Current Events > Have you ever sought professional help for mental health problems?

(+) Yeah! (+)

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For years yea. Definitely helped
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For years yeah. Didn't help me.

...or I should say it did help...but only in regards that it helped me better understand my personality in how I handle problems. I handle them better mostly by myself, but I do have to put in a good amount of work to achieve results (which I do, and have to).
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after my first break up I talked to a counselor once but that's about it
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Yes recently, in August.

Way too late. I've been thinking about it for years. But the last year has been the hardest, and I got closer, eventually got a number to call which was in January, but I didn't dare to do it. Until I totally broke down. I had to.

I'm currently on care with a counselor and on SSRI medication.
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Yes, for depression and Asperger's Syndrome.
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Yeah. Not long enough to figure anything out though. But its cause I started and then summer came and I didn't really need it. I can actually find enough happiness in summer to sustain myself.
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Yeah. I need to go back to therapy. Six months of going for anxiety, I miss one week and figure it's going to be too much of a hassle to call and make a new appointment.
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The23rdMagus posted...

Yeah. I need to go back to therapy. Six months of going for anxiety, I miss one week and figure it's going to be too much of a hassle to call and make a new appointment.

You're losing to your anxiety :/

But I think you knew that
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yes

at some point i decided smashing wooden objects in my basement was not a healthy way to manage anger

unfortunately i found that the counseling professionals i worked with weren't great at it either

i've been doing ok lately though. quitting drinking helped.
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Darkman124 posted...

yes

at some point i decided smashing wooden objects in my basement was not a healthy way to manage anger

unfortunately i found that the counseling professionals i worked with weren't great at it either

i've been doing ok lately though. quitting drinking helped.

Yeah. You gotta find one that knows how to relate to you personally. Mine actually was a good match. I just wasn't in touch with my negative thoughts at the time. I only talked about surface problems that I already know the links too
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Lost_All_Senses posted...

The23rdMagus posted...

Yeah. I need to go back to therapy. Six months of going for anxiety, I miss one week and figure it's going to be too much of a hassle to call and make a new appointment.

You're losing to your anxiety :/

But I think you knew that

Yeah. It'd be funny if it wasn't irritating.
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no, although I did see a therapist or counselor of some kind when I was a child
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4 separate times.

It was always fleeting. I'd go in feeling like dogshit and leave feeling like a million bucks but within a few days that would be gone.
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when it comes to therapy, make no mistake: You are a customer, not a patient.

lots for anxiety (ocd, panic, gad) and it helped eventually.
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Naysaspace posted...

when it comes to therapy, make no mistake: You are a customer, not a patient.

Dumb post trying to be deep. Some people go into the field cause they actually are interested in the human mind and want to use their interest to help others.
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I got therapy for my anxiety and I think it really made a difference.
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I see a therapist every other week and a psychiatrist once a month for my anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder.
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bump
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RedWhiteBlue posted...

Went for a year to go on meds. Didn't help, decided to stop because I couldn't afford copayments and it would take years to get results, where my life is either fixed or I'm not around.

I want to go back but for a psychologist, CBT specifically, but again I don't have the money for copayments. I desperately need to see someone, I can't stress that enough.

That sucks. :c The ability to pay shouldn't be a factor in getting the treatment one needs...

Nope. Don't need it.
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Seen different therapists for over ten years, been on meds nearly a decade as well. Complete waste of time. I got a lot worse over the years, and i don't intend to speak to another therapist ever again.
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yes
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Yes. I'd probably be in jail or dead if I hadn't. I almost died a few times as a little kid, and my whole existence felt dangerous, so my anxiety got bad. I couldn't really identify it though, being so young, and everything became normalized through acceptance and coping mechanisms, which only prolonged my issues. My own charisma worked against me, as almost everybody saw me as this energetic, happy guy from about age 10 onward. I never brought my problems with me (visibly) when I left the house.

My parents were always caring and supportive, but they didn't see the full scope of my problems or force me to get help (it came up, but I strongly resisted the idea because I didn't want to feel like a reject). Both of my parents came from "stiff upper lip" families, with my mom being British with a military family and dad's family being stereotypically Prussian in virtually all respects... Same attitude, different food... They had no idea how to handle it really, and just did their best. The concept seemed very foreign to them.

When I moved away from home with my girlfriend (and ended up across the country for her college of choice), I had the stress of that with some newly found physical health problems related to my job (lots of heavy lifting on cement floors, it was warehouse work and assembling stuff). I was losing my grip, and was hovering just above rock bottom, convincing myself semi-regularly not to commit suicide because it would devastate so many people I cared about. My dad was literally a phone call away from hopping on a plane if need-be, he's that amazing.

I hung on until my girlfriend finished school and we moved back here and the boost of morale kept me going for a long time. I was continually a victim of my own fortitude, and it wasn't until I got a new family doctor that my life changed. Shortly after getting brought into his practice, I ended up at emergency thinking I had a bad case of pneumonia, puking on myself from coughing, fluid-like chest pain, the works, and it turned out I was just going insane. He has hospital privileges and we got all the dots connected between him, a resident he was teaching, and a psychiatrist: bipolar 1 with a generalized anxiety disorder.

Basically, one would trigger the other and around and around I'd go. In hindsight, the telltale signs were all there... I could function for days with little to no sleep, or sleep for days at a time, and I was in a near-constant state of paranoia. I talk so openly about this because I spent my teenage years trying to deny and bury it that I only made myself worse, and if somebody else can see this and think "okay, it's time," then I feel like I've put some good back into the world and maybe saved a life. If I could tell my younger sell to just be smart and face it, I would, and this is the next best thing.

I don't like taking medication though, which depending on how well you're able to manage may or may not be okay. I have valium and quetiapine on-hand for "as needed" uses, but it's fairly rare that I ever feel I require them. I spent about 18 months going to therapy, and found that simply taking my anxiety out of the equation during most situations made the bipolar 1 fairly manageable by itself. Two factors were key for me: motivation and mindfulness. As long as I have a reason to do something and I'm aware of myself, it's possible to stop things in their tracks. The more you do it, the earlier you notice warning signs (new or old ones). It sounds clich, but it really does get better.

Lastly, when it comes to mental health, the solution is different for everybody. I personally found going to groups completely useless, and through trial and error narrowed down the types of help I needed based on what hadn't worked and what had, even to varying degrees, and tried to find a therapist that seemed like a good fit, and she was perfect. My point with this is to keep trying until you piece your own puzzle together.
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i did after my second suicide attempt.
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