Subscribe Feed (RSS)Introduction to Psychotherapy: Needing Help
November 29th, 2009 by admin | Filed under Uncategorized.If you found yourself stranded on a desert island you would have a problem, but if the mainland was in sight and you were a strong swimmer you could probably solve the problem yourself. If the mainland seemed far away and you were a weak swimmer you might attempt to solve the problem yourself, then decide you weren’t going to make it without help from someone else. But what if there were no mainland in sight, you could not swim, and your island started turning into quicksand? You would have a problem about as serious as problems can get. External help would be urgently required.
People whose emotional problems resemble the first situation are unlikely to need or seek psychotherapy. They can overcome their difficulties sufficiently to make a good life for themselves.
Many people who seek therapy have problems resembling the second situation. They have the basic ability to live but want help to strengthen that ability. They want to progress beyond the problems that are holding them back and improve the quality of their lives.
People whose problems resemble the third situation have acute problems and are more likely to be told by a doctor that they would benefit from therapy than to decide it for themselves. Not only are they in deep trouble but they lack the strength to get out of that trouble. They are concerned not so much about the quality of their lives, as about whether they are going to be able to continue to live at all.
Telling someone
Emotional problems often emerge in late adolescence and they can manifest themselves in all sorts of ways; anxiety, depression, phobias, eating disorders, drug or alcohol dependency, problems with relationships, suicidal feelings, schizophrenia, and a whole spectrum of physical ailments. What sufferers have in common is that something awful is happening to them which they can’t control and don’t understand.
If the problems are severe they take over our lives completely and we find ourselves moving into a nightmarish dimension which seems to put us in a different world to others. Everyone has their problems, perhaps to do with relationships, careers, or money, but our problems are of an entirely different order. The ordinary things which others take for granted, such as eating, socialising, having sex, and even having a sense of who we are can be so difficult as to be completely out of reach. We feel isolated. Our whole existence has gone wrong.
For many people even if they can admit to themselves that they have a problem there are still hurdles to overcome. There may be a feeling of shame at not being able to cope, a reluctance to talk to a stranger about matters which are deeply personal, a fear that admitting to one problem may lead to opening up a whole ‘can of worms’, and a reluctance to put themselves in a position to which a social stigma is attached.
Society in general is terribly ignorant not only about emotional problems but also about the role of emotional factors in everyday life. There is no reason why seeking help for emotional problems should not be as common and stigma-free as visiting a doctor or dentist.
mental ill-health is the most enduring health taboo, but yet one of the most commonly experienced health problems . . . one in four people in the UK will have a mental health problem this year, [Judi Clements, Mind's national director, in Read; Baker 1996].
One person in ten will receive psychiatric help at some time in their lives [Hill 1995] and around one in a hundred will suffer from schizophrenia. [Leff 1996]
For me the first hurdle was to admit to myself that something was wrong and I needed help. Telling a doctor what I was going through and discovering that it was a recognised medical condition was in itself a relief, and I was encouraged by the idea that the unpleasant things I’d been experiencing could be regarded as ’symptoms’ which could be treated and cured.
More information about psychotherapy is available at
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