How Do I Know If I Need Professional Psychological Help?
The number of people who decide to start a psychotherapy process is increasing ; This is a path of internal search whose objective is to look inward, connect with our emotions, know ourselves with kindness and acceptance, and grow as people. Start seeing the world with different eyes.
It is a process from which we can all benefit; Each of us has problems to solve, unfulfilled desires, unsatisfactory relationships and unfinished conflicts with someone (it can be several people).
This article is aimed at explaining basic criteria to realize if we are going through a psychological problem and it is most likely that we can no longer continue without it. the help of a professional in psychology or psychiatry.
The keys to knowing if I need professional psychological help
In my practice, there are four criteria that help me recognize if a patient is experiencing a pathological condition (a disorder): frequency, intensity, duration and degree of involvement.
I will take a depressive episode and its most common symptoms (sadness, irritability, lack of spirit, etc.) as an example to explain each of these criteria, so that it is more understandable and useful to the people who read it.
1. Frequency
The first criterion is frequency. Let’s say we feel irritable: how often do I have episodes of irritability? Is it every day? Is it 3 or 4 times a day?
There is a big difference between feeling in a bad mood, nagging and arguing from time to time than doing it daily; This is where we see the relevance that frequency takes on. Getting upset because things don’t go our way is perfectly healthy.
However, constantly having irritability and personal problems can be something we must take into account to know if we have a problem.
2. Duration
Likewise, we must pay attention to the duration of our symptoms; It is not the same to feel down for a couple of days as it is during the last 3 weeks; Just as it is not the same to feel sad for a couple of hours because we remember something that moved us than to be sad all day. The duration of the symptoms can tell us a lot about whether we have a condition or not.
3. Intensity
When I mention intensity, I mean the ghow we feel these emotions or how disturbing they can be. In this indicator, it is useful to pretend that we have a thermometer with which we are going to measure our emotions, and we will take 1 as the minimum, 5 or 6 as a midpoint and 10 as the maximum, in this way we will have greater awareness. of our emotions and their intensity, in addition to monitoring their progression as the days go by.
4. Degree of impact
In addition, The criterion to which I pay the most attention is the degree of affectation. Let’s take sadness again; If this allows us to work, study, enjoy some time with our family or friends, have the same motivation and desire to do things, and carry out our activities with the same degree of functionality to which we are accustomed, I would say that we do not have a big problem. However, if this sadness is so intense that it does not allow us to carry out our duties as usual and we have lost the desire, motivation and ease to fulfill them, then it could be stated that we need help.
Each of these criteria should not be taken separately ; intensity is not an indicator in itself of a psychological problem and sufficient reason to need professional help. Let’s continue with the same example: sadness needs a minimum period of duration, a set of recognizable symptoms, a significant intensity, a daily frequency of symptom appearance (several times a day) and a significant degree of affectation in order to be diagnosed as depression. It is important to pay attention to each of these criteria because, alone, they do not give us much information.
How to do it?
In reality, this is not so difficult, we just have to start by asking ourselves every day “how we are” and/or “how we feel” (but let’s not stop at “good”, “bad” or “more or less”, let’s be more specific) and From there our emotional state will become clearer.
Remember that if when doing this review you realize that you have very frequent, long-lasting, intense unpleasant emotions that affect your daily life, perhaps it is time to start your psychotherapy process; Don’t hesitate to consult a mental health professional.
