I haven’t talked about very personal matters on my blog before, but recently I have been using the website helpstopme.com, which allows you to complete online therapy on depression, helping someone with depression and anxiety.
I don’t want to go into the huge back story of where my depression started or how it came about, but the short story is I didn’t recognise my signs very well until my boyfriend pointed it out. I was emotional, rarely motivated and just didn’t like myself very much at all.
I went to the doctors, but stated that I didn’t want medication. These are personal reasons and I’m not saying to everyone don’t try medication - it may work for you however for me, I didn’t feel that I wanted to be on medication and instead wanted to try something different.
I was then referred to therapy. CBT therapy (which is the same on helpstopme.com) consists of hour long sessions, each week. I thought it helped at the time, and for a couple of months after I felt better. However, I didn’t think the therapy overall helped me. It was very scary talking to doctors and therapists about my depression - something I didn’t really understand myself and hadn’t even told my closest friends or family about.
That’s what I like most about helpstopme.com. It’s personal to you, and if you don’t want to talk about it to anyone you don’t have to. You just complete the tasks in your own time, and you can come back as regular as you like (or keep it to once a week).
The website feels very professional. I was a little nervous before using it about how it would help, but before you begin each module, you can watch a video where a professional therapist explains to you what’s in the module, how it links to depression and offering advice. I really liked these videos as they were short but very informative.
Each module allows you to complete it in your own time, and you can save your progress. This is good for some of the tasks that you should complete over a period of time. I would also recommend keeping a notepad with you when completing the modules, so you can write notes on the videos and maybe prepare your answers so you don’t forget what you’ve been doing each day. I didn’t do this at the beginning but started later on, and it definitely helped when I felt panicky and depressed, as I could look back at the notes instead of going back to the website each time.
If you are feeling low or depressed, or even anxious I would highly recommend taking the test and seeing if helpstopme could help you, as I do see improvement since I’ve been using it.
*I was given the product free to use for a review, however all the thoughts about the product are my own
