Day Ten - Seeking professional help?

* You Have Trouble Functioning Day-to-Day – If you can’t even get out of the bed, or you have trouble just getting through your day, it’s imperative that you seek help. Sometimes it’s lack of sleep due to obsessing about everything that happened, and sometimes it’s a chemical imbalance that requires meds. It’s okay to get help.

 

* You Are Experiencing Mood Swings That Others Notice – If you go back and forth from happy, sad, miserable, angry and so on, there is likely a serious problem with your hormone balance or vitamin levels. Seek medical assistance. Ask your primary care physician or go to an urgent care if you don’t have one and tell them what you’re experiencing.

 

* You Are Feeling Uncharacteristically Sad Every Day – Depression is more than sadness so it’s hard to explain this, but if you have a black or down mood almost all the time, you could be suffering from depression. Sometimes depression is situational but sometimes it’s not. It’s best for a professional to diagnose.

 

* You Feel Uncontrollably Anxious Most of the Time – Anxiety is a very dangerous feeling to keep around. It can cause panic attacks. It can cause you to avoid situations that can challenge you and can stop your life in its tracks. If you are experiencing these feelings, it may be anxiety but it can also be post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Both should be treated professionally when they’re not something you can get a handle on yourself.

 

* You Obsess over Past Infractions of Your Own or Others – If you find yourself remunerating over issues that happened in the past that you did or that others did, it’s important that you understand this won’t solve the problem. If you can’t stop, you may need professional help putting things in perspective.

 

* You Have Trouble Getting Past a Traumatic Event – When something traumatic happens to us, it’s normal to re-experience it and have trouble getting through it to a point. If you find that after a few weeks you’re not getting past it, you may need someone to help you who is a professional and has experience with what happened to you.

 

* You Think about Suicide – It’s probably true that most people think about suicide from time to time, but most people don’t think of it in terms of doing it and it’s usually just a passing thought. If you find yourself planning it, thinking of it constantly, and not getting over it, then you probably need to talk to someone professionally. Suicide is a permanent problem to something that is truly a temporary problem most of the time.

 

* You Overuse/Misuse Drugs, Alcohol, and/or Food – If you can’t control yourself around any substance or activity such as gambling, sex, or something like that, you probably need professional help. Using any of these things incorrectly is dangerous to your health and your life.

 

* Your Fears Interfere with Living Your Life – If you find that your fears are keeping you from experiencing and living your life fully, you may need help dealing with them. Maybe you have something like agoraphobia that can be dealt with, and it’s not something you need to do alone.

 

If you have any one of these issues that you can’t seem to get under control on your own, it’s imperative that you seek professional help and guidance. Sometimes events can turn into serious chemical imbalances that require medication and professional psychiatry intervention to get through them. That doesn’t mean you’re not a strong person; it just means that you need that extra assistance to overcome it. By seeking help, you’re showing how strong you truly are and it’s an amazingly brave and healthy first step.