May 22, 20214 min read

What is Therapy & Benefits of Going For It

Updated: May 23, 2021

Written by Niyati Singh

Introduction

With the virus coming into our lives, the need for proper mental health has been highlighted. With it, there are few things that did exist in the past but right now they are being highlighted. Some of the few terms we have come across in the last year have been therapy, counseling, etc.

But what actually is therapy?

What Is Therapy?

So therapy is kind of a treatment or maybe a safe space where people are relieved from their emotional distress and what they are feeling. It is a closed space and the talks between the therapist and the person stays within the room.

Now therapy can be taken for many reasons and it differs from people to people. Around one in 8 adults receive therapy according to the mental health foundation. That’s around 12.1%. If we go through the statistics we see there is an increased number in people going for therapy especially after the virus came into the picture. According to WHO, with the entrance of virus and quarantines, there has been a major impact on people’s routine leading to loneliness, depression, and alcoholism.

*see graph below

These stats show the increased cases of mental health in comparison with before COVID-19 came and after COVID-19. It is important for us to take care of our mental health. In this case, a lot of people are considering going for therapy, but they are hesitant thinking what will be the use. So let’s talk about the benefits of therapy.

Benefits of Therapy

1. Improved Relationships:

When we go through our own problems it makes it harder to be able to provide time for our relationships. These problems take a toll on us leading to mood swings, loss of patience, insomnia, anger bursts, etc. These are small problems which, once brought together as a whole, weigh down a person. When these mountains of problems stand in front of us we usually snap at the person present in front of us.

The person in front of us is a human too with emotions. So they, too feel bad and when this behavior continues for a long time, it results in ugly fights. That’s where a therapist comes into play. A therapist tries to listen to us without any judgment. This helps us get the weight off our heart. We feel calm. They also provide us with solutions to our problems. Once we are free of our problems all the problems fade away leading us to be in a good mood. This provides us with a proper time to improve the relationships we had spoiled unknowingly.

2. A Better Understanding of Others' Perspectives:

Therapy also provides with an improved perspective to other’s talks. When we go for therapy our therapist usually try to look at things from our perspective and his/her perspective providing us a two way to look at one thing. This exercise helps us in general to understand others' perspectives because by looking at our therapist’s perspective, we learn the art of looking at other’s perspectives. This improves the way we react to situation.

Ex: Your parents didn’t let you attend a party. Before going for therapy there is a higher percentage that you will get angry. But once you go to therapy you try to look it at from their perspective and then react.

3. Increased Productivity:

When we have problems going on in our lives we find it harder to focus on the work in front of us. But with therapy sessions we are letting go the burden on ourselves and are getting solid solutions curated just for us. This also helps solve the problems because once we see a bit of improvement in our life, we become happier. With happiness, the dopamine hormone is released which is not only is responsible for a good mood, but also motivation. With therapy, we tend to live a happier life and be happy with ourselves.

4. Bad Mental Health:

Bad mental health not only takes a toll on our mental health but also on our physical health. As and when we are stressed out we get headaches, mouth aches and ulcers. With prolonged stress the chances of heart diseases go up at an all-time high.

Therefore, it is important for us to have proper mental health. When we visit therapists who are usually trained about how to handle human emotions, we too get some basic knowledge about that. Our therapist provides us with a way to tackle a particular emotion. They introduce us to good habits that can be life-changing. With problems getting solved, we tend to go back to proper sleep timings and have a look at what we are eating. These habits help fight headaches, ulcers and reduce the chance of heart diseases.

5. Tackling Curveballs

Life is not life without issues and problems. During the time we are on earth there is no chance that curveballs won’t come. There is a possibility that they can be big or small but they will come whether we like it or not. Therapy equips you with enough knowledge to fight the future curveballs. It makes you self-dependent to fight your curveballs. Therapy teaches you how to throw out the curveballs.

6. Healthy Coping Mechanism:

With a breakup we tend to binge on 10 boxes of ice-cream without giving a second thought or maybe lying on the bed the whole day. All of us have unhealthy coping mechanism that do more harm than you or I can see. Therefore, it is important for us to learn healthy ways to cope up with our stress. It is definitely important for us to learn better ways to cope. When we go to therapies they ask us to project these negative emotions in a positive place, like maybe going for a walk or writing it down or drawing and a lot more. The best part is this advice is curated to meet your personal needs.

Conclusion

Message from the author: Hopefully, I have given you enough reasons to go for therapy. In case you are considering going for therapy but are not sure, I would ask you to go for it without a second thought. It will be worth it. Hope you have a great day ahead.