Yup. And every loop of failed treatment you go through, the harder it becomes to face the next one. Exhaustion stacks up month on month and year on year, available options dwindle, those that...
All the professionals along the way were very helpful and accommodating. But definitely not coordinated. It took 11 months from asking my therapist to getting treatment. And being my own advocate in scheduling, diagnosis, following up, dealing with bills, dealing with insurance, dealing with insurance incorrectly denying my claim repeatedly and taking about three months to pay out, were the exact kinds of tasks I was struggling with. The things we ask people with mental health issues to do to treat their issues is almost like an obstacle course where the obstacles are specifically targeted at those suffering from mental health issues.
Yup. And every loop of failed treatment you go through, the harder it becomes to face the next one. Exhaustion stacks up month on month and year on year, available options dwindle, those that remain become more specialised, complex, and inaccessible.
The entire process, already prohibitive, becomes objectively more difficult to navigate right as your subjective capacity to handle even the original obstacles is running dry. Support networks wear thinner as the limits of what any reasonable person can give are passed. Even professionals begin to take on a slight edge of exasperation: “you’ve been at this for a decade, what more do you want from us?”
I’m still holding together better than it probably sounds like from all of that, and if I’d found a treatment that worked for me somewhere along the way I’d no doubt feel more positive about the ten plus years of effort, but as it stands it’s by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I’m yet to see the payoff.
I understand that I’m an unlucky outlier having been at it for so long, and I tend to avoid saying all of this both because I think it risks scaring away people who will benefit and because frankly it often feels mopey and self indulgent, but the parallels I see in this article really struck a chord.
Tangiential meditation: The western Mental health paradigm suffers from too stron a focus on individual normative behavior. At the edges we are starting to understand how family and social systems...
Tangiential meditation:
The western Mental health paradigm suffers from too stron a focus on individual normative behavior. At the edges we are starting to understand how family and social systems drive behavior. Maybe in 50 years a few of our most brilliant will find ways to integrate outlier individuals and groups without laying all the responsibility on the individual.
I’m not operating eloquently here, but I see modern us mental health creating a lot of harm by laying responsibility to fot in on shoulders of those whose experience and equipment (and core values) operate in nonharmful but non-synced ways.
Yup. And every loop of failed treatment you go through, the harder it becomes to face the next one. Exhaustion stacks up month on month and year on year, available options dwindle, those that remain become more specialised, complex, and inaccessible.
The entire process, already prohibitive, becomes objectively more difficult to navigate right as your subjective capacity to handle even the original obstacles is running dry. Support networks wear thinner as the limits of what any reasonable person can give are passed. Even professionals begin to take on a slight edge of exasperation: “you’ve been at this for a decade, what more do you want from us?”
I’m still holding together better than it probably sounds like from all of that, and if I’d found a treatment that worked for me somewhere along the way I’d no doubt feel more positive about the ten plus years of effort, but as it stands it’s by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I’m yet to see the payoff.
I understand that I’m an unlucky outlier having been at it for so long, and I tend to avoid saying all of this both because I think it risks scaring away people who will benefit and because frankly it often feels mopey and self indulgent, but the parallels I see in this article really struck a chord.
Tangiential meditation:
The western Mental health paradigm suffers from too stron a focus on individual normative behavior. At the edges we are starting to understand how family and social systems drive behavior. Maybe in 50 years a few of our most brilliant will find ways to integrate outlier individuals and groups without laying all the responsibility on the individual.
I’m not operating eloquently here, but I see modern us mental health creating a lot of harm by laying responsibility to fot in on shoulders of those whose experience and equipment (and core values) operate in nonharmful but non-synced ways.