Where to Begin: First Steps Before Psychotherapy

When someone decides to seek help, there's a temptation to just "go and talk" — to a psychologist, psychotherapist, or coach. But Dr. Saulitis insists: first you need to understand what is actually happening to you. Without establishing the fact — the state of your neurons, your body — any work on thoughts and behavior is done blindly.

Diagnosis First, Everything Else After

The doctor compares this to a fracture: prevention and training are excellent, but if the leg is broken, you first need a cast. The same here: restore homeostasis, relieve the "spinning thoughts" if needed — and only then move further.

"If the leg is broken, you first need a cast, and first you have to heal it."

A diagnosis is made by a specialist physician — this is the first and mandatory step. Today teams of specialists work together, but the starting point is one: understand the state, rather than immediately searching for a "theory" to fit your distress.

Why "Just Talking" Is Working Blind

Psychologists and psychotherapists work with behavior and thinking, influencing them. But it's important to be honest with yourself: an informational phenomenon produces changes in the neuron, in the synapse — and this affects neuroplasticity. If you don't see the state the brain is in, you have no idea what you're doing to it: "to warm it up or to cool it down."

"If you don't see the state it's in, you have no idea what you're doing to it."

From the outside different states may look the same, while the causes differ: burnout, attention deficit, age, stress. You need to act on the cause itself. Without understanding how the brain works, any approaches and theories turn into an intellectualization of the problem.

Same Symptom, Different Causes

The doctor gives the example of nostalgia: the brain is under stress, tired — too many informational stimuli in too short a time, it cannot process everything, and then turning to the past "switches on." Outwardly similar manifestations can have entirely different roots — which is why diagnosis comes first.

What Shapes the State

A person's state and manifestations are shaped by several layers: genetics (how the neurons work), epigenetics (how the environment acts on them), learning and the state of neuroplasticity — whether there was psychotraumatization in childhood or, on the contrary, supportive experience, what skills formed, and what environment they live in. "You become like those you keep company with."

Practice: Your First Steps

1. Don't start by searching for a "theory to fit yourself" — start with the question: what state are my brain and body in?
2. See a specialist physician to establish the fact and the diagnosis — this is the foundation of everything that follows.
3. Consider the context of the cause: burnout, stress, attention deficit, age — they look alike outside, but are treated differently.
4. Tend to the basics: sleep, rest, met needs — a healthy brain often sees much on its own.
5. Only after understanding the state should you build work on behavior and thinking — then it hits the cause, not "wide of the mark."