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But what if you’ve noticed a worrisome change in your mood, sleep patterns, work habits, drinking or relationships? What if you start thinking about suicide? These are times when you should be asking for help, sooner rather than later.

But for many people the act of going to a company employee assistance program (EAP) or making an appointment with a therapist looks like an insurmountable hurdle. Help is available for mental as well as physical health, but too few seek out the former: Although an estimated 23 percent of Americans will experience a mental disorder in any given year, almost half do not seek treatment.

Therapists cite several reasons for this failure to ask for help, such as the enduring social stigma of mental illness, a belief that seeking help for an illness such as depression is a sign of weakness, fear of the therapy process and, in the workplace, a fear that seeking help might derail a career. What’s your barrier to seeking help?

Myth of mental illness as a sign of weakness
Advances in education and research have improved our understanding of mental illnesses, and the success of treatments. Experts now believe that mental illnesses are probably the result of chemical imbalances in the brain. A person with such an imbalance may inherit the condition, or it could be brought on by extreme stress or substance abuse.

Mental illnesses can cause many types of behaviors such as extreme sadness and irritability, and in more severe cases, hallucinations and total withdrawal. It is important for you to know that these behaviors cannot be changed at will.

The good news is that people with mental illnesses do recover and resume normal activities when they receive proper support and treatment.

Fear that seeking help may harm one’s career
Employees are protected by strict rules, both as to privacy and non-discrimination. If you don’t know these rules, ask your employer. If your company offers an EAP, take advantage of the opportunity to talk confidentially with a professional who can help you sort through your concerns, and direct you to appropriate resources.

Your employer would much rather you get the help you need—for your sake and the company’s. For example, research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003 estimates that depression alone costs companies $31 billion in lost productivity.

Seeking help is best done early, before problems have snowballed into a crisis. In other words, the best time to get help is when one may not be convinced yet that help is absolutely necessary, and before a supervisor might notice a problem.

Misconceptions about the therapy process
Some may be held back by false notions about the therapy process, says Tina Tessina, PhD, a licensed psychotherapist based in Long Beach, Calif. “People come into my counseling office looking so scared, as if I’m going to put thumbscrews on them,” Tessina says. One element of their fear is a phenomenon she calls “autophobia,”—literally, “fear of self.” Tessina says people are afraid of their own emotions, and of what might happen if they acknowledge them. They think, “If I ever start crying, I’ll never stop. If I let myself really express my anger, I’ll do real damage,” she says.

Tessina says some people also fear being told they’re “crazy.” Patricia A. Farrell, PhD, a licensed psychologist and author says they may even worry about involuntary confinement. “They think, ‘If I tell anybody that I have this panic disorder or I’m depressed, they’ll think I’m crazy and they’ll put me in a hospital.’” In fact, says Farrell, people are confined against their will only in extreme cases. One effect of managed care has been to make therapy as short, non-disruptive and efficient as possible.

Farrell says patients also might have fears about the therapy sessions themselves. Typical therapy in an EAP, for example, isn’t a deep, uncomfortable probe into childhood traumas and inner thoughts. It’s more like a short series of problem-solving sessions, focused on particular behaviors or thought patterns and learning techniques to change them. “A lot of therapy is two people working together for the best outcome for that individual,” she says. “It’s more like learning how to do things a little better … You go out and you try something and you come back to discuss it.”

This type of therapy works well on problems that haven’t yet become job- or life-threatening crises. All the more reason to seek help early and nip trouble in the bud.

The danger of waiting
“Usually by the time something is noticeable at work so that management says you have to go in and do something about it, it’s usually pretty bad,” says Tessina. Farrell says it’s time to get help “when something is causing disruption in your life on an almost daily basis … and it seems to have gone on for a couple of weeks.”

And with suicide, of course, the risk of not getting help in time is far worse than a lost job or relationship. Farrell says planning for suicide is a red alert. Anytime a person starts hoarding medication, thinking about what they would do with people out of the house, or thinking about a suicidal act in other concrete terms, “you better have an immediate plan to get help.”

Telling another person about your problem is the necessary first step to solving it, and maybe even saving your life.

Resources
National Institute for Mental Health
Publications for the public
www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/index.cfm

It Ends With You: Grow Up and Out of Dysfunction by Tina Tessina, PhD. New Page, 2003.

How to Be Your Own Therapist by Patricia A. Farrell, PhD. McGraw-Hill, 2002.

By Tom Gray
© 2004 Achieve Solutions