Hi there. This last year has taken quite a toll on everyone's mental health.

Even as vaccines are being rolled out and the light at the end of the tunnel is

just starting to peak out, many people are still in need of mental health care.

If you're hitting that pandemic wall or feel like you need some professional help,

we think this episode will help in that search. It was originally published right

before the pandemic, so while most therapy is virtual these days, these tips still

apply. Alright, here it is.

I'm just going to get you through the part that seems to be really hard for a lot of people.

Scheduling that first appointment. Why is it so hard exactly? Well, I think that a lot of people

feel like if they start therapy that means something's wrong with them and other people might

look at them differently. Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and author of the book, maybe you

should talk to someone. She says we tend to treat physical and emotional health very differently.

We wouldn't hesitate to go to the doctor if we needed stitches or pain medication,

but our thoughts and feelings, we feel like there's a hierarchy of pain and if our problem doesn't

feel big enough, we wait until we're basically having the equivalent of an emotional hard attack

before somebody will make that call. And those two AM calls to our best friends don't count.

They love you, but they need sleep. Also, there's a big difference between venting to our people

and talking to a professional. Yes, I know it's more familiar and comfortable to talk to loved ones.

They already know the backstory and they're on your side, but that's kind of the problem.

I think that there's something about going to a therapist that keeps people from doing it,

which is they kind of know in the back of their head that therapist is going to kind of call them

on the truth. I'm completely guilty of this by the way. I've used my friends and red wine and bad

...