Depression and Mental Health Resources
I'm not sure whether I should write this or not, as I am trying to focus on positives and not complain, but I think depression is something that is still not empathically understood by most, and I believe in spreading knowledge about mental illness in an effort to lessen the social stigma felt by many.
I spent the majority of the morning crying, in bed. Not for any particular reason, just that I felt overwhelmingly sad. I didn't fight with anyone, nothing happened to make me feel that way, but I had to deal with the storm of emotion anyway. And it was strong enough to paralyze me for... about 1-2 hours, today. I was too sad to move, or feed myself, or do anything but lie there and cry. And this is after being on medication for my depression. It helps, because now most days I just feel apathetically neutral, so I am still able to go about my day (assuming my pain, fatigue or ADD aren't acting up), whereas before I was like this (the crying and such) the majority of the time. Now, I have bad days every few weeks or so.
I was originally against psychiatric mediation, as I believe in the strength of the mind & spirit, and believe America is generally over-medicated to please the purses of the Big Pharma. However, I recognized I needed some sort of help more than I had, and therapy/counseling had not been very useful to me. It's very difficult to find a good therapist, and just as difficult to afford seeing one on a regular basis. So I agreed to medication, and I'm glad I did.
I am currently taking the minimum dose of a class of anti-depressants called SSRIs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors), which work by blocking your brain from absorbing serotonin (happy-feel-good-hormone), which increases the amount of serotonin floating around in my head, regulating emotions. (That's over-simplified, but doesn't require a neuroscience degree to understand.) It was prescribed by a medical doctor, in hopes it would help my physical pain, which it has not. But it alleviates the cloud of heavy emotional burden that settles on my mind and heart like a poisonous fog, so I can function like a normal person.
But medication does not fix anything by itself. Whatever is wrong in my brain is still there, and I still have not learnt any tools to efficiently deal with it myself, as therapy has not been a feasible option. Now that I am in a new state, my health insurance is invalid, so I am in the process of trying to apply for new insurance, so I can see a doctor.
If you have never applied for insurance, it is a difficult, multi-step process. They require all information for anything you have even talked to a doctor about, for the last five years. Including dates, names, addresses and details please. This makes sense, from their perspective. From mine? I have seen more doctors than I can count, and more tests done than I know exist, in an attempt to diagnose my chronic pain & fatigue. And my ADD makes storing or retrieving those details, or indeed, ANY multi-step process, incredibly difficult, which is why I need to see a therapist so badly. I am incapable of doing everyday tasks, or holding down a job, yet I cannot get help for anything until I see through their seemingly impossibly-convoluted process.
I am not blaming the insurance, they are simply requesting information they need to make a decision, but there has got to be a better way for people with mental illnesses to get help! I can't get therapy or medication for my ADD, or increase my anti-depressant dosage without a psychiatrist, who I can't see without the paperwork, and it has taken me 2 months to do the paperwork because my issues are so severe.
Thankfully, I have family who help and support me. Unfortunately, many do not. If not for them, I would be homeless living on the street right now, and that is how many do end up in that position. Our country needs to re-think how we approach mental health. Thankfully, the politicians have been addressing this mental health issue in the last few years.
In 2008, Congress passed the "Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act," which requires health insurance companies to cover mental health services at parity to physical health services. Unfortunately, "parity" has not yet been sufficiently defined.
Two bills currently in production (for lack of a better word) are the "Excellence in Mental Health Act," which would increase federal funding for community mental health centers, and "The Mental Health First Aid Act of 2013," which provides funding for training programs to help the public identify, understand, and address crisis situations safely, and calls for protocols for initiating timely referrals to mental health services available in communities.
For more information, see the article I got most of this information from, which also speaks about school shooting and gun control, Republicans Pushing Mental Health Care Over Gun Control Were Once Against Key Mental Health Laws.
I spent the majority of the morning crying, in bed. Not for any particular reason, just that I felt overwhelmingly sad. I didn't fight with anyone, nothing happened to make me feel that way, but I had to deal with the storm of emotion anyway. And it was strong enough to paralyze me for... about 1-2 hours, today. I was too sad to move, or feed myself, or do anything but lie there and cry. And this is after being on medication for my depression. It helps, because now most days I just feel apathetically neutral, so I am still able to go about my day (assuming my pain, fatigue or ADD aren't acting up), whereas before I was like this (the crying and such) the majority of the time. Now, I have bad days every few weeks or so.
I was originally against psychiatric mediation, as I believe in the strength of the mind & spirit, and believe America is generally over-medicated to please the purses of the Big Pharma. However, I recognized I needed some sort of help more than I had, and therapy/counseling had not been very useful to me. It's very difficult to find a good therapist, and just as difficult to afford seeing one on a regular basis. So I agreed to medication, and I'm glad I did.
I am currently taking the minimum dose of a class of anti-depressants called SSRIs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors), which work by blocking your brain from absorbing serotonin (happy-feel-good-hormone), which increases the amount of serotonin floating around in my head, regulating emotions. (That's over-simplified, but doesn't require a neuroscience degree to understand.) It was prescribed by a medical doctor, in hopes it would help my physical pain, which it has not. But it alleviates the cloud of heavy emotional burden that settles on my mind and heart like a poisonous fog, so I can function like a normal person.
But medication does not fix anything by itself. Whatever is wrong in my brain is still there, and I still have not learnt any tools to efficiently deal with it myself, as therapy has not been a feasible option. Now that I am in a new state, my health insurance is invalid, so I am in the process of trying to apply for new insurance, so I can see a doctor.
If you have never applied for insurance, it is a difficult, multi-step process. They require all information for anything you have even talked to a doctor about, for the last five years. Including dates, names, addresses and details please. This makes sense, from their perspective. From mine? I have seen more doctors than I can count, and more tests done than I know exist, in an attempt to diagnose my chronic pain & fatigue. And my ADD makes storing or retrieving those details, or indeed, ANY multi-step process, incredibly difficult, which is why I need to see a therapist so badly. I am incapable of doing everyday tasks, or holding down a job, yet I cannot get help for anything until I see through their seemingly impossibly-convoluted process.
I am not blaming the insurance, they are simply requesting information they need to make a decision, but there has got to be a better way for people with mental illnesses to get help! I can't get therapy or medication for my ADD, or increase my anti-depressant dosage without a psychiatrist, who I can't see without the paperwork, and it has taken me 2 months to do the paperwork because my issues are so severe.
Thankfully, I have family who help and support me. Unfortunately, many do not. If not for them, I would be homeless living on the street right now, and that is how many do end up in that position. Our country needs to re-think how we approach mental health. Thankfully, the politicians have been addressing this mental health issue in the last few years.
In 2008, Congress passed the "Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act," which requires health insurance companies to cover mental health services at parity to physical health services. Unfortunately, "parity" has not yet been sufficiently defined.
Two bills currently in production (for lack of a better word) are the "Excellence in Mental Health Act," which would increase federal funding for community mental health centers, and "The Mental Health First Aid Act of 2013," which provides funding for training programs to help the public identify, understand, and address crisis situations safely, and calls for protocols for initiating timely referrals to mental health services available in communities.
For more information, see the article I got most of this information from, which also speaks about school shooting and gun control, Republicans Pushing Mental Health Care Over Gun Control Were Once Against Key Mental Health Laws.
Comments
Post a Comment