You don't have to collapse before you... | Georgia Telehealth Therapy

Have you ever felt um like you have to be just the absolute worst version of yourself before you're allowed to ask someone for help? Oh wow. Yeah. Like you need a permission slip to be tired. Exactly. Like you need to hit some invisible catastrophic rock bottom before your exhaustion is actually you know considered valid. So uh welcome to the deep dive. Glad to be here. Today we are exploring a profoundly shifting concept and it is centered entirely around our cultural relationship with exhaustion. It's a huge topic. It really is. Our mission today is to examine the stories we tell ourselves about what it means to be tired and more importantly who actually gets the privilege

of resting. Right. Who gets to say I'm done for the day? Exactly. And the source material we're looking at is an excerpt from the closing piece of a three-part conversation. It's titled uh the permission to rest proactive care for high functioning burnout. Such a great title, right? And just for context, this comes from coping and healing counseling or CHC. They're a teaalth therapy practice based out of Georgia. And you know, just to catch people up, the previous two parts of this conversation covered what high functioning burnout actually looks like in the wild. And uh it's five most common signs. Yeah. But today's focus is purely on this final piece, giving oneself permission to actually rest.

What's fascinating here is that the source material points out the core thesis right away. You do not have to collapse before you rest. Say that again because I feel like people need to hear it. I mean it. You don't have to reach real burnout to deserve care. Yeah. They explicitly name this like this story we've been told as a total lie. the idea that you have to push through until you literally crack and only then uh only then are you allowed to slow down. Right. It's this myth of earned rest. Yes. The text is very clear. It states you do not have to be diagnosed with something serious to deserve care. Nor do you have

to wait until you physically like cannot get out of bed. But so many of us do, right? We just keep going. Oh, absolutely. And the text emphasizes that buying into this false story is deeply expensive. Deeply expensive. I love how they phrase that. Yeah. And they break it down into four specific ways. Emotionally, relationally, financially, and in terms of your long-term physical health. Okay, let's unpack this because it's like we treat our mental health like a car's engine. Oh, that's a good way to look at it, right? Instead of taking it in for an oil change when the check engine light comes on, we uh we actively choose to wait until the engine literally explodes

on the highway. Just strands us completely. Exactly. We wait until we are stranded before we think we've earned a trip to the mechanic. That analogy is so spot-on and it explains exactly why this narrative exists. How so? Well, the text targets this specific psychological hurdle. It's that internal voice that says, "But I am still functioning. I haven't earned this yet. I'm still functioning. I hear that so much." Right? Because you can still send an email or make dinner. You think you're fine. Yeah, it's so insidious to believe that rest is just a, you know, a transactional reward for breaking. It's like suffering is the only currency we accept. So, because the cost of waiting until

we crack is so deeply expensive, like we just talked about, we kind of logically have to shift to the alternative. We do. If we shouldn't wait for a breakdown, what is the actual intended arc of therapy? Like, what is the point? Well, the source states the whole point of therapy is to interrupt that arc earlier. can interrupt the arc. Yeah. To slow down before the collapse. It's a preventative tool, right? To catch the engine light early. Exactly. Therapy is actually meant to help you learn what your body has been trying to tell you for the last 6 months. 6 months. That means your body knows way before your brain does. Oh, always. The physical signs

are there way earlier. The text also says something beautiful here. It says, "Therapy is a place to put down some of what you've been carrying alone." I love that line. Me, too. It's just a simple but honestly radical invitation. It says therapy is allowed to be early. It's allowed to be preventative. Yeah. And it's allowed to be for people who from the outside, you know, they look completely fine, which is the hardest part for the high functioning crowd to accept, right? But practically speaking, when you look fine to the outside world, how do you actually overcome the guilt of taking up resources? That's the million-dollar question. I mean, doesn't the phrase high functioning inherently make

people feel like they just uh they don't deserve the time of a mental health professional? Like someone else needs it more? If we connect this to the bigger picture, that is exactly what this text is addressing. Is it? Yeah. This piece was written specifically to speak directly to that guilty internal voice. Oh wow. The text asserts very strongly that you don't have to earn rest by breaking first. Seeking care early isn't taking a resource from someone else. It's actually the opposite, right? Yes. You're preventing yourself from becoming an emergency later. Here's where it gets really interesting. Okay. Lay it on me. Having established this whole philosophy of preventative care, giving oneself permission to rest. The

discussion in the source actually turns to what this looks like in practice. The logistics. Yes. The logistics. The source gives a literal blueprint of an organization built to facilitate this exact kind of accessible proactive support. Right. Coping and healing counseling. Yeah. CHC. Yeah. And I noticed how the physical structure of CHC completely mirrors the philosophical message of their text. Have you mean? Well, they are a 100% teleaalth practice. Oh, right. IPA compliant, of course. But they serve all 159 counties in Georgia. That is massive. It is. And by making it fully tellahalth, they are eliminating the friction that usually stops exhausted people from getting help. Because if someone is already on the verge of burnout,

right? Navigating a really complex healthc care maze is terrible. Oh, it's the worst. Finding parking, sitting in traffic. Exactly. Commuting to an office is often the very thing that pushes them into full collapse. Yeah. I'm too tired to go to therapy about being tired. Right. So, this model, the teleahalth model, it interrupts the arc logistically, not just clinically. And they have the team for it, too. They employ a diverse, culturally competent team of over 15 licensed therapists. That's great. What kind of therapists? We're talking licensed clinical social workers, professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, the whole spectrum. So, they can really handle a wide variety of needs. Yeah. They offer individual, couples, family, and even

teen therapy for ages 13 and up. Oh, and don't forget life coaching, right? Life coaching, too. And their specialties perfectly align with preventing that collapse we talked about. Like what specifically? Burnout, stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, and PTSD, grief, and relationship issues. All the heavy hitters that lead to collapse. Exactly. But here's the most crucial part. I think they actively remove financial barriers, which is huge because we mentioned burnout is financially expensive, right? So for Medicaid patients, CHC has a $0 co-pay. Wait, really? Zero dollars. Zero dollars. And they accept a bunch of commercial insuranceances, too. Etna, Sigma, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Humanana. That covers a lot of people. It does. And with those

sessions usually just costs like $30 to $40. That completely changes the game for proactive care. It really does. It makes it so you don't have to stress about paying for the help you need for your stress. And if someone wants to reach out to them, how do they do it? Uh, so their phone number is 40-4832102. Nice. And they have a website, right? Yep. cheat theapy.com. Or you can just shoot them an email at supportcheat theapy.com. That's incredibly accessible. Right. So, pulling it all together, what does this mean for you, the listener? Yeah. What's the takeaway here? Well, I want you to think about what your body has been trying to tell you for the

last 6 months. Are you pushing through exactly? Are you waiting for a breakdown to justify taking a break? Because you don't have to be the worst version of yourself before someone is allowed to help. You really don't. And that brings up a final lingering thought from the text that I think is just profound. Oh, what is it? The text mentions that therapy helps uh untangle the part of you that thinks I am only valuable if I am producing from the part of you that just is. Wow. Untangle your value from your production. Right. So, here is a final challenge for you. If you stop producing entirely tomorrow, like completely stopped. Yeah. If you stripped away

your job title, your output, your endless to-do list, who is the person that just is? That is a scary question for a lot of people. It is. But more importantly, do you know how to care for that person before they break? Man, that is something to really sit with. Uh, thank you for joining us on this deep dive. It's been a great conversation. Take care of yourselves and, uh, remember to listen to that check engine light. We'll see you next time.