NPR Life Kit: How to Start Therapy

Click here to access How to Start Therapy, by Lauren Hodges.

An excerpt:

Feeling anxious? Overwhelmed? Unhappy? Not sure what you're feeling at all? These might be signs that your "check engine" light is on and seeing a therapist could help.

If the mere thought of trying to find help seems overwhelming, you're not alone. Plenty of people put off seeking treatment or try to ignore symptoms because mental health is often easier to brush off as not urgent.

"We feel like there's a hierarchy of pain, and if our problem doesn't feel big enough, we wait until we're basically having the equivalent of an emotional heart attack before somebody will make that call," says Lori Gottlieb, a psychotherapist, advice columnist and author of the book Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.

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This story is adapted from an episode of Life Kit, NPR's podcast with tools to help you get it together. Listen to the podcast at the top of the page, or find it here.

On top of that, the process of researching and scheduling that first appointment can be an emotional burden on its own — but procrastinating often allows the problem to grow. If you wait until things get really bad, the harder it will be to address.