“Pop a pill and everything will be alright!” This statement seems to be catching on really quickly. So many people blindly believe the concept that by taking a pill, the hurdles you face will mysteriously disappear. If you are one of these people and are suffering from a problem, say anxiety, your first option would be to run to a professional who is trained and allowed to prescribe medications. This individual is normally a physician or a nurse and no one’s first preference seems to be a psychologist. Moreover, no one opts for psychotherapy as a way to tackle the problems.

The effectiveness of medications depends on the degree of the problem for which you want to take them. For some psychological disorders, they are guaranteed to work and are even recommended. For others? Not quite, if studies are to be believed. For example, anti-depressants are found to be very beneficial for persons suffering from a severe case of depression. Individuals undergoing a mere case of mild depression will see for themselves that the anti-depressants have proved fruitless.

But medications don’t help you develop the skill set or coping mechanisms that you need to get through your predicaments. This will only result in you having to rely heavily on the medications. Psychotherapy, on the other hand, can help you develop skill sets and positive coping mechanisms that help you deal with any problems you currently face or will face in the future. The skills you develop in the sessions often remain with you for a very long time and whenever a similar problem crops up, you find yourself with the ability to tackle it.

The need to resort to medications depends on various factors. You don’t need them if you are able to function as a member of a society. In other words, if your social relationships as well as your roles at home, school, or office are going fairly well, then it would be recommended for you to steer clear of medication. Psychotherapy would be a more viable option. You probably do not require either of those and instead may find the correct answer lying in the need for a more balanced lifestyle that has the right mix of work, play, social activity, exercise, and healthy food!

In other cases, a person may require medication to make the initial contact with a psychologist. A good combination between medication and psychotherapy works ideally for addressing a critical mental disorder that is disruptive to your overall well-being.

Specific laws ensure that only trained and licensed psychologists are allowed to prescribe the necessary medication to a client. For attaining this license, psychologists must first receive a medical degree and later pass a national level examination.

One does not have to commit to years of psychotherapeutic sessions. The duration of the treatment can vary depending on several factors like the severity of the problem, its type or kind, goals of the patient, and speed of the recovery process among many others. For some who require a different and novel perspective on things, they may benefit from a single session of psychotherapy itself. For others, though, a couple of sessions would do the trick.

Even after a few sessions, those suffering from a more acute problem, like panic attacks, may find relief in the fact that they are making progress in their ability to tackle the problem better and that the coping strategies they have acquired are able to be utilized much better as the days pass by.

However, sometimes, the number of sessions keeps building up if a person is still unable to move ahead. Such cases usually involve those suffering from PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder), persons resistant to therapy., or those who are not able to find their purpose in life and seek therapy to solve existential issues. Staying committed to yourself and the psychotherapeutic sessions would eventually work out the solutions.

You’ll know when it is time to stop going for treatment. It is instinctive. The worries that initially led you to take up treatment would diminish immensely or you’ll finally find a breakthrough with a positive feedback that you have been waiting eagerly to hear. You, along with your psychologist, would finally then decide upon the last session, where your remarkable progress and achievement of personal goals are discussed.

However, for many, visits to the psychologist don’t just end with that. Because he or she knows of your history, you may still continue to go for regular check-ups. Some may even decide to go to report their progress and perhaps seek a fresh course of action on certain issues.

Just remember, the skills that you acquire during the treatment always need to be altered just a bit, depending on how you have to adapt to a new situation. Additionally, you don’t necessarily need to have a problem to revisit your psychologist. Take that particular session as a reinforcement of sorts to help you keep yourself motivated and one that will remind you of how far you have come.