Perhaps you're struggling with difficulties at work. Maybe you're co-workers are catty and undermining. Or your company just downsized and left you with more responsibilities than you can handle. Or perhaps you recently lost your job due to budget cuts or you got fired due to poor work performance.
Perhaps your loved one got very sick awhile ago, perhaps they died unexpectedly. Or perhaps they committed suicide and you're now left to face life without them.
Perhaps your anxiety is so bad you feel yourself avoiding certain places or people. Or maybe you worry so much that it seems to be taking a lot of your time and attention.
Perhaps you're a successful professional who has everything going for you... your career, a family, a home, friends, material and financial success. You have every reasons to be happy. But maybe you're REALLY not. Maybe you feel so overwhelmed with the responsibilities of life. Perhaps it seems you've been unhappy for a long time now... a little sad, and you're anxious for no reason. Maybe you're on the verge of going down, but you're too scared to admit it and get help. What will people think?
Perhaps you feel okay most of the time, but sometimes out of the blue you start to feel edgy, your heart starts pounding, your hands start sweating, and your legs feel like jelly. Maybe you feel like you're going to have a heart attack or perhaps you're certain something just awful is about to happen even though everything around you seems fine.
Perhaps you see yourself as inferior, ugly, less than or worthless, with little to offer. Perhaps you can't stand up for yourself and other's seem to frequently take advantage of you because you can't say no.
Perhaps you're preoccupied with your weight, body image, and/or food. Maybe if you could loose just ten more pounds or one more jean size. Perhaps others are concerned you've become 'too thin' but you think they're crazy. Obviously they're blind to the fat plumping out on your 110 pound body.
Perhaps you have a problem with anger and you realize your anger has gotten so out of control that you're hurting others more and more with your words, your loud voice, name calling, and mean insults. Perhaps it's gone even farther and you physically lost control, you've destroyed property, shoved or hit your family member. Or maybe even worse.
Perhaps you've struggled your whole life, for as young as you can remember, with not being able to concentrate and pay attention. Maybe you had a hard time remember things and you always seemed to lose stuff. Perhaps people thought you were lazy or messy and you thought... maybe they're right. After all you're room is always a mess and you did find it difficult to complete a lot of things. Maybe as a child and adolescent, you had trouble learning in school, seemed to have a lot of energy that would drive people crazy, or you would act before you spoke and later felt stupid, especially when people seemed to stay away or tease you. Perhaps some of this got better as you got to be an adult, but maybe it never completely went away and it still seems to affect you.
Perhaps you've left for college or just left home for the first time and are having trouble coping. Maybe the world seems more complicated or frightening than it did before and you're a lot overwhelmed. Perhaps you wonder, can I really do this?
Perhaps you are more productive than usual, have lots of energy, feel better than you ever have ... or may not, maybe you feel somewhat irritable, but your thoughts are quick like lightening, you don't need as much sleep as you did before, which is great because you can get more done!
Perhaps your marriage or relationship is falling apart before your eyes and you can't seem to make it stop. Maybe all those years together meant absolutely nothing, they never loved you, and it was all a lie. Perhaps you don't know who you are without them or how you'll survive on your own.
Perhaps you're having nightmares, you can't sleep. You feel anxious and depressed sometimes but your mood can switch quickly to anger. Perhaps you begin to avoid places that remind you of what happened. Sounds or smells can trigger a memory that makes you feel like you're reliving the past. Perhaps you just can't bear the pain and you find yourself sleeping more and drinking more. Perhaps it's been awhile and none if it's going away on its own.
Perhaps you feel ashamed of your eating habits. Maybe you secretly eat large amounts of food all at once because you just can't stop. Perhaps you throw up afterwards or use diuretics to get rid of the calories. Maybe you don't. Maybe you just sit there in shame and guilt and think what a weak, awful person you are.
Perhaps you are a caretaker. A caretaker of your kids, your spouse, your elderly parents, your addicted family member. You know how to take care of everyone but yourself. Perhaps you're exhausted, burned out, depressed. Or perhaps you, a once caring, compassionate person, could now care less about others. And maybe you could destroy the next person who walks through the door with your rage and resentment.
Perhaps you grew up in an alcoholic or abusive home. Or maybe your family was neither alcoholic or abusive, but they were just plain nuts. And now as an adult, you feel lost, bad about yourself, depressed a lot of the time, or just don't know how to make life work. Or perhaps worse, you begin to see the cycle repeat itself in your own family.
Perhaps you appear like you have the perfect life, a life most people would envy. Perhaps you may even try to convince yourself you really don't have problems or that yours certainly isn't as bad as what other people's are. Ha, in fact, you have it so good! But maybe underneath, you know. You know the problems you're hiding, the pain you're pretending not to have, the lies you're telling yourself and others. Perhaps you believe your life would be over if anyone ever really knew.
Perhaps you feel a little hopeless. Or a lot hopeless. And sad. Yeah, sad. Sometimes the kind of sad you have when you break out into tears frequently for no apparent reason. Or perhaps the sad like, I want to cry but it just won't come out and it sits on my chest like a heavy blanket of achy pain. Or maybe you don't feel sad, really, but you don't feel right. You're not yourself. You don't enjoy the things you used to and you have little oomph or motivation to get things done that need to get done. Oh, and perhaps you can't sleep normally and you're losing weight. And you can't keep track of things, and you feel anxious being around people for some reason.
Perhaps you started drinking too much, shopping too much, or being on the computer too much. Or maybe you're becoming slowly more preoccupied with sex, sexual things, and how much better it makes you feel. Or maybe sex isn't you're focus but you're having more sex because really you're concerned about keeping your relationship together and sex is what you're partner wants. Perhaps your significant other is your life and life without them would just hurt too much. And perhaps all of the above 'too much of' has also turned into 'too often' and it's really starting to cause problems at work, at home, your family, your relationships, your budget. And ugh, perhaps you're beginning to not like yourself so much and the things you do and the people you hurt, but sometimes those behaviors seem to have a life of their own. And besides, remember? They do make you feel better. The pain goes away, the depression eases, the anxiety diminishes. Ok, maybe it's just sometimes now.
Perhaps you can't regain trust in your spouse after you discover an affair they were having. Or maybe you feel trapped in an unhealthy relationship because financially you can't leave or it's the 'wrong' thing to do. Perhaps you have nowhere to go or you don't know how to cope with the unknown.
Perhaps you know you're excessively preoccupied with germs, are obsessed with neatness and order, or bizarre thoughts. And maybe you feel compelled to count and check things repeatedly, make things perfect, or avoid certain places, people or things because they are too dangerous. You know these thoughts and behaviors are irrational but you just can't stop. And who can you tell? People will think you're crazy.
Perhaps you have a partner who is abusive, addicted, or somehow irresponsible. Maybe you find the strength and courage to leave. Maybe you vow never to let it happen again. And you meet someone else and know this time it will be different. Perhaps you wake up one day and realize it's the same, and you wonder, how did this happen again?
Perhaps you know you don't have a problem, but your family and some of your friends insist that you do. They say you're generally impulsive, reckless, and thoughtless and that one of these days, you're going to hurt yourself or someone else. You seem oblivious to the ways your words and actions can create problems of all sizes. But you think, relax, you're so uptight. what's the big deal? Then maybe one day something bad really does happen and now you're left with some serious consequences. Perhaps your family is left with them too.
Or perhaps you feel like life's just too hard, you have no strength left, and life's just not worth living anymore. In fact, maybe you're even starting to think of painless ways to leave this God forsaken hell. Perhaps, you think you may just go through with it.