For many people that suffer from a mental health condition, it can be extremely frustrating when others try to convince you to “just feel happy”. There are a number of reasons why that may not work out.
Here are the best 10 that we could find.
1. Your brain is in control.
Many people don’t understand the very basic concept of mental health. Your brain is in control. Often there is a chemical imbalance or genetic predisposition to mental health problems. Take for example, depression.
There are 16 million adults in the United States that suffer from depression each given year. Depression isn’t something that you can “just get over” by deciding that you are done being sad.
There are chemicals in your brain that need to maintain a very delicate balance to help you feel happy.
Nearly 50% of people that experience depression symptoms don’t seek help. Symptoms of clinical depression include difficulty remembering things, lack of concentration, excessive sleeping or insomnia.
Losing interest in things you once enjoyed may also be a symptom of clinical depression.
For teens, 1 in 8 have depression (Source: Web MD). For this critical time in brain development, it is important to take mental health seriously and get the help that you need to feel better.
2. You need support.
Admitting that you need support is sometimes the hardest step to finding help with mental health problems.
It’s important to know that you are not alone, and that there are people that care enough to help you get better.
For people that have personality disorders, substance abuse problems or other behavioral health problems, therapy can be extremely beneficial.
Not everyone needs residential treatment for their mental health problems.
Finding outpatient therapy, group therapy and family therapy can be helpful. Residential treatment can be exceptionally effective for people that have problems with addiction and substance abuse, personality disorders like Borderline Personality Disorder or other behavioral health problems.
With the support of others, recovery is possible.
3. Your environment is impacting how you feel.
Another element that is difficult to control is your environment.
While some of the factors in mental health can be genetic, there are also environmental factors that can contribute to mental health.
If you are constantly surrounded by unhealthy things it can make it very difficult to change how you feel. Sometimes the people that are surrounding you can impact the way that you feel.
In situations like this, if it is negatively effecting your mental health and stability, finding solace is important. For those that have severe mental health problems, residential treatment is extremely helpful.
For people that struggle with substance abuse and addiction, environment is crucial to recovery.
There may be “triggers” that hit a particular nerve and lead to a relapse. With a change in environment, you can recognize the triggers and learn to find a more healthy solution to things that cause you stress in the environment.
In order to make these changes, you’ll need to learn skills and develop a more healthy sense of self.
This is exactly the goal of residential treatment. Learning skills in a healthy environment that is safe and surrounded by people that understand and support you, residential treatment can provide the right circumstances that lead to a successful recovery.
4. Your relationships are effecting how you feel.
When it comes to behaviors, relationships can often teach a number of healthy and unhealthy responses.
When we are young, the relationship that we develop with our caretakers helps us to develop our sense of self, the ability to trust ourselves and others and the attachment to people we love.
If the experiences you had in your childhood while you were developing these relationships were negative, or if you experienced abuse, the odds are that you may have developed some mental health problems along the way.
This is a lot more common than most people know.
Developing relationships is a very difficult task when you have difficulty regulating your emotions, handling stress or when you are angry.
These are all common obstacles that people with personality or behavioral disorders experience. When taught the right skills, in the right environment, these obstacles can be reduced or eliminated.
Learning to trust others and maintain healthy relationships is important for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
5. You’ve experience a significant trauma.
When you have experienced a significant trauma, loss or been involved in an accident, your brain responds in ways that are often beyond your control.
When these experiences happen, it is difficult to live life as you did before the event. In that case, you may find yourself experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety or other behavioral changes.
These are all normal responses to traumatic events and there is absolutely no shame in owning your feelings.
Many people go through a grieving process after trauma. Some people find support groups especially helpful while others may need more specialized care.
There are a variety of experiences that can be very difficult to understand and get passed. While the pain from trauma may stay with you for a long time, there are ways to help cope and learn to live a healthy life while you grieve.
Therapy, group therapy and individualized treatment is very effective and beneficial to ensure that your life can get back on track.
6. You have developed a dependency.
Alcohol and drugs are powerful substances. Many times when you have been using or drinking for a long time your body has developed a dependency on those substances.
If you “just quit” you could experience life threatening symptoms. Many drug treatment program and residential therapy programs offer a drug detox.
