I have, as of late, decided to take matters into my own hands. I recently made my first appointment for therapy... and I was both elated and terrified.

Many people reading this will not know that I just started attending therapy. For some reason, there had been a sort of mental block on the subject for me after I made my first appointment. I didn't want people to know, for the most part.

I told people here and there, sure. But it felt weird to form the words in my mouth, to string them all together in a tight-knit, concise way that I could actually speak out loud confidently: "I'm going to therapy."

But it's not something that people should be ashamed about.

I try to love myself, but it's hard. I'm not going to get on my soap box and preach to you some incredible fantasy of me adoring my body or feeling confident about the way I view myself and my interaction with others. I'm not going to say it's easy or hard for you to look at yourself and be happy because honestly, I'm pretty sure it differs from person to person.

Before my first therapy session, I was full of nervous energy. My heart was going a mile a minute as I sat before my appointment started. But thankfully, I'm not as nervous about going to see my therapist now.

Therapy is different from what you might think. It isn't just a person sitting there staring at you asking, "Now how does that make you feel?" like that scene in Freaky Friday.

It is a real-time validation of what you're feeling, and trying to get you to feel more comfortable with your emotions and what you can do about them.

It can feel strange opening up to someone that you're not very close with. It can feel uncomfortable and foreign. (Which, honestly, it is.) But sometimes you need to tell someone your story from the beginning so that they can best help you.

Therapy let me know from an outside source--that isn't my parents or my friends--that what I'm feeling is valid and fine and normal. I often downplay what I'm feeling, especially to myself. It was refreshing to hear from my therapist something along the lines of: "So this sounds like this can be a problem for you. Let's see what we can do to help with that."

I've been going to therapy once a week for a few weeks now. I can honestly say that it's something I look forward to, even if nothing major has happened in my life between appointments. My therapist is wonderful and I know that I can tell her how I feel.

I understand that therapy can be a highly personal thing for certain people, and I totally agree. However, in our society today where mental health is just starting to get the attention it deserves, I think it could help people to see they're not alone. So here I am.

The phrase "you're not alone" was something I passed along even before thinking about starting therapy. And now that I am talking about my experience I think it's even more important for me to pass along now. It's totally normal to want to talk to someone, to want therapy, or to want an even more serious form of help.

I did not write this article to brag about how well I'm doing; I know that I have a ways to go. But I think therapy is something that less people should be afraid of. It can be a big step to tell yourself that you think you want to do it, but it can help more than you think.

At the end of the day, take everything at your own pace. If you think you need therapy and you're ready to go, then go. Don't rush yourself.

And above all, remember that you're not alone.