5 Signs You May Need Counseling

Everyone experiences times of more intense emotions from time to time, such as the top-of-the-world feeling of falling in love or getting a new job, crying at the loss of a pet, or feeling like laying on the horn or uttering some choice words when someone cuts you off in traffic.  After all, we are humans and have feelings. Yet, there are other times when our feelings and our actions may indicate a need for some professional counseling help.  If you or someone you care about notice any of the following, it might be a good time to reach out for help.

Experiencing Habit Changes: 

Sleep Patterns

• You are sleeping more or less than usual.

• You are not able to get out of bed, even when you have things to do.

• You wake up in the middle of the night and have difficulty getting back to sleep.

• You have trouble falling asleep.

• You have recurrent nightmares.

Eating Patterns

• You are eating more or less than usual.  

• You find yourself binge eating food.  

• You feel ashamed of and want to hide your eating patterns.

• You have lost your appetite.

• You eat for comfort.

Experiencing Behavior Changes:

Financial Patterns

You are acting more reckless than usual.

You are racking up debt.

You are spending money on things you can’t afford.

You are gambling away money you need for your bills.  

Substance Use

You are drinking more alcohol than you typically would.

You are unable to relax without some sort of drug or substance.

Your substance use is interfering with your work or relationships.

Experiencing Extremes in Your Actions

You are being reckless.

You are driving carelessly or faster than usual.

You are shouting at your kids or spouse and being more “on edge” than usual.

You are slamming doors, throwing things, threatening others, or storming around.

You are reacting more intensely than situations deserve.

Experiencing Emotional Extremes

You are feeling guilty or shameful.

You are crying more than usual or feeling sad much of the time.

You are anxious, fearful, or experiencing panic sensations. 

You are feeling numb or distant from life.

You feel that no one understands you.

You feel something is “off,” but you don’t know what.

Feeling Detached

You find yourself withdrawing from activities you used to enjoy.

You feel like you are “just going through the motions.” 

You feel like you are not attached to your body, are watching yourself from outside of your body, or notice that you or the things and people around you don’t seem “real.”

Thinking in Extremes

You are having thoughts of ending it all.

You fantasize about hurting yourself.

You are hearing voices or having thoughts that make you want to do something unpleasant or compel you to take actions you don’t want to take, think about things you find to be disturbing, or have intrusive and repetitive thoughts that you don’t want but can’t seem to figure out how to stop.

Reach Out

If you are experiencing any of the above, you may benefit by reaching out to a counselor.  Please contact us by calling: 541-275-0412 if you’d like to talk to someone about the signs and symptoms you’re having and see how we can help you to get back to feeling yourself again.

3 Ways Therapy Can Help You Get Unstuck and Why

You may be wondering how therapy can help you to heal and move into a life that would feel better, easier, and healthier.  While it takes work, therapy really can help you to get unstuck.

It has been studied and found that people often put up with signs and symptoms of mental health issue for approximately 11 years before seeking therapeutic help!  That is A LOT of time that could have been spent getting healing and being healthier.

Here are three ways that therapy can help you to get unstuck:

1) Therapy can help you to get all of the chatter inside your head out into the open in a safe space, and this can help you to process things clearer than you are able to when you are in the problem.

Why?  Therapists offer empathy and active listening, which is something so rare in our society today.  When we are actively attended to and heard, met with compassion and support, amazing things can happen that influence our internal meaning making.

In fact, it has been shown that more than 80% of the healing process is due to this unconditional positive regard and connected human relationship between the client and therapist.  Best of all, the therapist is ethically bound to keep everything in confidence so that what is said in the therapy room stays in the therapy room.

2) A therapist can offer you the tools and skills that they have learned to help you resolve your issues more quickly than you can do on your own.

Why? Your therapist has years of experience dealing with mental and emotional health issues as well as years of training to be able to provide you with solid counsel.  It’s like taking a car to a mechanic who can identify what a “ching, clunk, ching” sound is just by your sound effect description to them.  Therapists know what to listen for to help identify what might be underlying your pain or struggle so that precious time can be saved as they help you to hone in on what they are hearing you need.

3) Therapists can see blind spots that you don’t even know you have, and this can help you to be able to look at things from different vantage points and be able to get movement toward healing and problem solving much faster than if these blocks had not been revealed.

Why?  We each have our own personal worldview that has been cultivated over years of life experiences and influences.  It leads us to make assumptions as to what we are seeing, hearing, and experiencing as our brains try to categorize information it already believes it understands.  An outsider who is trained to listen for ways our thinking may be experiencing distortions can help to bring you a lot of movement that you may not have been able to glean and experience on your own.

You don’t have to go it alone.  Therapy is a powerful tool in your self-care and healthy self-management toolbox, but for it to work, you have to actually do it and use it.  

If we can be of help as you go about seeking to get the therapy you need, please let us know, and we can get you started: 541-275-0412