Shezlong: The Middle East’s First Online Platform to Seek Help for Mental Illness
Mental illness is one of the most overlooked issues in Egypt, and the Middle East in general. The majority of us suffer from undiagnosed mental and psychological issues but we never bother to seek help; mostly because we’re programmed to feel like it’s not a big deal and we could just “get over it.” For some, it’s even shameful to seek help.
That’s where Shezlong comes in. Shezlong is an online psychotherapy platform which provides anonymous and affordable contact with professional and certified therapists. Yes, you can simply meet your psyche through a website, and if you want to discuss something you’re shy of sharing in person, you could be completely anonymous! The website is in both English and Arabic.
As a person who does suffer from mental illness, but is too lazy to go see a psychiatrist, this has got to be one of the best websites I’ve seen in a while.
The website isn’t a bot based website. On the contrary, it’s actually well made and very thought out. First, they’ll let you register to the website, and it’s not one of those sign-in through Facebook registrations, so yes, you are actually anonymous. You’re then invited to have a quick online depression and anxiety test. The test is short and straight to the point. My results were very accurate when I ran the test, and when I was emailed the results they recommended some therapists for me to book with, and they gave me a 50% off the first session.
The choices of therapist, however, was my favorite part. You’re offered a huge list of psychiatrists and therapists from all over the world that you could book with. Each has their specialty, rates per 30 minutes, and their free booking slots. The prices range from 50 LE per 30 minutes to 2000 LE. There’s also a filtering search option so you don’t have to go through all of them to pick your therapist. The only thing I would’ve loved to see is a specialty filter option. It would have made the picking much easier.
That’s not all, they also offer a blog which has a great number of articles related to mental health and could be helpful for many. Some are serious articles, others are light but still informative. The blog, however, is in Arabic only, so non-Arabic speakers won’t get the chance to enjoy it.
Their Facebook page is also very informative and helpful with occasional live sessions with therapists regarding viral topics in Egypt.
WE SAID THIS: We’re glad to see more mental health awareness in Egypt. Well done guys!
