How do I tell the difference between sihr and an ordinary problem?

This is the most important question in the whole subject, and the book itself devotes a section to warning against over-attribution. Most problems that arrive at a raqi's door are not sihr.

Work through these in order

• Is there a medical explanation? See a doctor and complete the investigation properly. Do not treat this as a formality.
• Is there a psychological explanation? Bereavement, trauma, burnout, anxiety and depression produce almost every symptom on the standard sihr list.
• Is there a practical explanation? Debt, an unhappy marriage, an unsuitable job, isolation, or exhaustion.
• Is there a spiritual explanation that is not sihr? Abandoned prayer, persistent sin, or distance from the Quran produce heaviness, aversion to worship and loss of direction. This is very common and the remedy is repentance, not treatment.
• Is this simply a trial? Allah tests those He loves. Hardship is not evidence of attack.

Only after all of these, and where the pattern is sudden, unexplained, persistent and clustered, is sihr a reasonable consideration.

The cost of getting this wrong is high: years lost, real conditions untreated, families divided by suspicion, and money handed to people who profit from fear.