My instinctual response to sadness and distress is to fold inwards and internalize it until it goes away. Perhaps this is common.
Burdening our friends and family with our own problems is emotionally taxing both personally and to the other person. Perhaps the problems we face are too personal and we don’t want to appear vulnerable. For me, the problem is that I lack the words to even talk about what I am feeling. The feelings are locked somewhere inside me that I do not know how to access on my own.
This isn’t anything new. The first time I went to therapy, I was in elementary school and dealing with a traumatic family situation. To be quite honest I don’t really remember the details, but it was the first time I had the opportunity to talk to an outside source about my feelings and experiences.
Things started changing for me early in high school. My sadness felt out of my own control, to the point where I could not handle nor understand it. It was like staring into a void.
This is where therapy becomes incredibly valuable. At its most simple, it gives you someone to talk to who understands the way human brains work. What is inexplicable and scary for me was completely normal for a professional.
Immediately, I could start to understand the things that were holding me back, which ranged from depression and anxiety to an eating disorder. Moving forward, I understood how to approach the feelings that had confused me for such a long time. I could also access prescriptions for these illnesses that cleared my mind and put me in the correct head space to directly confront and combat my symptoms.
One of the biggest stigmas that sways people from talking about mental health is that these problems are not common. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 18.5 percent of U.S. adults experience mental illness in a given year. That is about one in five people, which is significant. Chances are many of your peers have shared experiences with mental health.
The truth is, therapy is helpful even if you do not have any mental illnesses. To put it simply, everyone suffers in their own way from time to time, and it is always a good idea to talk to someone who can help you. This is true for things such as dealing with grief and trauma to dealing with stress from classes or work.
Therapy will not fix your problems, or at least not immediately. The most valuable thing that I have gained is learning new approaches to fixing these problems myself, or learning to live with them in a healthy way. I have learned new ways of thinking that I otherwise never would. Progress takes time, but it has opened up my entire world.
Don’t be afraid to seek out a therapist or any other mental health specialist. Visit CAPS here on campus, or find other professionals in the area. I promise it is worth your time, even if only to talk to someone who will listen to you.
