Most people want to make changes to better themselves. Sometime these actions are in pursuit of a higher goal, but many other times, more challenging too, are the efforts to simply regain the peace of mind and inner balance we once knew before a time of stress and trauma. People making life changes often face a number of actual or perceived barriers that interfere with success:
- Poor understanding about how to change: urban legends, myths, and outright distortions abound.
- Lack of skills needed to change: we really dont have any training or education in those area until its after the fact.
- Poor self-efficacy (belief in one’s capabilities): the very need to seek treatment we often perceive as a sign of weakness.
- Ambivalence (mixed feelings) about changing: when you are inside the fishbowl sometimes it’s hard to see how much help you need.
- Cost of change seems to outweigh the benefits: treatment is not cheap, in terms of money but perhaps more importantly, in terms of time.
- Lack of resources to make changes-finances, transportation, child care: it’s rare to see employers fully fund these kinds of expenditures, which is all the more reason why this issue need more attention.
- Fear of change-sometimes things get worse before they get better. For example, sometimes substance abusers lose relationships with drinking or drug buddies when they get sober
- Concern about what others will think: Peer pressure doesn’t end in high school; it seems to be something we carry with us forever, if we are not careful.
The New England Journal of Medicine published a report in 2004 asserting that military service members report unique factors for resistance to seeking mental health services:
- Access to mental health treatment
- Stigma associated with seeking mental health treatment-concern about how they will be perceived by leadership and peers
- Confidence in mental health treatment
But it’s not just service members returning from a warzone that experience these barriers; they are often internally imposed. We must learn to be sensitive to our friends and loved ones to look for these signs and help them overcome the false stigma of receiving qualified professional help. Our understanding and sensitivity can go a long way towards helping them take their medicine.