The increase in the importance of self-care has given rise to a variety of Instagram influencers, self-help gurus, and trendy hashtags, shows and songs, making a mental health journey seem like the greatest thing to ever happen to your life. And it can be! But it can take lot of self-work to get to the point of a life-changing breakthrough.

Everyone loves thinking about the sort of a-ha moment, Natalie Burns , a clinical social worker in the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Social Work at the University of Michigan, told HuffPost. I dont necessarily believe that its one a-ha moment that sort of says now everythings fine. I think its more common that its the product of a lot of hard work, a lot of self-reflection, a lot of curiosity as to why we do the things we do.

What people dont often tell you is that therapy, while transformative, can be really hard. Healing is not going to happen overnight and the life-changing lessons and breakthroughs that were looking for arent always going to feel good. In fact, sometimes things are going to feel worse before they feel better.

People engage in habit; life and habits are hard to change, Burns said. Therapists offer and suggest trying new ways of coping, but the reality is that theyre not going to feel as good or work as well in the beginning. We have to give it time to work.

However, if you have just entered therapy or youve been on your journey for a while yet you arent seeing any progress dont get discouraged. HuffPost asked people to share their therapy breakthroughs to show how varied they can be over the course of several months (in some cases years!) in therapy.

Below, seven people share the best advice and most important lessons theyve learned in therapy and how they try to continuously apply it to their lives. If youre feeling discouraged or unmotivated, their stories may help you stay the course and keep doing the work. Because the work to manage your mental health will not always be easy, but itll be worth it.