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Tag: Seeking Help

Why People Avoid Mental Health Treatment

You may know that you need treatment for your mental illness, but perhaps you are too scared to do anything about it. You do not know what to expect and are worried that it will not work. However, seeking treatment for your mental health can help you be in more control and feeling better.

Facing Scary Feelings

Therapy is very hard because it involves exposing your deep, dark feelings that you have not revealed to anyone. You are trusting a stranger with your intense feelings, in hopes that they will help repair you mentally. Therapy involves digging deep into your past and present and exposing who you really are. You may be afraid that you do not like what you discover. It is important to be aware that a therapeutic atmosphere is a safe place where you can feel comfortable to express anything. You will have a professional by your side the whole time. 

Questioning the Length of Therapy

It is important to know that fixing your mental health is not something that will happen overnight. It can take months or years to finally feel better. According to the American Psychological Association, 50% of patients require 15-20 sessions which are about three months if you go weekly. By missing your sessions, you are only making your treatment much longer than it needs to be. If you do not put in the time and effort, you are not going to get better. Every minute that you wasted could have gone into speaking to a therapist about how to help you. By making it a routine to go to therapy, you will see that the months you need to be in treatment will fly quickly.

Feeling Shame

You could be afraid that someone will see you walking into a therapist’s office or a neighbor constantly asking you where you go every week. Especially if you are currently unemployed. You may not want to lie when someone asks, but you are also afraid of the judgment you will face if you tell someone you have a mental illness. You need to remember that you are not alone. According to a Barna study, 42% of Americans have been to therapy at least one point in their life. The people curious where you are going could be in therapy for themselves as well. Also, if you had to go to the doctor for a physical medical issue, that would not be something that you would be quick to hide. The same goes for having a mental illness. It should not be something that you are ashamed of. 

Using Your Friend’s Experience to Match Yours

Everyone’s experience in therapy is different. Your friend may have told you that they had a terrible therapy experience and that based on that one experience, therapy is not helpful. The experiences that our friends have dealt with are not universal. The Barna study said that 47% of people have had a positive experience in therapy and 39% had a somewhat positive experience. Only six percent had a negative experience. It could be possible that your friend did not see a good therapist or that the therapist was not fit for your friend’s needs. Focus on the long-term benefits of therapy and give it a chance as you have the opportunity to have a more positive experience.

Therapy Associated with the Crazy Label

You may feel like you do not need therapy because therapy is for “crazy people.” You may think that your symptoms are not that bad because you get irritable sometimes or get sad sometimes. It is all about how you handle your anger and sadness. If you have huge fits of rage or hide in your room whenever you feel sad, you are not expressing your emotions in a healthy way. You could think that therapists have bigger problems to fix than the ones you have. Any problems that you have, though, are important as small problems can become bigger problems later if you do not do anything about them. 

Money

It can be expensive to go to therapy. But, there is such a thing as affordable treatment. There are therapists that offer service based on a sliding scale or there are community mental health centers that offer therapy at little to no cost. Also, remember that money should not be considered as what stops you from seeking help as if you sprained your ankle, you would see a doctor to fix it no matter what. The same emergence should be said for your mental health as not seeking help can lead to panic attacks or suicidal thoughts if you let the symptoms worsen.

Encouragement for Mental Health Treatment

More needs to be done to let others know how normal it is to be in treatment for your mental health. This can mean writing down the statistics of those who are struggling with the same mental illness you have or how many people in the country go to treatment. Government officials need to talk more about their mental health and encourage treatment. The responsibility should also fall on your local doctor’s offices to have pamphlets of information where to go for treatment as well as transportation options. By speaking comfortable about mental illness and being honest about your symptoms, you should be confident enough to pick up the phone and schedule your first therapy appointment. 

Located on the shore of Southern New Jersey, Enlightened Solutions is a recovery center that uses evidence-based therapies and holistic healing to treat addiction and mental illness. With the opportunity to learn about therapies that are keyed in to healing the human spirit and learning about new stress-reducing techniques centered around a 12-Step network, you will ensure a lasting recovery. For more information, please call us at 833-801-LIVE as we are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Opioid Addiction Terms To Know

You may be suffering from addiction or know someone who does. You may now be entering a new world of addiction recovery that you know nothing about. By knowing specific terms in relation to addiction recovery, you will understand these terms when spoken to by a medical professional at a rehab center or your therapist.

