Mental Health Thread • Page 403

I feel worse now after that appt. Now I probably have to spend hundreds of dollar and go somewhere else and see if they’ll help me. I have other issues too. But i want to take things in steps. I just don’t have the money to go somewhere else and pay cash

 

Found my birth father through an Ancestry test 48 hours ago. Feeling overwhelmed in the weirdest not necessarily negative way haha. Also my mom passed in 2019 and yeah, shit is fucking hard.

 

Ugh. That’s awful. Hope you can find the help you need! Feel free to reach out if you need to talk to somebody.

 

I went to an intake therapy appointment earlier in the year to find a therapist as a severely depressed person with bipolar disorder, and after the full hour she just says "unfortunately we don't really offer long term therapy anymore unless you're in a really bad spot, best I can do is try and hook you up with a 3 month therapist. Here are some websites you can try". I was so pissed. Managed to find a therapist just from googling around in my area and checking that he was in network with my insurance plan.

 

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but if you want get medicated, I would suggest going to a nurse practitioner and explain your symptoms/ask for anti-anxiety. You don't need to go to a psychiatrist necessarily to get prescribed and this route is cheaper usually. Also, if you're not familiar with Cost Plus Drugs I would recommend them highly for your pharmacy. Prices are low compared to normal pharmacy, but sometimes the shipping takes a week.

 

Yeah I go to a psych nurse practitioner for my meds personally, never seen a psychiatrist

 

My gp referred me to the psych dept. so that’s how I ended up there. Plus I want to get an adhd eval bc I feel like I have undiagnosed adhd or maybe other issues, and my friend told me I need a psych to get diagnosed (she has adhd)

 

Similar here. They said you can try therapy for x among of time and maybe they can extend it depending where you’re at. It was also “you can try there workshops that I think will be great for the type of anxiety you have”. Not like I’m opposed to therapy because I’m not, just therapy alone isn’t going to do shit for my anxiety. Like what are they going to tell me, “get out more?” I don’t have any friends in the area for me to hangout with so I’m stuck at home and I hate crowds.

 

please don’t underestimate how helpful therapy can be. When combined with good medication it’s extremely impactful

 

I wasn’t prescribed any meds. That’s the problem unless therapy will get me on the road to that. I can only do 1x a month tho. And maybe not even that. My work won’t let me have any time off. I’ve tried. They don’t care. I am working on finding another job where I’m not working odd hours

 

I’ve been dealing with a very similar situation. Right at a month ago I helped my wife get in contact with her birth family(mostly her siblings) and it’s been surprising how much anxiety and depression and just overall strong emotions that I’ve had with everything that’s happening.

 

gotcha I just wanted to say that a good therapist will not just tell you to “go outside” but actually can help you understand your triggers and help with coping mechanisms

I just want everyone to be better

 

My therapist and psych nurse practitioner basically just tell me to get sunlight, go on walks, and improve my diet

 

I know it’s not always that easy but FWIW focusing on exercise and diet changed my anxiety/depression for the better more than anything else I’ve ever tried

 

But yes blunt over simplicity from a therapist is never helpful

 

Going outside and exercising has never done a good fucking thing for my mental health. In fact, sometimes it somehow makes it worse lol.

 

Also have adhd and was diagnosed via nurse practitioner. It's worth a try. Although you can't get adhd meds through cost plus since they're controlled substance.

 

I don't know if it's exercise or sunlight, but either way, walking (not running) when it's nice out has helped improve my mental health a lot. Push-ups, too. Nothing huge, just little consistent things throughout the week.

 

It can be helpful for me too but I really think it’s because it simply gets my mind off of the things that stress me out. So it’s similar to anything else where I need sustained focus

 

@Carmen SD I know a lot of people are weighing in and offering support so it’s totally okay to just skip this one but I wanted to share a bit of my experience for maybe some clarity but hopefully hope.

I haven’t ever gone through a nurse practitioner so I can’t speak to that experience. In my experience, psychologists tend to see medication as a second step. Which I do understand is frustrating when your body and brain are telling you or giving clear signs to what it needs. I perused an ADD diagnosis early 2022 and it was a bit eye opening. With ADD in particular, a lot of psychiatrists and practices are being extra careful about prescribing meds and specifically what meds they’re prescribing. In general, there could be stipulations internally specific to whatever doctor you’re seeing in regards to prescriptions. I know none of that is helpful when you’re in a bad place and need help but just wanted to provide some insight. I’m so sorry you’re struggling and that on top of it you’re struggling to get the help you need. It might be worth seeing if there are any untapped resources in your city/area looking into. Some of the LGBT centers also have mental health services including psychiatrists that all work on a sliding scale and you don’t have to identify as LGBT to use their services.