This is a healthy way to reduce the amount of substance in your body and teach your body to live without the substance.
For people that have abused substances, they often have a dual diagnosis or co-occurring mental health problem. One of the most common is Borderline Personality Disorder. In this case, treating the co-ocurring mental health condition is also paramount to recovery.
Dependency can occur at different times for different people.
It’s always advisable to seek medical attention.
With treatment programs like New Roads Behavioral Health, we employ a team of both psychological professionals and medical professionals to ensure our clients get the best care possible.
7. You’ve experienced multiple relapses.
Perhaps you’ve tried to go it alone… and you’ve relapse.
Maybe you’ve tried individual therapy… and you’ve relapse.
Your family checked you in to rehab… and you relapsed. In many cases, people that experience multiple relapses aren’t getting the treatment that they need.
Through the process of dual diagnosis, we can help discover other co-occurring mental health concerns and treat those disorders that would prevent you from maintaining recovery.
Another contributing factor to multiple relapses could be that the treatment you are receiving has not be properly researched and proven to be effective.
Evidenced based treatment by professionals in the field is effective but only when carried out correctly.
Maintaining up to date training on all the latest technology and receiving the correct support at your own pace is important to maintaining recovery.
This is one area that New Roads Behavioral Health takes very seriously. We invest a great deal into training and educating all of our staff members.
We keep all of our professionals up to date, we use evidenced based treatments and ensure that the level of care is at the highest quality possible.
8. There is more than one issue that needs resolved.
We’ve mentioned this in other points, but it deserves to be pointed out individually as well: dual diagnosis.
Many people that have personality disorders, addiction and substance abuse problems have other co-occurring mental health conditions.
The likelihood of having more than one mental health concern is high. Effectively treating all of the problems on the table can also lead to successful recovery and is one factor that can’t be completed without a professional on board.
If you want to “just get over” one issue and you are motivated enough, perhaps you’ll be successful.
But if you don’t know all of the reasons you feel the way that you feel or act the way you do, it may be a task too large to “go it alone”.
With the help from professionals, you can properly identify what you feel. Recovery is possible and you can get better.
9. You don’t know how to properly care for yourself.
Many people can’t “just get better” because they don’t have the education or skills needed to know how to really care for themselves. From hygiene to cooking, you need some education on how to be independent.
For people that have experienced a difficult childhood, they may not have been taught all of the skills needed to live on their own and be responsible.
With an underlying mental health condition, these concerns can be exacerbated to the point that they need a residential intervention to treat their condition and help them learn how to be independent again.
Many clients want to live the life of a young adult person, but they aren’t given the right tools to do so.
With the right education and treatment combined with a healthy community of support, those that have not learned how to be responsible for themselves can learn accountability.
10. I don’t have anything to get over, I’m just fine.
More often than not, clients have an extremely hard time facing facts.
Denial is a powerful mental state in which we lie to ourselves so much we can’t see the hand in front of our face.
Delusions and skewed reality are another symptom of mental health problems.
If you or some one you know have a difficult time accepting reality, there may be an underlying mental health condition that need to be addressed. In these cases, there may be more severe mental health conditions in play like schizophrenia.
Did you know that 1 in 100 people suffer from schizophrenia in the United States each year?
That’s nearly 2.4 million people!
Schizophrenia is a serious mental health condition that requires professional treatment. Delusions, voices, paranoia and a variety of other symptoms can make living with Schizophrenia dangerous for the person experiencing the symptoms and others around them.
While the stigma around this particular mental health condition can cause fear, those that treat their condition properly with professional assistance can lead very normal life styles with limited interventions on a day to day basis.
With these 10 reasons, learning why a mental health condition needs to be taken seriously can help save some one you love from a life lived in pain.
With a little hope and a lot of hard work, all people that live with a mental health condition can get better.
With programs like the ones at New Roads Behavioral Health, there are teams of professionals that are waiting to show you what life can look like when you live it in a healthy manner.
It can be a difficult process to identify what is causing you to feel the way you do. Often just asking for help is a great challenge. Don’t ever give up on your dreams, find the right help to make those dreams a reality.
Sources:
http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/detecting-depression?page=2
https://www.nami.org/NAMI/media/NAMI-Media/Infographics/GeneralMHFacts.pdf