By Sakuni Weerasinghe
Perhaps the number one question we hear as psychologists is, ‘how can I help someone seek help?’. You might reflect on your social experiences and wonder how you could have prompted a friend or a family member or even a colleague at work to seek professional help for their psychosocial concerns. And, if you were to delve a little deeper into your own life, you might find out exactly why many of us are hesitant to do just that.
Often the notion of ‘seeking help’ carries a negative connotation, particularly when it comes to mental health. The societal imprint on us is so strong that we often wonder why we cannot resolve our own issues or why we have to talk to a stranger about it when we’re fed an idea of staying mum from a very young age. It is hard to break free from these patterns of keeping a stiff upper lip, but it is necessary.
Why is it necessary to seek professional help, you ask? Generally speaking, mental health affects our overall well-being, including our emotional, social, spiritual, and physical well-being. Life circumstances can put us off-balance from time to time. It can lead us to experience distress and affect our everyday functioning. Now, if we were to show signs of the flu that prevents us from carrying on our daily routine at school or work, we would promptly make an appointment with our general practitioner. However, when we are experiencing emotional distress from any psychosocial concern, we go back and forth on whether we actually need to talk to a mental health practitioner. With time, this distress builds up becoming more significant and begins to limit our functioning as symptoms of mental disorder start presenting themselves. The statistics as listed by the Mental Health Foundation, UK, speak for themselves:
- Mental health problems are one of the main contributors to the overall disease burden worldwide.
- Among the most prevalent conditions, major depression is considered the second leading cause of disability worldwide.
- It is estimated that 1 in 6 people in the past week experienced a common mental health problem.
- A Psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specializes in preventing, diagnosing, and treating mental illness. He or she is especially trained to differentiate mental health problems from other underlying medical conditions and is able to prescribe medication when deemed necessary.
- A Psychologist is trained in evaluating and treating mental and emotional disorders through treatments such as Psychodynamic Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and they are also capable of performing psychological testing.
- A Counsellor is trained in evaluating and treating psychosocial problems that cause distress such as anxiety and life changes by providing counselling such as through marriage and family counselling, substance abuse counselling among others.