Why seek therapy?

Life can be really hard these days. Seeing the picture perfect and curated lives of your friends and loved ones splashed across social media is sometimes hard to digest. You may ask yourself, "why don't I have that" or "what am I doing wrong?" Intellectually you know that it's just what they want to present to the world, but emotionally you can't help but feel sad and lonely. 

We have become a society that is constantly being bombarded by stimuli - phones ringing and beeping, notifications of emails, traffic, and the list goes on and on. We have forgotten how to just be. How to be present in the moment, how to focus on the minute you have in front of you. We are worried about how we may have offended someone 30 minutes ago or how we will confront a co worker tomorrow. All of this stimuli and focus on the past and future causes us to lose sight of the very moment we have and that we actually have control over. 

Learning mindfulness and meditation is one of many ways to get yourself back to the now. When we can be present, it often allows us to decide which thoughts we want to hang on to and which ones we don't find helpful. 

Therapy can be a great way to explore what it is that is keeping you back from feeling good or a place to resolve tough memories from old experiences or traumas. In a study done back in 2011, Dr. D Russell Crane found that professional counselors have about an 85.5% success rate with clients experiencing mood disorders, adjustment issues, PTSD, or anxiety. I don't think that those numbers are too shabby; maybe that can motivate you to finally seek out the help you deserve.

More information on this study can be found here: http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/individual-family-therapies-cost-effectiveness-1110112/