How Technology Is Helping People With Mental Health Issues By Using Counselling At Home

We live in a society that is heavily dominated by technology. There is probably not one walk of life nowadays where technology doesn’t play a part in it. Of course, there are of advantages and disadvantages to that, but I’m going to tell you about one topic that I think technology has a dramatic and positive effect on in terms of helping people with mental health issues.

Throughout my entire life I’ve suffered from depression. When I was initially diagnosed I found that receiving help was difficult to find. You would need to visit your doctor and because there was so often a lack of understanding around depression, in fact so often it wasn’t even considered an illness, but if you got over the first hurdle with your doctor of accepting that you weren’t just down in the dumps and they accepted that you were depressed, you were so often just sent on your way with anti-depressants.

After years of suffering I realised that I needed more than just medication. I needed counselling alongside it. I needed someone to talk to. Someone that would listen and show me that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. As I said this was many years ago and thankfully time has helped me to move on.

With the expansion of the internet one thing that has popped up is telehealth and telemedicine. Put simply this is when you use technology to help people.

Telemedicine is a system that describes clinical services such as the diagnosis and monitoring of a given problem.

Telehealth includes preventive and care delivery to the patient.

When I was first diagnosed with depression the internet didn’t exist. It was still just a distant dream. However, if it had have been around I really do think that it would have made my life so much easier.

I really struggled with the stigma in those days of admitting that I suffered from depression. It took a massive effort for me to even book an appointment to see a doctor, let alone actually attend the appointment.

Nowadays you can go online and receive counselling. This can help you recover from any mental health issues you may have, and the best part is that it can be done from the comfort of your own home. This is perfect if you are suffering from depression, because at times it can stop you from being able to leave your home which has happened to me in the past.

Technology has helped people find the help they need all online. It can be easy to criticise technology. Saying that it’s bad for this, that or the other, but when it comes to mental health issues it has been a blessing. It has helped people such as myself with counselling being more easily available to help ease mental health issues.

There is no doubt that had the internet and online counselling been around when I was first diagnosed, I believe my journey to recovery would have been easier. Having the ability to receive counselling anytime I needed it, not just during doctors surgery hours would have been more than helpful.

Have you ever received counselling online for depression or other mental health issues? I would love to hear.

This is a collaborative post.