How do I know if I need professional psychological help?

The number of people who decide to start a psychotherapy process is increasing; This is an internal search path whose objective is to look within, connect with our emotions, know ourselves with kindness and acceptance, and grow as people. Begin to see the world with other eyes.

It is a process from which we can all benefit; each of us has problems to solve, unfulfilled desires, unsatisfactory relationships and unresolved conflicts with someone (they can be several people).

In this article, it is aimed at explaining basic criteria to realize if we are going through a psychological problem and it is most likely that we can no longer continue without the help of a professional in psychology or psychiatry.

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The keys to know if I need professional psychological help

In my practice, there are four criteria that help me recognize if a patient is going through a pathological picture (a disorder): frequency, intensity, duration and degree of involvement.

I will take a depressive episode and its most common symptoms (sadness, irritability, low mood, etc.) as example to explain each of these criteria, so that it is more understandable and useful to the people who use it. read.

1. Frequency

The first criterion is frequency. Let's say we feel irritable: how often do I have bouts of irritability? Is it every day? Is it 3 or 4 times a day?

There is a big difference between feeling in a bad mood, complaining and arguing from time to time than doing it daily; This is where we see the relevance of frequency. Getting upset because things don't go our way is perfectly healthy.

However, having constant irritability and personal problems can be something that we must take into account to know if we have a problem.

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2. Duration

In the same way, we must pay attention to the duration of our symptoms; It is not the same to feel a low a couple of days than during the last 3 weeks; just as it is not the same to feel sad for a couple of hours because we remember something that moved us than to be with that sadness all day. The duration of the symptoms can tell us a lot about whether we have a picture or not.

3. Intensity

When I mention the intensity, I mean the gdegree to which we feel these emotions or how disturbing they can be. In this indicator, it is useful to pretend that we have a thermometer with which we are going to measure our emotions, and we will take 1 as the minimum, 5 or 6 as a point average and 10 as the maximum, in this way we are becoming more aware of our emotions and their intensity, in addition to monitoring their progression over the years. days.

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4. Degree of affectation

In addition, The criterion to which I pay the most attention is the degree of affectation. Let's take sadness again; if it allows us to work, study, enjoy time with our family or friends, have the same motivation and desire to do the things, and carry out our activities with the same degree of functionality that we are used to, I would say that we do not have a great problem. However, if this sadness is so intense that it does not allow us to carry out our functions as usual and we have lost the desires, motivation and facility to fulfill them, then I could affirm that we need aid.

Each of these criteria should not be taken separately; the intensity is not an indicator by itself of a psychological problem and sufficient reason to need professional help. Let's continue with the same example: sadness needs a minimum duration, a set of recognizable symptoms, a significant intensity, a daily frequency of appearance of symptoms (several times a day) and a significant degree of involvement to be able to be diagnosed as depression. It is important to pay attention to each of these criteria because, alone, they do not give us much information.

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How to do it?

Actually, this is not that difficult, we just have to start by asking ourselves every day "how are we doing?" and/or "how we feel" (but let's not stop at "good", "bad" or "more or less", let's be more specific) and from there our emotional state will become clearer.

Remember that if, when doing this review, you realize that you have unpleasant emotions that are very frequent, lasting, intense and that affect your day to day, perhaps it is time to start your process of psychotherapy; do not hesitate to consult a mental health professional.