When do you need the help of a psychotherapist? Depression Depression is one of the most common complaints when contacting a psychotherapist. The fact is that a depressed state can have many different causes... Constant bad mood and loss of interest in life can be a consequence of “ordinary” life problems : not developing close relationships, unsatisfying work, loneliness. A person almost doesn’t notice the problems themselves, he’s “used to” them, but their consequence – a joyless state – turns out to be difficult to ignore. Depression can also be a “delayed” reaction to some traumatic event in life: divorce, separation, loss of a loved one or experienced violence. Some people experience almost no emotions during sad events: they are active, active and “control themselves.” Time passes , several months, or even several years, and a bad mood becomes a constant companion of a person. And a person does not always connect his depression with an event that happened quite a long time ago: “after all, everything is already behind me.” Some people experience depression without any external reasons. These are people of a depressed character and patients with depression. Of course, this depression also has reasons: they lie in a person’s early childhood or in biochemical disorders. Depending on the causes of depression and how severely it is experienced, a person may need the help of a psychologist, psychotherapist or psychiatrist. In cases of severe depression, effective results are often achieved by a combination of several types of treatment: psychopharmacological support in combination with psychotherapy, usually quite long. Dissatisfaction with life and dissatisfaction with oneself Often when people come to a psychotherapist, they say something like the following: “It seems to me that everything is normal in my life. In general, I am a prosperous person. But at the same time, for some reason I feel bad. And I can't understand why. And it is impossible to change this state. Sometimes this condition is called depression, sometimes a midlife crisis, or something else. But there is no causeless melancholy, and a psychotherapist can help you identify the problem, understand what exactly is causing you to feel dissatisfied with life and dissatisfied with yourself. And to solve the problem you have found, you may need further joint work with a psychotherapist. Problems People usually say: “He has problems, he needs to go to a psychologist.” And, perhaps, it does exist, but what does it mean? Perhaps, all the problems with which people turn to a psychotherapist can be divided into “external” problems, related to a person’s interactions with the surrounding world and other people, and “internal” problems, problems of a person’s interaction with himself. Both external and internal problems can be either permanent, accompanying a person for a long part of his life, or temporary, or associated with a specific event. For example, a persistent external problem may be repeated failures to establish close relationships, and a persistent internal problem may be a persistent tendency toward low mood. As a rule, people solve their problems without the participation of specialists. You are not happy with your boss, you change jobs. You realize that you are shy and go to a drama school. But it happens that your ability to solve your own problems fails. This can happen, for example, like this: You make a lot of efforts and tried many ways to achieve what you want, but no changes occur. Perhaps you simply did not accurately define the problem and therefore your efforts do not lead to the desired results. In this case, a specialist will help you “redefine” the problem and focus your efforts in the right direction. But perhaps the point is different: the problem is identified correctly, but all the efforts made are frustrated by... about Vasami. Something inside prevents you from achieving what you want. With the help of a psychologist, you can understand what is happening and help yourself not to interfere with yourself. Or so... It would seem that there is a problemresolved and all is well. But the trouble is, after some time... the same problem confronts you again. Maybe the characters have changed: you can’t find a common language with a different boss, or another woman is leaving you again. You change everything again, start over... and after a while the situation repeats itself again. Very often, when they come to a specialist, people say: “It feels like I’m moving in a vicious circle. The same situation in my life is repeated over and over again and I can’t do anything about it.” A psychotherapist can help you understand why these situations recur in your life. Sometimes this is enough to change an undesirable state of affairs. But, as a rule, in order to break the vicious circle, longer work is necessary. Life shocks In the life of every person, sometimes events occur that nothing can be done about. You can only accept and survive them, no matter how hard it may be. And continue to live on. But when they happen, sometimes it seems that it is impossible to survive them. The usual and previously always working methods of “bringing yourself back to normal” cease to work, work becomes more and more difficult every day, and a bad mood is met every morning, like a devoted dog. People vary greatly in their ability to cope with life's challenges. The same event for one is just a serious nuisance, for another it is something that can break or distort the whole subsequent life... The help of a psychologist or psychotherapist can make grief bearable, alleviate suffering, and stop blaming oneself for what happened. There are situations in which pain relief is the only way working with a psychotherapist can help. We are now talking about those events that man initially could not influence in any way. This is, for example, the death of a loved one, injury or serious illness that led to limitations in capabilities, or violence suffered. But such events also happen, the outcome of which a person is quite capable of influencing. These are, for example, divorce or separation from a partner, infidelity, business failure, or dismissal from a meaningful job. What happened can no longer be changed, but its study can help to understand what exactly led to such sad consequences. Such work will help a person be more effective in the future. Symptoms or psychosomatic problems This could be panic attacks or depression, high anxiety or phobia.. Or an illness that is completely real and brings a lot of suffering, but about which doctors say that it does not exist. The fact is that quite often, if a person is not aware of the problem for a long time and/or cannot solve it, the problem transforms into a symptom. A symptom is created by a person’s unconscious in order to hide his desires and problems from him and realize/resolve them in a more acceptable and accessible form for a person. The irony is that the symptoms usually create even bigger problems. And often, one symptom is superimposed on another, etc. The only way to get rid of a symptom is difficult and often lengthy psychological work to realize such a frightening truth about one’s own life. It is with the symptoms that psychiatrists work, prescribing drug treatment, that is, pills. In some cases, taking medications is necessary because the symptom is so tormenting and takes so much energy that any psychotherapeutic work is out of the question. But, quite often, medications are used by people not in order to create a stable basis for understanding what exactly caused such problems, but in the hope that the pills will help get rid of them forever. Alas. Since medications will not make the problem go away, the symptom will not go away either. Without working with a psychotherapist, he is doomed to return, and the person is doomed to another course of drugs. Anxiety States Everyone experiences anxiety or fear in certain life situations. However, for some people, anxiety becomes so persistent that it interferes with