Therapy can provide you with a nonjudgmental and confidential space to work through concerns that may be causing you distress. It’s a space where you can safely talk about your concerns and then work with your care provider to develop a plan to address them. Talking to a professional is the ideal way to work through concerns and prevent them from becoming more serious. A qualified mental health care provider helps you remove, change, or more skillfully cope with emotional concerns, challenging behaviours, or stressful life situations.
Therapy can help you:
-
Adjust to a crisis or other current difficulty
-
Identify negative beliefs and behaviours and replace them with healthy, adaptive ones
-
Explore relationships and experiences, and develop positive interactions with others
-
Find better ways to cope with and solve problems
-
Identify concerns that negatively impact your mental health and change behaviours that make it worse
-
Regain a sense of satisfaction and control in your life and help ease symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, stress, and anger
-
Learn to set realistic goals for your life
-
Develop the ability to tolerate and accept distress using healthier coping mechanisms
Mental health issues negatively affect our emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. Signs and symptoms vary depending on the person, however, here are some things to look out for:
-
Feeling sad or down for an extended period of time
-
Confused or unable to concentrate
-
Excessive fear, worrying or feelings of guilt
-
Extreme mood changes from high to low
-
Withdrawal from family, friends and activities
-
Significant fatigue, low energy or sleep problems
-
Inability to cope with daily problems or stress
-
Major changes in eating habits or sex drive
-
Excessive anger or irritability
-
Increased alcohol or substance use
-
Suicidal thoughts
If you are in crisis with thoughts of harming yourself or others, contact emergency services by calling 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.