How to know if I need to see a psychologist? 6 tips
Knowing when it's time to go to the psychologist is not always easy. After all, psychological problems can take a variety of forms , and it is difficult to talk about a specific profile of the person who attends psychotherapy consultations.
Depending on the social context in which we live, our needs and preferences, and even our personality, the reasons why we may need professional help vary greatly.
So, it is relatively normal that between a discomfort is detected and you go to a psychology center for the first time, a time in which the patient asks ... How to know if I need a psychologist? Let's see several tips and key ideas for useful when making the best decision.
- Related article: "Types of psychological therapies"
How to know if you need a psychologist
Mental health has gone from being an area in which the "crazy people" were stigmatized to one in which it is understood that the mind is too complicated to be classified in the "healthy" and "sick" categories. Now we understand that psychological problems, regardless of their severity, fall into normal: the weird thing would be not to have gone through any of them at some point in our lives .
Therefore, many people do not know how to decide which line is supposed to cross to have a good reason to go to therapy. In the following lines we will see several guidelines to know when a psychologist is needed.
1. Put the focus on suffering
There are people who ask whether to go to the psychologist or not simply because they do or have done something that someone has told them is wrong.
However, this is not a good criterion to consider if going to a psychotherapy consultation, because the focus of the therapy is not exactly on the ethical scales that each person follows, but in the idea of whether or not there is suffering associated with a behavior. Suffering in the person who performs it or in the people surrounding whoever does it.
On the other hand, the same behavior can be considered immoral by one person, and totally normal by another. Moral dilemmas, although relevant, are not the priority of psychotherapy.
2. Make sure it is psychological
Psychologists deal with cognitive and emotional problems, but not those that have to do with physical pain. No, headaches do not count either.
Yes, in the case that there is a physical condition that generates psychological sequels , such as stress or obsessive ideas, then it is appropriate to consider whether to go to psychotherapy or not.
- Maybe you're interested: "10 tips to choose a good psychologist"
3. Does the discomfort move you away from a normal life?
When deciding when to go to the psychologist, this question is key, since helps to understand the severity of the discomfort experienced .
4. Delineate the type of problem that exists
In the first place, we must try to understand where the problem that makes us suffer or makes us feel bad starts and ends.
The first thing to ask is If the problem is mainly one of oneself or not ; If the problem has to do clearly with the context, and not with oneself, it is not worth going to therapy. For example, if a homosexual person is and at the same time feels very well with his life, he should not go to therapy even if certain people treat her as someone sick, since in this case the problem is only homophobia and it does not arrive to cause significant psychological wear.
However, the answer to the question of whether the problem is in oneself or in others normally will not be very clear, since psychology has to do with the way in which people relate to the environment and this It affects them.
In any case, we must bear in mind that it is possible that one has a problem when experiencing a lot of suffering and that the responsibility for the problem lies with others . An example of this would be the discomfort that is experienced when suffering harassment.
5. Ask for advice
This is an important resource that is often little used. Ask for the opinion of friends and family helps to have an interesting perspective, because although it is paradoxical, others are able to give us more information about what happens to us than we have for the simple fact of living those experiences. Emotional involvement It can make our knowledge about our lives distorted.
6. Consider yourself if the problem is recurrent
If the discomfort is a matter of a few hours or a few days and you think it will go away briefly, in most cases you will not need the help of a psychotherapist.The exception to this has to do with traumatic events such as the loss of a loved one or the suffering of an accident. In these cases, it is more possible that you need help because of the possibility of developing sequelae, although not always.