Again, can’t speak to seeing a nurse or practitioner so I have no clue what the process there would be but a lot of things being prescribed for anxiety for as needed use are meds created for other health issues. Gabapentin is an anticonvulsant that’s been being used to help treat anxiety a lot in the last couple of years. Might be worth inquiring about options outside of the obvious choices so that whoever you’re seeing realizes you’re doing research and that your life is being seriously impacted. Aside from the controlled substance part of things, I think the wave of TikTok self diagnosis is creating a much larger ripple effect than we (collective we as a society) realize. The last few years especially there seems to be a general misunderstanding of anxiety disorders and people thinking that getting nervous before a math test equates to having a major issue with anxiety. That’s not me accusing you or anyone in the thread of that, just saying that I think there are some extra hurdles now.

I hope there’s maybe something in all that that’s helpful to you. I hope you’re able to get the help you need sooner rather than later and I’m sorry finding that help has been so taxing

edited to add I’m not specifically recommending you a medication. Just using it as an example of the type of medications out there that you could look into

 

Thanks for the info. I never noticed myself having anxiety until maybe close to 10 years ago and I have a good feeling what triggered that. I was able to live with it for the most part. It wasn’t until maybe 1-2 years ago I’ve noticed it had gotten so much worse. To the point where I can’t get myself to leave my house and go to the grocery store, which I told the intake therapist. I also hate crowds. When i look back i never liked them and always felt uncomfortable, but didn’t see it as an issue. I avoided telling my gp at last years routine check up due to this fear I’m dealing with atm. Even tho I answered their little depression/anxiety questions truthfully. This recent visit I spoke up. Then that’s when I got referred to call the psych dept. i avoided calling for about a week bc I was too anxious. Then I made myself call and had to wait 2 weeks for the intake. I know many people who told their gp about anxiety and got meds straight up and that helped them. The other thing is the therapy they recommend isn’t long term. I rather not spill my problems to multiple therapists bc talking about some stuff is hard enough as it is. Which is why I was looking into going somewhere else. One of my friends actively sees a therapist so I can ask her what her thoughts are bc she does also see a psychiatrist

 

I missed the part about the therapist only being short term. I’ve been bamboozled by that too and it’s so defeating. Also want to apologize if any of what I said made you feel patronized or belittled, I just read it back and it wasn’t as warm as I had wanted it to be. Getting help, especially in the US, is such so counterproductive sometimes. I’ve been where you are and there’s not really a word for how awful it is.

 

A couple weeks ago I got woken up at like 3 a.m. because I heard gunshots. I hear them sometimes in the distance but this sounded so close like it was in my yard. My bedroom faces the road so I just jumped out of bed and crawled and hid. I was shaking so bad and was so fucking terrified. I keep checking but nothing about it has been on the local news or anything but my neighbor told me it was 2 houses down in their front yard. An elderly couple lives there and they were terrified. They said they weren't trying to get into the house or anything so they think it was just an argument or something. They said they called the cops but my ex best friend lives not too far away and she called the cops bc someone was literally trying to break into her home and no one ever came so doubt they did anything tbh. I know living in this country this shit can happen anywhere but I was so cautious when I bought my house. I knew I wanted in this city bc it was where I could afford, but I limited my search to like 4 roads bc they are the safest. I lived 2 roads down for 10 years and I always felt very safe here and I know it was probably just a freak thing and won't happen again, but it's really messed with me. I hate that this is just the reality here and you could just go to the grocery store or a movie and get shot. And my entire family basically are extreme gun nuts so of course they all think I should buy one already which is why I haven't told any of them about it. Just trying to reassure myself that this is just a 1 time thing, it's not gonna happen again but it's been hard.

 

It’s all good. I didn’t feel patronized or belittled. It’s good to hear other people’s experiences with therapy/meds and their journey, and I also asked for people’s experiences in previous posts because I didn’t know what to expect or how things usually go. What was hard for me was even tho my clinic had bad reviews, people talked about them being “med pushers” (along with certain therapy), so I thought I was going to get guided towards that. Not that I want to be on meds, but I know I have certain problems that therapy alone wont do anything for. I am opened to doing a combo. Therapists from my understanding cannot diagnose, and I want to get the proper diagnoses

edit: I also want to get my cat certified as an esa that isn’t from a sus website

 

I take lamictal, vraylar, Seroquel, and gabapentin. The gabapentin definitely works wonders for my anxiety. I take a small dose in the morning and a very large dose before bed