The Essential Guide to Finding Help for Your Mental Health
Today is World Mental Health Day and this year the focus is on youth. So we think now is a good time to talk to all of you, young or not, to make sure you are getting the help you need.
What to do in a crisis situation
First, if you are in a crisis and are thinking about hurting yourself, the suicide prevention lifeline is available 24/7. It is not really one organization, but a network of small local groups. The phone number is 1-800-273-8255, but there are also options for online chat and TTY calls .
Or consider a crisis text line that means “any painful emotion that you need support to eliminate.” Typically, you will contact a volunteer consultant within five minutes, and if your carrier is AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, or Verizon, the service name will not appear on your bill. For other operators, it will be displayed under the number 741741. (There will be a fee for your regular data plan for sending text messages, but there will be no fee for using the service).
There are many other hotlines and support groups, many of which are specific to specific situations or demographics. (For example, the Trevor project for LGBTQ youth.) A list of these resources can be found here .
Where else to find help
Your health plan likely covers mental health services such as therapy and drugs, and depression testing should be done free of charge under the ACA (regardless of your deductible).
If, for whatever reason, you cannot access mental health care in this way, there are several apps and online services available that connect people with counselors or help you solve minor problems on your own. There are also inexpensive therapy options and support groups .
If you are in college
Schools often provide free or affordable counseling or other mental health resources, but if you are concerned about privacy (for example, your parents find out about it), you might be best off seeking help outside of campus. Check out our guide to student mental health privacy .
If you just need a few coping strategies
If you are already seeking professional help or do not think you are ready to take this step, having several coping strategies can help you feel less difficult in a difficult situation. Here are some of our tips for dealing with depression:
- How to Assess Your Daily Mental Health Using the Pain Scale
- How to recognize postpartum depression that doesn’t always look sad.
- How to help a friend who seems depressed
- How to feed yourself when you are depressed and cooking seems almost impossible
- How to do other simple things when you are depressed and even the simplest things start to seem impossible
And from anxiety:
- How to help teens cope with anxiety
- How to tell if you have postpartum anxiety or just “normal” new mom anxiety
- How to deal with worries about the state of the world and the likelihood of some really bad shit happening in the future
- What to do if social media is causing you social anxiety
- How to deal with social anxiety when you finally get out
- How to Develop a Daily Routine That Can Help You Deal With Anxiety
- And, more generally, how to deal with anxiety in everyday life.
If this all seems overwhelming, remember that you don’t need to read everything, and you don’t need to fix everything right now. Refer to the hotlines and text lines above if you are in a crisis, get the help you need, and work on the rest as you see fit. If your employer is accommodating, consider taking a mental health day to sort things out.