In modern society, high levels of stress lead many people to depression and may even influence them to take their own lives. People often tend to focus on suicide prevention rather than treating suicidal attempts. This is important because treatments of suicidal attempts may significantly reduce the probability of any such attempts in the future and would also help the affected individuals and their family members to ‘move on’ from the situation. It is often quite a challenge for individuals to come forward and acknowledge their battle with depression or anxiety because they may not treat it as an illness.

When a person is experiencing anxiety, the first negative reinforcement is to escape from the problems in order to get rid of anxiety from the system. But such a measure also makes future attempts to flee from the problems more likely (). I know it from personal experiences because I suffered from severe anxiety and was unable to sleep for weeks. Whenever I encountered relationship problems, I refused to acknowledge them and pretended like nothing happened. This only allowed the problems to accumulate over time and I eventually ended up with an act of parasuicide. My personal experiences reveal it is very hard for people to be honest with themselves as they have already decided to escape from their problems. Thus, when something like this happens, the first priority should be to seek the most effective treatment.

After being released from the hospital, the long term affects caught up to me. I didn’t only suffer from anxiety but also depression, as predicted by Freud’s psychodynamic theory (). I had broken up with my boyfriend with whom I had deep emotional attachment and I lost all appetite for social activities with my friends. All I wanted to do was stay home, watch TV, and pretend as if nothing happened. Whenever I went out, it was hard for me to tackle the topic of my relationship and, especially, face friends who also knew my ex-boyfriend. During this time, I was also seeing a general psychologist who conducted psychological autopsy on me. She would ask me questions not only about love life but also family situations. She also recommended me to go and see a psychiatrist in case I may need medications. I had never thought I may have a mental illness which could require medications, thus, I was hesitant to return to the psychologist after that even though the psychologist had been recommended by the hospital. My personal experiences tell me psychologists play an important role in patients’ recovery because if they conclude a patient is “abnormal”, the patient may start imposing negative cognitive schemas on himself. A patient may realize he can never escape the situation.

There are different types of treatment for psychological disorders, one of which is cognitive- behavioral therapy. This therapy influences individuals to think and behave differently, resulting in improved mood. The second psychologist I went to was a CBT and she proved to be very helpful to me. We developed plans as to how I should act if something similar develops again. She also taught me not to put all eggs in one basket so that if I lose a boyfriend, I also lose my mental attachment at the same time. Her long term therapy cured me from my sleeping and eating disorders. My social life also improved as I made new friends and returned to school. This is why I believe treatment is more important than prevention because a successful treatment helps patients recover what they had unknowingly lost to the psychological disorder.