery downhill slope is vital. Here, talk to your doctor. You may just need reassurance and often a doctor can put things into perspective without the need for psychiatric help.
Anguish over past events.
No matter how much we fight off the theory that the past affects who we are, there is no doubt that those events that touch our past do come back and haunt us, and sometimes the roots of these problems take years of professional study to extinguish. There is nothing abnormal about seeking help. Look at those who suffer abuse as kids, those who lose people they love at a young age. At some stage in life, these past events come back and need facing up to, and no matter how much we think they are part of the past, if returning into the subconscious mind may need specific help to help you move on and feel whole again. Talking first with a doctor helps because they are distanced from your family. Taking the doctor’s advice helps too as they know you better than others do, and if they believe you need psychiatric help, listen to them, just as they listened to you.
There is no stigma today in society about seeking out help for those problems that haunt us, and certainly looking inside for reasons and understanding why we have those feelings we cannot control is a healthy beginning. By reading this article, at least you will know you are not alone, and having read it and decided for yourself if you need psychiatric help, at least you can take a step forward on that long steep hill towards recovery, knowing that uphill is the hardest route but gets you there quicker, and that what awaits you at the top of each mountain is a new period in your life that stems from taking stock, learning, talking and deciding that perhaps you need to talk to a professional to move forward.
