A summary of the most frequent reasons that lead people to go to the psychologist.

As reflected by the World Health Organization in 2016, one in four people suffers or will suffer from some type of mental disorder throughout their lives.

And it is that the human psyche is continually subjected to great tensions, environments and problematic situations that facilitate the appearance of states of great suffering or great difficulties or even inability to face the source of their discomfort. That is why the figure of the psychologist is will continue to be increasingly necessary worldwide, as a support figure with which to achieve the necessary improvement or treatment.

There are many reasons that can lead a person to require psychological help, but some of them are nevertheless more common than others. That is why throughout this article we will reflect several of the most common reasons for psychological consultation, as well as their characteristics and symptoms.

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The most common reasons for psychological consultation

Below we leave you with a total of sixteen of the most common reasons for a client or patient to go to the consultation of a psychologist or psychologist (some of them focused or specialized in certain areas). Among them we can find from mental disorders to complex situations difficult to manage but that do not necessarily include the existence of a disorder, such as those linked to interpersonal relationships.

There are also other problems such as personality disorders, but although many are relatively prevalent, they are not usually a reason for consultation.

Adaptive disorder

One of the most common reasons for consultation in the clinic, and that in reality more than a disorder refers to a response of great anxiety, stress or emotional distress greater than expected and affecting various levels of functionality in the day to day of the subject which derive from a clearly identifiable stressful situation or event, which is the origin of the alteration and which occurs within three months (generally before the month) after the event in question.

If the person manages to resolve this situation, the discomfort ends by disappearing within six months.

This is the case, for example, of people who have lost their jobs, who suffer job stress, who have emigrated and still do not feel the new home as such, who have separated, who suffer from mobbing or bullying, who have been evicted or who have been diagnosed with a disease.

These are painful situations in which they generate severe and / or continuous stress which surpasses the subject and which is not known how to cope, although they generally do not require psychological treatment beyond support and advice (unless complicate and develop some other type of alteration).

Depression

Major depression is the most prevalent mental disorder worldwide (along with anxiety-related disorders).

Depression is understood as a disorder in which for at least two weeks, continuously for most of the day of most days (and a context in which the self, the environment and the future are perceived in a way negative), a series of symptoms have been experienced, among which the presence of a sad state of mind and the anhedonia or loss of ability to feel pleasure in things that were previously satisfactory stand out (and at least one of them is necessarily present).

Other common symptoms are sleep problems (both insomnia and hypersomnia), loss of appetite and / or libido, difficulty concentrating, hopelessness, passivity, guilt or worthlessness, isolation and thoughts of death.

Anxiety: Panic Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder

As we have just indicated, anxiety is, together with depression (and generally in a comorbid manner), one of the most frequent mental disorders or problems. Many anxiety disorders exist, with panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder being some of the common ones.

The first of these is characterized by the presence of recurrent episodes of panic attacks in which physiological symptoms such as sweating, palpitations, chest pain, intestinal discomfort or feeling of suffocation appear, frequently together with the fear of dying from said symptoms, to go crazy or lose control and together with the feeling of derealization and depersonalization (having the feeling that the environment or the person itself seems to be unreal).

These attacks and the associated discomfort cause anxiety and panic to appear at the idea of ​​their recurrence or possible consequences.