Hi Mary,
I'm about your age I think (I'm 27) and I was also the caregiver for my mom (she passed away almost exactly a year ago).
I've seen a couple of counsellors (mostly because I have moved cities twice since caregiving) and I think it has been helpful on the whole. At minimum the counselling appointment has been a dedicated time during the week when I know I will have the time and space to cry and spend some time processing. It has helped me feel a little less alone with what I call "the stuff" -- the multitude of the things I have seen and felt as a caregiver that no one else seems to have time or energy to listen to.
I have had to switch counsellors because of circumstances, but in some ways it has been positive to be pushed to try consulting a different person. It's disruptive to start explaining again from the beginning, but having spoken to a few people has given me a better sense of different approaches and what might work better for me. Just adding that thought in case you speak to one person and aren't sure it's working for you -- they all do different things.
I've also started to realize that this miserable illness impacted me in more than one way, and those different impacts need different supports in order to heal. For one, moving away from my husband to care for my mom (and not feeling supported by him) really damaged my marriage, and I'm currently considering seeking some couples counselling. A big thing for me was that I got really isolated as a caregiver, and so I'm trying to build a bit of a support network from new acquaintances. I recently had a sort of memorial for my mom with mostly new friends, as a way to build a group of people who know something about my mom and have some idea about what happened... So that was something I did to help me heal, but didn't involve paying anyone (but it's only recently that there have been people I could do this with). Like you, I've also been concerned about my own mental health and I'm meeting a doc this week to discuss possibilities... This all may sound like a lot... I know it does to me... For the record I've never had time to see a counsellor every week -- maybe every second week or once a month, and I think I'll be stopping the individual counselling in favour of couples counselling. So I guess I'm saying that your needs may evolve, and there are lots of options out there...
Over this past year I have definitely been through waves of bad times and less bad times. Sometimes it's just overwhelming, and then I'll have a few weeks when I'm a lot more functional, and then suddenly I'm back to struggling to get out of bed, and it continues cycling like that. (On the other hand, at least there are those reprieve periods?)
At around the six-month mark I started tracking my mood via a couple of simple phone aps, because I was having similar concerns to you. I use Daylio, which asks me my mood that day and what activities I've been doing (you just select from a list of graphics for both, so it literally takes 10 seconds) and then it shows you trends over time. The other is called Bliss and I just use the section that asks me to list three good things about the day. I use that one because I felt I was getting entrenched in really negative thinking patterns and I was sick of the inside of my head... It also helps me focus on what's going on in my life now instead of the past few years.
I wish you strength, and also luck, because I think we all could use some.
Kathryn