Signs it may be time to talk to a counsellor
By Garima Agarwal, A Safe Place 4 min read
Almost nobody arrives at counselling because of one dramatic event. Far more often people arrive after months of telling themselves that what they are feeling is not serious enough to bother anyone with. If you have been quietly wondering whether you should talk to someone, that wondering is usually worth listening to.
Signs people tend to explain away
- The same worry loops through your head every day and you cannot put it down
- Sleep has changed — you lie awake, or you sleep and still wake up tired
- Small things at work or at home set off a reaction that feels much bigger than the trigger
- You have started avoiding people, calls or places that you used to be fine with
- You feel flat about things you used to enjoy
- You are holding a decision — a relationship, a course, a job — and going in circles with it
- You are the person everyone leans on, and there is nobody you can say the hard things to
- You keep saying you are fine and you can hear that you do not mean it
A gentle self-check
Instead of asking whether your difficulty is big enough, try three simpler questions. Has this been going on for a few weeks rather than a few days? Is it starting to affect how you sleep, eat, work or relate to people? And have the things that usually help you — a break, a friend, time — stopped working the way they used to? Two yeses are a reasonable reason to book a session.
Nothing here is a diagnosis, and there is no threshold you have to cross to deserve support. Counselling is also useful when life is functioning and something inside it still feels heavy.
When it needs more than counselling
If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, or you feel unsafe in your home, please treat that as urgent. Contact local emergency services or a 24x7 helpline right away, and tell one person near you. Counselling can sit alongside that, but it should not be the only thing holding you.
If you want to talk
Sessions at A Safe Place are online, 10 AM – 6 PM, by appointment. You can write to garima.vd1503@gmail.com or call +91 73195 30355. You do not have to arrive with your problem neatly described — working out what is actually going on is part of the work.