When I was at my most desperate during my worst depressive episode back in 2015, I didn’t need a fancy strategy or sage words of advice from a therapist.
I just needed help.
I needed someone to listen to me–to believe me.
I desperately searched for something that would help me sleep again, to help me get through just one more day.
And all the procedures, protocols, tactics that providers threw at me didn’t even come close to addressing the core issues of my problems.
Eventually, I decided to go to the emergency room, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It’s quite possible that making that decision saved my life.
Now, why am I telling you this?
I’m sharing this story with you because so much of the mental health system is self-serving.
Providers get degrees so they can fulfill their life plan of going into private practice to make good amounts of money while having a convenient schedule.
Schools operate like businesses because they are businesses. They churn out students without even teaching them about the most important aspects of mental health care: the mental health care they need to do first with themselves.
Of course, not everything is this way. Not everything is bad.
But something I’ve noticed over and over (and over) is that mental health treatment is frequently inaccessible and illogical for the people who are trying to find it.
There has to be a different way.
After all these years, I’m figuring out what that is.