“Would you go for therapy if you knew it were free?” I got so many affirmative replies.
Traumatic childhoods, suppressed emotions, unspoken thoughts, toxic defense mechanisms, all these and you still think a lot of people don’t need therapy? The list is unending, the chaos is unending, and the help is so little or non-existent. We are typically in a setting that somewhat downplays the importance of therapy, of course several factors have contributed to the lack of recognition for the need to “just talk in a safe space”, but the more you hide something, the more revealing it tends to be, and this evidently shows in the issue of therapy.
Like people say, we are fighting lots of demons and sometimes, this fights begin to take a toll on us, and when that happens, help needs to be gotten. Studies show that half of all mental health conditions start by 14 years of age but most cases are undetected and untreated. When these issues are left untreated, they begin to cause serious havocs as we age.
I played “therapist” to someone one day, and it made me realize how much issues a lot of people have bottled up , and how much stress we cause for ourselves because we can’t express these emotions, it also made me understand how much the environment we find ourselves in shape us and mold certain characters in us.
The point of this is to explain to as many as possible about how much early childhood circumstances could adversely affect children and cause problems for them and their mental health when they are much older. According to WHO, many mental health problems emerge in late childhood and early adolescence. It explains the fact that these mental or emotional health issues some adults face did not just appear out of the blue, a lot them started from childhood, were left untreated, were probably seen as nothing, they began to grow in them, show in their characters and habits and in things they said, but were still left unrecognized, and when they became much older, it became more chaotic and boom!, it was all up in their faces.
That’s not all there is to it though, because there are adulthood challenges; for example, the need to gain financial independence, which in my own opinion is one of the major causes of depression for adults in this country, because there’s a high social standard that seems extremely mandatory to attain and at a stipulated time. This coupled with other issues could lead to serious mental and emotional issues which are rarely talked about, perhaps because they are seen as “normal”.
I believe it (therapy) should be something which is easily attained. Certain deaths wouldn’t have occurred, certain issues wouldn’t become so chaotic if we just don’t shut these people up, and encourage them to keep dying in silence”, when they can be provided with truly safe places, devoid of stress, filled with attention and a listening ear which won’t cost one an arm and a leg.
We all need therapy; to finally come out of our shells, to finally talk about those things no one has heard, to stop reliving those events that changed our life so badly, to heal, outgrow certain bad characters, to grow, to form better relationships with people and be happier people.
But why is therapy so expensive or at least unattainable by a large number of people? It’s quite expensive that it basically discourages one from even taking up that choice, the cost may not be so outrageous, but a lot of people would probably not just want to spend that much on “therapy”, while some people just truly can’t afford that luxury.
THE PROBLEM
The problem is that therapy in this country has just not been talked about or emphasized on enough, for something that is of great help, it has not been actively talked about enough. That is the problem I see.
The question here though is; do you agree that you need therapy? That you need a lot of healing, that you need to get out of that depression, that traumatic experience, Do you feel like you need to talk in “a safe space”?
Now, would you go for therapy if it were free, offline, that is; online, and anonymous?
WOULD YOU, AND WHY?
