The great irrational fear that keeps people from seeking healing …

Have you ever known a person who was physically sick, and you encouraged them several times to go see a doctor but they always brushed aside your exhortations with excuses?

“I’m not that bad …”

“I’ll get over it soon …”

“I just need some rest …”

“There’s probably nothing the doctor can do about it …”

“If I’m still sick next week I’ll call the doctor …”

So go the excuses until they finally become so seriously ill they finally give in and make an appointment with their physician. Or worse, wind up in a hospital emergency room.

That’s similar to an irrational fear people feed themselves to keep from seeking healing for mental and emotional issues. That deeply distorted thought they buy into believing goes something like this:

“If I stop to heal, I’ll break!”

That irrational thought comes from having pushed themselves for so long to just keep going, just keep going, just keep going. They get to a point where every ounce of them feels like if they stopped just long enough to get some help, their life would fall apart.

There’s a few problems with such irrational thinking:

You’re already broken! Stopping to get the help you need won’t hurt you, it’s the beginning of getting what you need to help you.

Continuing in your broken state will only keep you broken. There are some challenges in life that you can “push through,” but a serious mental health issue or mental illness is not something you can “keep at bay” by pushing against it. Refusing to get help when you need it usually only prolongs — and often deepens — suffering.

You can make your brokenness your habit and really lose your way. You can live with your brokenness and push against getting help so long that your broken state becomes your habit. And when it becomes your habit, you can lose your way, having no idea how to get free. This can eventually drawn a person into a state of despair.

You’ll only begin to heal when you pause to sufficiently care for and treat the problem. Many people who finally show up in counseling offices arrive after suffering the same state of brokenness for years, even decades. By crossing the threshold of their therapist’s office, they begin to learn that they really won’t fall apart by making time and giving sufficient attention to healing; instead, they’ll finally begin a process of care they’ve needed all along. And by cooperating fully with an experienced, competent counselor, many people soon say, “I don’t know why I waited so long!”

Don’t waste another day making excuses. If you need help to change your life, go get it!

Scotty