Agonist

An agonist is a chemical that binds to a receptor in the brain which is what is responsible for producing a biological response. The drugs that lead to addiction and the medications used for addiction recovery affect the opioid receptors in the brain.

Antagonist

An antagonist may seem like the villain of the story when it is actually the hero. Its job is to block opioids from the brain by attaching to the opioid receptors without activation. All of the mood-altering effects that drugs can cause to you are stopped because of antagonists by blocking agonists from opioid receptors. Examples include naltrexone and naloxone. 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

This therapy changes the way you think by challenging negative thoughts, improving how you regulate emotions, and help you to find healthy ways to cope. 

Dependence

Dependence is when the body starts to get used to having this particular drug constantly in your system that it adapts to it. When you stop taking that drug, uncomfortable physical symptoms occur. Dependence is different than addiction in that a dependence on something will not always bring serious negative consequences to you such as having a dependence to caffeine.

Detoxification

Detoxification is the process where you manage your severe withdrawal symptoms in a short-term, supervised setting. It is said that if you detox without medication-assisted treatment, this will increase your chance of relapse.

Illicit 

An illicit drug is when the drug is illegal or against the law. Examples include heroin, marijuana, and meth. While the decision to take an illicit drug for the first time is voluntary, an unexpected addiction can make it seem like it is impossible to stop. Treatment at an in-patient rehab center is best option to stop in order to learn healthy and productive coping skills to maintain sobriety and achieve a happy life.

Motivational Enhancement Therapy

Also known as motivational interviewing, this form of therapy encourages positive behavior to better help people explore their own feelings. You learn to develop empathy to learn how your actions affect others. You also learn to better extinguish reality from fiction in understanding the seriousness of your problem compared to thinking that it is no big deal. This therapy also teaches you to have a positive response on this therapy, realizing how their behaviors are impacting your goals and relationships, and believing in your ability to achieve your goals.

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome

This condition occurs where drugs that the mother takes passes onto the fetus during pregnancy. This will cause the baby to become drug dependent and experience withdrawal symptoms after birth. This will not mean that a baby will be born addicted to drugs. Neonatal abstinence syndrome can be treated as well as prevented if mothers decide to treat their addiction before and during pregnancy.

Opiates

While originally derived from the opium poppy, opiates are synthetically made. Opiates can go from legal drugs like fentanyl, codeine, and morphine to illegal drugs like heroin and opium. These drugs are depressants that affect the brain’s pleasure systems and affects the brain’s ability to take in pain. Because of their intensely calming effects, these painkillers have high rates of abuse that lead to addiction. 

Substance Use Disorder

Substance use disorder is when substance use continues to happen to you despite the negative consequences that come as a result. It can happen as a result of a person’s genes, the reaction of the drug, peer pressure, feeling emotional distress, mental illness, or environmental factors. There are several stage in substance use disorder such as experimenting, regular use, the negative consequences, and addiction. While substance abuse disorder may not be easy to treat, it is possible when you are in the good hands of trained professionals and you have a strong support group.

Taper

Tapering is when you gradually decrease the amount of medication you take instead of stopping it cold turkey. If you are feeling dependence on a drug but you know the dangers of stopping it completely, a slow reduction in dosage over a long period of time can decrease withdrawal symptoms.

Tolerance 

It is possible that when you have taken a particular drug for a long time, your body becomes so used to it that you no longer achieve the euphoric effects that you felt before you started. When someone feels like they are not achieving the desired effects that they want, they decide to increase doses compared to their initial slow doses that were able to previously achieve the effect. 

Withdrawal

Withdrawal is when you feel uncomfortable physical and psychological effects when you stop taking a drug that you are dependent on. It is a way of telling your brain that you cannot survive without the drugs so your body will react in a way that will make you think you need the drugs in order to survive. These symptoms may include headaches, shakiness, racing heart, nausea, sweating, muscle tension, anxiety, depression, etc. By controlling your withdrawal symptoms going to detox as your first step towards treatment, you will be able to get through your recovery much more easily.

