It’s pretty hard work dealing with a toxic family – you have to navigate difficult relationships whilst still trying to recover from past trauma. Therapy can be really valuable and stop you from feeling alone. If you’re dealing with a difficult family dynamic, here are 18 reasons to see a psychologist.
Establish Personal Boundaries
According to Stanford University, boundaries “help us to build trust, safety, and respect in relationships.” One of the hardest things about having a toxic family is that boundaries can get blurred without you even realizing it. Don’t worry, though—therapy can help you get your boundaries back in check.
Develop Healthy Ways to Cope
Are you someone who sometimes falls back on unhealthy habits as a way to cope with stress? If you end up overeating, spending excessively, or gambling, these could all be coping strategies for dealing with a toxic family. Fortunately, seeing a therapist can help us manage stress in healthier ways.
Improve Your Communication
If you grew up in a toxic family, it’s pretty likely that you were never shown how to develop a healthy communication style. This can be hard to navigate as an adult, meaning you might get angry easily or feel super defensive when criticized.
Break the Toxic Cycle
The scary thing about growing up in a toxic household is how easily we can adopt these toxic traits ourselves and end up transferring them to our own family and children – without even realizing it. Going to therapy is, honestly, crucial for making sure that we don’t continue our family’s toxic cycle.
Build Your Self-Esteem
Who doesn’t want a stronger sense of self and better self-esteem? If you have toxic family members, chances are that your self-esteem has taken a hit over the years. But all hope isn’t lost – the charity Mind describes how therapy is a hugely valuable tool for gaining back lost confidence.
Process Your Trauma
Sadly, if you grew up in a toxic family, you could be processing past trauma. It’s shocking how much this can still affect us; therapy is a useful way to work through trauma so that it doesn’t continue to affect us.
Learn to Forgive
Oprah once said that forgiveness is when you can say “Thank you for that experience” instead of holding onto the pain. Of course, that’s much easier said than done! Even so, therapy can definitely help you ‘be more Oprah’ and learn to forgive.
Empower Yourself
Who doesn’t want to feel empowered in life? I think we’re all striving for this, but those who grew up in toxic families can sometimes lack self-confidence and empowerment. Gain back control over your life with the help of a therapist!
Work on Your Emotional Intelligence
We aren’t all born with a high level of emotional intelligence – but Harvard University has confirmed it can be learned! Those who have a toxic family are less likely to have built the skills that lead to high EI, but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost.
Build a Support Network
We’re told that we should be able to rely on our families, but sadly, this isn’t always true. Toxic families don’t offer a great support network – the best thing you can do is to try and build healthy connections outside of your immediate family, and therapy can provide some useful tools.
Manage Your Expectations
A heartbreaking thing about having a toxic family is how much they can let us down. Therapy can be so valuable in teaching us that our family members aren’t going to change – but we can change our expectations. This makes it easier to protect ourselves and form healthier relationships.
Interact on Your Own Terms
Seeing a therapist can help you learn ways to interact with your family in healthier ways, knowing when to walk away and what not to take to heart. This can be so important when dealing with toxic family members, as you’ve likely grown up believing that you have to communicate on their terms.
Gain Confidence in Distance
Seeing a therapist will help you navigate all the emotional twists and turns that come with choosing to distance yourself from toxic family members. Sometimes, this is the only way that you can live safely and healthily – but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Embrace Change
As Forbes puts it, “Sometimes it’s easier to “hate change” than to face our fears.” Unfortunately, when it comes to toxic families – avoiding change can mean staying stuck forever. Attending therapy can make it easier to embrace change and stop seeing it as something scary.
Improve Personal Growth
Dealing with a toxic family can have so many negative impacts on our ability to grow as individuals. Of course, it can be so hard to cut ties and break these cycles, but with the help of a therapist, you’ll be able to break free and grow in ways you never knew possible.
Find Peace
Toxic families are stressful families – there’s no avoiding it; the two go hand in hand. If you’re constantly exhausted from simply trying to manage your everyday family life, you’ll be missing out on the things you enjoy. Use therapy to regain balance, find some peace, and start living your best life.
Understand Mental Health Better
An incredible ‘bi-product’ of going to therapy is how it helps you understand other people, as well as yourself. Your toxic family members are likely dealing with their own mental health struggles. Of course, this doesn’t excuse their behavior – but understanding this can help you come to terms with how they’ve treated you.
Improve Future Relationships
Are you someone who has had a series of failed relationships? People who grew up around toxic families often jump from one relationship to another without finding anything that feels very fulfilling. Don’t make the mistake of giving up on relationships altogether – therapy could be the answer to finding happiness!
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