Everyone experiences hard times in life and, some of these times might become overwhelming and draining dealing with for you. If you going through hard time right now, please bear in mind that YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Sometimes, it can be challenging to differentiate the normal life challenges and when to seek professional help. This implies that being aware of when to seek professional help from a counselor is not easy. It can be mind-boggling as well as confusing for you at the same time.

Nonetheless, this can change when you start with the basics. Whenever you experience feelings of being empty or down, professional help can be of great help. Therapy helps in improving or enhancing your general well-being.

Could you be wondering what, is your next step and who you need to talk to about some of the things you are thinking about or feeling?

Some of these feelings and, thoughts could be interfering with what you do or even disrupting your emotions. Additionally, this could also be affecting your life quality and the image you have about yourself.

Moreover, it could be interfering with your relationship with others as well as your productivity at your workplace. May be you, family and friends have noticed changes in your normal social, physical and mental health.

As a result, you might feel worried as well as lonely. This situation makes you need somebody you can confide in and talk to. Such an experience might drains your energy. It might also you experience fatigue, stressed as well as making it hard to concentrate and cope with your daily activities or routines.

Finally, what you feel is that there is too much on your plate than your mind can possibly handle. This, as a result, calls for a break. Your friends and family members at this time could have already made their own assumptions and judgements about you.

Others could be too busy to notice your struggles. Normally, in such a case you may start feeling neglected or that your friends and family are not in a position to take care of your needs. You may feel like you are handling the emotional distress alone.

No one may seem to get you or try to understand your world. You may also feel like no one seeks to understand your current situation and struggles.

This makes you feel confused, because you are not sure which is the right step to take next. Are you aware that at some point everybody needs to talk to somebody who can be trusted?

EVERYONE needs someone who can actively listen to thoughts and inner felt feelings with unconditional positive regard and empathy.

Ideally, sharing your feelings and what you could be going through in a peaceful and a non-judgmental environment can greatly make you feel and get better.

This uplifts your moods even in upsetting events that you could possibly be going through. Never worry all through this struggles because you are not going through them alone. Individuals in similar situations like you have gained help in structured programs.

They have also attained an enhanced overall state of well-being. Help is available.

BELOW ARE SOME OF POINTERS OR INDICATORS THAT  YOU MAY NOT BE WELL AND THAT YOU MIGHT BE IN NEED OF PROFFESIONL HELP.  

• Internally, you are having thoughts of harm yourself/ others and you happen to start giving out valuable possessions to friends and family. This comes alongside a sudden loss of interest in life, activities, and work.
• Development of an overwhelming compulsion to obtain and use drugs by any means available. This is when you feel an uncontrollable urge to engage in the use of drugs to come to terms with intolerable thoughts.
• Negligence of personal care, sleeping, eating and eventually total disregard for your personal hygiene.
• Experiencing feelings of being unhappy, numb, under-valued, and sad. This comes along with sleeping problems, stomach upsets and headaches that last more than a week.
• Your efforts to handle major challenges continue failing, being overwhelmed by details and demand. This is the inability to overcome stress.
• You feel the urge of isolating yourself from others. In most cases, your energy is concentrated in withdrawing from others and keeping together rather than enjoying life.
• The emotional instability that manifests itself through violence as well as various moods.
• Restlessness is also a common trait here that shows emotional instability. You will in most cases find yourself easily irritated by minor things.
• Feelings of being intense, having strained relationships, going through breakups, conflicting with colleagues at work, family, and friends.
• You overindulge in other people’s issues like becoming overly concerned and driven to control and fix other people’s problems.
• You can end up covering up or lying as well as providing excuses for somebody who is using drugs
• You have gone through a traumatizing incident that is shocking or an accident. It can be an event that cost you a job or a loved one through (death)

Note: in case you can relate to any 4 or more of the above situations or symptoms for a week or more, you should consider seeking professional help.

Areas that Counseling can help you or your loved ones include the following but are not limited to;

1. Loss and grief
2. Self-awareness
3. Goal setting, self-esteem, and assertiveness training among other things
4. Marriage, premarital, and family therapy
5. Life skill training which includes; problem-solving, Assertiveness decision-making skills and critical thinking
6. Addiction, anxiety and depression,
7. post-traumatic stress disorder
8. Understanding your emotions
9. Conflict resolutions
10. Family support programs codependency
11. Chronic illness such Addiction and other medical conditions
12. Clinical assessment and screening
13. Career counseling spiritual symptoms
14. Work-related stress
15. Crisis intervention – acute physical or emotional distress

So, how do you get well again?

Here are useful tips for recovering from what you are going through right now..

Speak out your feelings instead of letting them accumulate internally.

In case, someone or something is stealing away your peace, communicate such a concern in a respectful, open and polite manner.

Write down your to-do list.

Here you should analyze your responsibilities, daily tasks, and schedule

Keep away from hot-button topics.

In case things like politics and religion make you upset, cancel them completely stay away from such conversations. In case you happen to repeatedly discuss the same subject with similar people, excuse yourself when the topic comes up or stop bringing it up.

Focus your energy on positive things

Do not bother controlling the uncontrollable and be more assertive.

Do not take the backseat in your life.

Share your feelings by talking to a friend who is trustworthy. Otherwise, book an appointment with a therapist.

Learn how to separate your needs from your wants.

The nature of human behaviors or rather motivation are driven by needs. Look for something that you can do. Search for something that you will enjoy and one that will give you some sense of achievement.

Once you find it, create time to do it often. Set goals that are smart and set milestones. This means that you should break long-term goals into smaller goals.

Take a day at a time because success is process.

It cannot be attained within a single day. Think about the story of your life and imagine that a video was made out of it.

The video would have you as the main protagonist since the day of your birth to where you are now. Everything about you would be featured in this video.

This includes what you think and your emotions (how you felt about every situation and occurrence in your life). It would also feature your behavior (how you react to situations and what you do to handle them).

The video would have your daily routines and how you do things every single day. Thinking about your life story, would you love how you are progressing? Your own life requires you to be the drive. Hence, do not dare to take the back sit in your own life.

You should take charge and become the director of your life as well as happiness. Note, gaining insights on how to make decisions that are wise and healthy is among the most important skills in life.

It helps you weed out, a lot of problems and troubles that human being face every single day. Better still, you get to be part of the solution and therefore, enhance the quality of your life.

Final thoughts

From this article, you have learnt what is coming between you and your peace of mind. These are the same things that disrupt your happiness. The big question here is, are you ready to live your life to the fullest?

Do you have the will to take charge of your life? If yes, what is your plan to attain this? Breakthrough Counseling Center is a peaceful haven where we believe that you have the power to overcome the odds.

That’s the ability to bounce back to life, inert power to overcome the obstacles you are going through. We believe that you can live your life to the fullest. Your success is right ahead of you!

About the Author

Samuel Mburu ,

Accredited Counsellor