Located on the shore of Southern New Jersey, Enlightened Solutions is a recovery center using evidence-based therapies and holistic healing to treat addiction and mental illness. With the opportunity to learn about therapies that are keyed in to healing the human spirit and learning about new stress reducing techniques centered around a 12 step network, you will be ensure a lasting recovery. For more information, please call us at 833-801-LIVE as we are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Thoughts People with Depression Often Have

People with depression tend to think thoughts that may seem nonsensical to others. They believe the worst in themselves and feel like no one cares about them. By understanding what people with depression are thinking, you will know how serious depression is and how important it is to get help. 

Everyone Hates Me

One thought you may have is that the people you love like your spouse, kids, and friends all secretly hate you. Even when others tell you that it is not true, you refuse to believe it. You feel that by constantly having to get reassurance from your loved ones if they love you, you fear you will come across as needy. You could also be distancing yourself off from people because you believe that there is no point in making any connections if no one will like you. It is best that you challenge your thoughts in this instance and ask yourself why you think no one will like you. It may help you to write them down. See if what you wrote down is the real truth or your mind playing games with you.

My Partner Is Better Off Without Me

You could be thinking about all of the depressive episodes that your partner has witnessed and helped you through. You know that there is no cure for depression and there is always a chance another episode can come. You may be feeling guilty for putting your partner through this and feel like you are burden to them. That they may be better off with someone who does not have a mental illness and not a lot of emotional baggage. This can also make you think if this person will have a happier life without you. It is important to have a nice, long conversation with your partner and ask him or her if they feel like your depressive episodes are burdening them and what you could do to make it easier for them. Your partner may offer you words of support and love that they are prepared to handle anything that comes along with your mental illness.

Not Good Enough

Another thought you may have is that nothing you do will be good enough for anyone. You could be obsessively thinking about what you should have said, where you failed, how you could have been better, and how you could do more. You may want to improve, but you feel like you do not have it in you. While you may be aware that there are no perfect people in the world, you still feel like a failure. It is important to realize that we all make mistakes. As long as you are trying your best, you are not a failure just because your plans are not working out. You can write down a list of ways you feel like you are failing and then write next to each failure what you have in your power to do to succeed. Do not be afraid to express your doubts to the people around you as they may be able to help you reach your goals.

People Are Using Me

You may be thinking that the people around you do not really like you. They are only being nice to you out of politeness, but talking horrible about you behind your back. The only time your loved ones will be nice to you is if they want something from you. Do not be quick to assume that your loved ones are using you because they have been distant from you unless they want a favor. If this is bothering you, you should express your thoughts to them and tell them to be honest with you about your relationship with them. 

Losing People Because of My Depression

Before you were diagnosed with depression, you probably had more energy and were more happy compared to when your mood changed. You could be afraid that people notice a loss in personality or that you are feeling dull. You feel that because you are not the same person, no one will want to be around you. It is important for you to talk to your loved ones and explain to them that depression is a mental illness that you have no control over. You have changes in your mood, but you are receiving treatment for it. If they can be patient with you, you will be able to have a successful recovery. 

I Am Afraid I Cannot Love Anyone Anymore

Depression has a tendency to make you feel drained and numb. You could be afraid that you will push everyone away by feeling numb. That you will lose the tendency to love anyone. You should know that there are mood stabilizers to help you be in a better mood. Love is something that you will never run out of. You just need to be in a better headspace to be able to feel that love which treatment will help do for you.

No One Will Notice My Struggle

The worst fear you could have is when you feel terrible but no one notices. It feels like you are drowning, but no one will save you because they think you are fine. Do not wait until someone notices your depression as the opportunity to get help. Admit to yourself and others that you need help for your depression before it gets worse. 

Located on the shore of Southern New Jersey, Enlightened Solutions is a recovery center using evidence-based therapies and holistic healing to treat addiction and mental illness. With the opportunity to learn about therapies that are keyed in to healing the human spirit and learning about new stress reducing techniques centered around a 12 step network, you will be ensure a lasting recovery. For more information, please call us at 833-801-LIVE as we are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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