Getting support when not at high suicide risk?

@TabbyPhoenix

Well, the only necessary thing to get help is to want help in the first place. As long as you want to be helped, it means you deserve to be helped. It's not because you don't wanna commit suicide that you like the position you're in right now. There are so many things in one's that can impact their life negatively or that they'd want to get rid of.

Not happy with who you are, how you are, wanting to change or simply understand why you're unhappy ? That's plenty enough to ask for help.

Even if your life seems perfectly good, if you feel like you need help with something in it, you deserve that help. And on the other hand, someone like me, who's entirely messed up but happy about it, isn't forced to seek help.

Ask you this question : are you entirely fine right now and could you continue living the life you live forever ?
If the answer isn't a definite, honest yes without a single drop of hesitation, then you can totally ask for support if you want.

When you say that what you typed out does not really sound normal, that's a factor, I think. Another factor is if whatever does not sound normal gets in the way of living the life you want to live. Those two factors together would suggest that seeking help would be appropriate.

You're right that suicide risk is a red flag, but you don't need a red flag in order to benefit from help. The great majority of people who seek help for mental and emotional difficulties are not at any risk of suicide.

Whether mental and emotional difficulties should be thought of as "mental illness" or not is a controversial question. It's convenient for academics and bureaucrats to have categories like that, but you don't have to think of yourself as mentally ill in order to benefit from help.

@TabbyPhoenix

@TabbyPhoenix

Hey Tabby!

Many people suffer from mental diseases and they don't seek help because they assume it 'has' to be this way. Mental diseases can be more or less severe. If you think about it, depression is essentially sadness and anxiety is fear, but when you're sad and not excited about anything, it could mean you're depressed. And when those feelings begin to take over your life it's time to do something about it.

I'm glad you've noticed that you can see things clearer once you write them down. :) It's very important to talk about the way you feel before it becomes too much for you and you lose control. I've talked to people who have been depressed all their life and it's much, much harder for them to get better than it would be for someone who took action from the very first symptoms.

Hello Tabby,

It is very common for people not to reach out for help because they feel that in order to recieve help they need to be a certain way and that they are not ill enough for help. That is a common misinterpretation. I am glad that once you typed how you were feeling out, that you realised that it is not 'normal' to feel that way. This is why it can be extremely beneficial to talk to others and to type out our feelings as we can come to realisations we would not have come to otherwise.

It is very brave of you to want help to be able to overcome these thoughts, and you definatly deserve to access help. It can be extremely difficult to get help depending on your location and circumstances, but as long as you are wanting help then it is definalty something that you should look into getting.

I definatly would encourage you to look into getting support for these thoughts even though they may not be active thoughts all the time. Passive thoughts are still influencing the way you think and feel.

I hope this has helped somewhat, and that you are able to recieve the support you would like :) Remember that 7 Cups is akways here if you want to talk anything through or you need some support.