Reasons to start therapy

1. Your emotions are getting in the way of your life.
If being sad or anxious or angry or apathetic has caused you to miss opportunities, slack at work, or hurt your relationships, you might consider talking to a therapist about it. We all have passing moods, but if the moods don’t pass, there are tools that can help us cope with them so they don’t impact our well-being.

2. You’re crippled by fear of something.
Most of our fears don’t get in the way of our day-to-day lives. We can all carry on being afraid of spiders and cliffs and snakes. But fears of driving, social engagements, flying, failing, and others can dramatically affect how you live your life. If your fear is dictating how you live, therapy can help.


3. You’ve suffered from trauma.
Many people assume that a person needs to have PTSD to warrant therapy for trauma, but this isn’t true. Any trauma, whether recent or long ago, can be worked through with a therapist. If the idea of even remembering your trauma is painful, telling your therapist in advance will help them create a plan for moving past that trauma.


4. You’re experiencing grief.
Grief can be an excruciatingly lonely experience, but therapy can help. It’s also important to remember we experience grief for many more reasons than just illness and death. Grief applies to the end of a friendship, a divorce, losing your home, a lost pet, and more. Having someone to talk to, who will listen for as long as you need, can be incredibly valuable.


5. You’re feeling regularly fatigued.
Fatigue can be due to many issues, so see a doctor to rule out physical concerns, but often regular fatigue can be a symptom of depression. If life has lost its luster, and you’re regularly more interested in staying in bed, talk to a therapist.


6. You no longer look forward to hobbies.
Similar to fatigue, if you feel disconnected from the activities that used to bring you joy, it might be more than just getting bored — it could be related to depression. And, if this symptom turns out to be unrelated to depression, a therapist can help you think through what hobbies might be worth a shot next.


7. You’re having regular headaches and stomach issues.
Stress often can be seen in physical symptoms in the body. It’s known to cause headaches, neck and shoulder pain, stomachaches, nausea, and other gastrointestinal health problems. If your medical doctor can’t find anything wrong, and usual pain medicine and antacids aren’t doing the trick, a therapist can help get to the bottom of what’s bothering you and create a plan to manage it.


8. You’re using substances to cope with feelings.
If your relationship with substances like drugs, alcohol, or even food has reached a point where you use them regularly to numb feelings, or you are often looking forward to the next time you can, a therapist can help. Numbing feelings are a temporary and usually unhealthy solution. Addressing feelings and learning the tools to cope with them is a safer long-term plan.


9. Your performance is falling at work.
If the quality of your work is suffering, or you’re having difficulty focusing, it could be an emotional or mental issue. If the issue is that you hate your job, a therapist can be the support you need to figure out what to do next to make short-term and long-term positive changes.


10. You’re struggling in your relationships.
All relationships experience ups and downs, and while we often rely on our friends or family to help us navigate these issues, sometimes these issues are with those people. Sometimes, we’d just prefer an outside opinion. And sometimes, we just want to complain. That’s okay! Therapy can be a great solution for dealing with intimacy problems, communication breakdowns, and more.


11. You want to strengthen your marriage.
A relationship doesn’t need to be falling apart to benefit from therapy. Across a lifetime, many things change in marriage from careers to kids to homes to finances. Building an arsenal of tools to help you communicate during times of change can help make a great marriage even better.


12. You want to be a better parent.
Parenting is hard! And there’s no shame in wanting to be a better parent to your child. It’s very common for parents to struggle with new parenthood, deal with their child being bullied or bullying, or relate to a teen. A therapist can help assure you that these things are normal and give you a safe place to vent.


13. You want to prepare for a career change.
Not everyone has the luxury of having an incredible mentor. Sometimes, when we want to make a big shift, or even just go for the big promotion, it helps to have someone to talk to. We can experience fear about putting ourselves out there and taking financial risks, but getting better acquainted with those fears can help us overcome them.


14. You want to have a better relationship with yourself.
Therapy can just be an hour a week for yourself. Improving our self-awareness can improve everything in our lives. Just having someone to talk to about your life, your choices, and your feelings can be a revelatory experience. It can help you be more courageous, more thoughtful, and more authentically you.


15. You could just use someone to talk to.
At the end of the day, you don’t need to fit into a checkbox of “reasons you should go to therapy.” If you’re interested in seeing a therapist, even if for no obvious reason at all, it is totally okay to do so.