According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 1 in 5 American adults cope with a mental illness. This equated to 51.5 million adults in 2019 or 20.6% of the adult population.
The prevalence of mental illness was highest in adults between the ages of 18-25, 29.4% of them have a mental illness. Mental health issues also affect women at a higher rate than men, 24.5% vs. 16.3%.
Struggling with mental health is common as the data suggests. Reaching out to a mental health counselor can bring a lot of benefits to your life. Keep reading to learn more.
1. It Can Help Relieve Everyday Stress
Whether you suffer from a mental illness or not, stress affects everyone. Life's responsibilities can become overwhelming and the stress can prevent you from fully living your life. Stress can also lead to a host of other issues. We can also see everyday stress in children.
A mental health counselor can help you pinpoint some of your biggest stressors and find healthy ways to destress and cope with some of the issues your struggling with. Mental health counselors are also trained to work with young children who may be experiencing a range of everyday stress.
2. Counseling Can Help You Navigate Your Relationships
Since humans are innately social creatures, relationships are crucial to your life. Interactions with family, friends, and partners make up a big part of your day to day life.
Relationships can be a tricky terrain to navigate, however, as humans are all different and come with different life experiences. Attending mental health counseling can help you navigate any relationship issues you may be having.
Counseling can help you navigate a complicated relationship with a parent, help you find how to leave a toxic relationship, or how to balance work and parenting among other things.
3. It Can Help You With Multiple Mental Illnesses
As the data shows, mental illness affects many Americans across the country. These issues, like physical illnesses, shouldn't be ignored. Talking to a counselor can help you cope with your mental illness so you can get healing.
If you're suffering from depression, one of the most common mental illnesses, a counselor can provide you a safe space to process the many feelings you're experiencing.
Counselors can also help you cope with anxiety by helping you get to a point where you understand some of the emotions you're experiencing and make real progress. Check out some of the counseling services New York Therapy Placement Services has to offer.
4. Counseling Can Provide Life-Long Benefits
One of the greatest benefits of a counselor for mental health is that he or she can provide you therapy that can bring you life-long benefits. The work that you do in therapy will help you process issues from your past and present and it'll help you prepare for whatever you may face in the future.
Even if you eventually discontinue your treatment, getting to the root of the issues you're facing now will bring you peace and help you process any new issues with emotional knowledge.
5. You'll See Things in Another Perspective
While you might be asking yourself why you shouldn't just vent to friends and loved ones about your issues, a counselor can provide something that your family cannot. Especially if your issues are related to a family member or partner, a counselor will provide an unbiased look at what you're dealing with.
Your counselor can help you see the issue from a different perspective which can open up new ways of working through your problems.
6. Counseling Can Give You Necessary Life Skills
Your mental wellbeing is a critical part of living a healthy and balanced life. In counseling, you'll learn some of the skills necessary to thrive.
As humans, you aren't always equipped with the tools to navigate some of the difficulties you face because your parents or their parents weren't equipped with the tools they needed.
Counseling can help you learn some of these necessary skills so that you can apply them in your life and pass them down to the next generation. Setting goals, establishing boundaries, and balancing your work and personal life are some of the things you can build on in therapy.
7. It Can Help Alleviate the Physical Effects of Mental Health Issues
Trauma, stress, anxiety, and depression can all manifest in physically harrowing ways. Some of the physical symptoms of not getting help with some of these issues include headaches, sleeping problems, and stomach aches among other things.
Seeing a therapist and learning to manage these mental health issues can help alleviate some of these physical issues you can develop.
8. Counseling Can Help You Navigate Changes in Your Life
Change is hard for everyone. Transitional periods are so scary because they usher you into unknown places and situations.
Going through a lot of changes in your life can bring up stress and anxiety. The end of a relationship, moving to a new place, losing a family member or friend are all changes that can be difficult to navigate.
A trained counselor can help guide you towards coping mechanisms that make these transitions more manageable.
9. Counseling Can Change How Your Brain Works
One of the most unique benefits of therapy is that it can physically rewire your brain. Going to counseling has actually been proven to change the way you process self-referential thoughts and emotions.
One method therapists use to help change the way your brain works is cognitive behavior therapy. CBT pushes you to catch yourself in negative thought patterns and replace them with positive thoughts instead.
The Benefits of Speaking to a Mental Health Counselor Explained
There are many benefits to speaking to a mental health counselor. A counselor can help you cope with mental illnesses like anxiety and depression. They can also help you see your issues from another perspective and create goals for improvement.
We offer mental health and counseling services, as well as other services including ABA therapy and educational services. Any questions you may have about the services we offer. We'll be happy to help.
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