According to statistics, one in every five American adults has a mental health condition. The cause for these conditions varies from one person to other.
In a time where medicine is eager to prescribe drugs for every health condition, psychotherapy stands as a remarkable exception. Psychotherapy, also known as “talk therapy” has been in use for over a century. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychology was using the technique in the 19th century to help his patients better understand themselves and their minds.
Available data shows that therapy is an effective medication for treating mental health conditions like anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, and post-traumatic disorder.
Here are the primary benefits of psychotherapy.
- Peace of Mind and Happiness
Finding relief from negative thoughts and emotions can be invigorating and exhilarating. As patients learn to confront these feelings healthily, this relief turns into a greater sense of happiness and serenity in the long run.
- Helps Deal with Depression
Depression is the most common mental health condition globally. It is more than normal sadness over a setback or a time of mourning the loss of a loved one. Depression is a misery that hinders one’s enjoyment of life.
Depression involves appetite changes, sleep problems, apathy, and feelings of guilt. Psychotherapy treatment for depression relies on trust and emotional support from a therapist.
An effective therapist offers a comfortable, safe, and private space for healing. With this, people suffering from depression can build new ways of reacting and thinking.
- Building Meaningful Relationships
Mental health conditions have a way of isolating people. Many people dealing with even mild forms of depression, anxiety, and other conditions have problems maintaining healthy relationships with their spouses, friends, and relatives. Well, trying to relate with others externally when you are dysfunctional internally is a challenge. But not anymore!
Psychotherapy helps one identify and correct the problems with our inner life as well as our physical relationships. This allows us to fix broken relationships or establish new and healthier ones.
- Helps Deal with Anxiety
Anxiety impacts over 18 percent of the adult population in the U.S. Nearly a half of people battling depression also experience some form of anxiety.
Don’t get twisted, anxiety is different from normal stress that people go through. It is an ongoing, chronic symptom. People battling this condition are always on the edge, expecting something bad will happen. As the result, one becomes over-cautious or avoidant.
Psychotherapy helps people dealing with anxiety regain control of their life. It does so by helping people identify the reasons for such anxious behaviors and make progress towards their goals.
- Boosts Confidence
We all have personal insecurity that we are dealing with. Well, psychological issues only work to diminish our confidence levels.
Talking to a mental health professional helps you identify and work through the causes of these insecurities. With this, it becomes easier to regain confidence by believing in yourself.
Conclusion
Mental health issues have an unfair stigma attached to them. And yes, most of these issues don’t require medications; in many cases, mental health drugs are accompanied by serious side effects. Even worse, doctors overprescribe these drugs. Therefore, psychotherapy is the best alternative for dealing with mental health issues.
