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How to Speak to a Professional About Your Mental Health (Blog)

Speaking to a professional (such as a teacher or school counsellor) about your mental health can feel frightening, even before you start talking. But speaking in an environment like this is one of the best ways to begin working through your issues and start trying to find solutions for them. To help you properly benefit from these discussions, there are many steps you can take.

One of the first steps is being sure you’re properly prepared. You might only get a brief window to talk with this person, so it’s best for you to feel calm and collected before going in to make the most of your time there. Before speaking with a professional there are many steps you can take to prepare:

  • Think about how you’d feel most comfortable to talk to this person. Of course, speaking in person can always be a good idea, but you could also do it over the phone or through email.
  • Give yourself plenty of time to arrive. This will help prevent you feeling stressed about being late and give you more time to talk.
  • Plan what you want to talk about, perhaps by taking notes to bring with you.
  • Ask for help preparing from someone you trust. This could involve discussing what you want to say with them, or having them walk with you to where you’re planning to meet
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Of course, whilst all this can help you, it’s easy to still feel nervous and unprepared. You may find yourself panicking partway through, or forgetting exactly what you want to say. But it’s important you try and stay calm throughout, and there’s a lot of things you can do to help with this and support you in your discussion:

  • Be honest and open about your struggles. It can be difficult to do this if you’re not entirely familiar with the person, but they’ll need a clear idea of what you’re experiencing to point you towards the right solutions.
  • Start by focusing on small issues. This will help prevent you from getting overwhelmed by touching on heavier topics right from the start.
    • From here you can start to build up  your trust with this person until you’re comfortable to touch on the larger issues.
  • If there’s something you need explained or repeated, or something you want to know about specifically, feel free to ask throughout. After all, this is to help you understand yourself better.

Most importantly, you should try and have realistic goals and expectations about this. One talk isn’t going to resolve everything, but it can be the first step towards that. Try thinking about what you want to get from this in the short-term, such as a clearer understanding of what you’re struggling with, or ideas about where to go next. From there, you can use what you discuss to start working towards your long-term goals.

Written by Joe Perks 

For Lyfeproof UK