Writing Pieces

Therapy, an informative paper for my parents

Therapy is the treatment of mental or psychological disorders by psychological means, or treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder. Why do people need therapy? Let's discuss some reasons as we move ahead in order to understand exactly what is going on here.

There are multiple reasons why people actually need therapy. The first, and most general, being that they have problems they can't cope with alone. Therapy places people in a space where an outside source of skill is asking the person going about them and listening to what they have to say without judging, while still reaching for the core issue. Therapists work with the people seeing them in order to try and understand the deeper issues and use those issues to help work through them and find healing.

Seeing, though, how that is a general example of why therapy is needed for some people and can be very beneficial, let's move onto a more specific example. According to the ADAA (Anxiety and Depression Association of America), research shows that children between the ages of 13-18 with anxiety are at higher risk of poor performance in school. Not only would anxiety affect social situations, but it dissuades people with anxiety to feel safe enough to reach out for help when they need it on multiple occasions, be it with homework, financial situations, or even when they're facing personal issues. Not only that, but anxiety is known not only to come with depression but also to form into greater health issues down the line as well as other forms of mental illness.

Besides anxiety, depression is a huge factor as to why people will sometimes need therapy. First, let's bring up how depression starts. There are many reasons that cause someone depression, actually, ranging anywhere from isolation and loneliness to trauma as a child, to unhealthy relationships, and even to built-up stress. Now, why is therapy necessary for people who have depression? Despite what you may have heard about depression, it worsens over time. Symptoms at a young age that might've started out as mood swings, overeating, constant feelings of sadness or numbness, fatigue, and anger may later develop into thoughts of worthlessness, excessive guilt, thoughts of self-harm or violence against others, and memory loss. Not only can these symptoms affect daily life for a depressed person, but depression can also hurt them in the long run and harm their future. Besides this, depression can harm the body physically. Other symptoms of depression include an increased risk of heart disease, increased pain sensitivity, weakened immune system, and constricted blood vessels.

To sum it all up because this probably isn't getting anywhere in the first place, therapy is actually pretty useful, and mental illness can hurt people in more than just their minds. On the downside to all of this, therapy costs money. So yeah, that's an issue. I wrote this as a possible reason for my parents (since I don't know who's reading this) to hopefully consider the idea of sending me to therapy. Thank you for your time. If you have any more questions that aren't too personal, feel free to contact me.