My experiences with the mental health system.

     For a year and a half I saw my psychiatrist once every three months for ten minutes at a time.  In ten minutes he diagnosed me.  Additionally, I had already been on medication for my symptoms for several weeks before the diagnosis, therefore reducing the severity of the symptoms for his observance.  To confound the process further I was on a medication that completely flattened my mood.  I told him numerous times that this medication left me in a fog and he continued to leave me on it “because it seemed to work.”

     This may not be the case for every person who enters the mental health system, but this story is far too common.  The psychiatrist refuses to listen to the client’s wishes, or minimizes them.  It was not until my regular psychiatrist was out for an extended medical leave that I was seen by a replacement.  This replacement took the time to get to know me and my symptoms.  She explained to me the way being diagnosed works (a thing that had never been explained to me before), that it is not how I am feeling now that is important but how I feel when I am not medicated that determines a diagnosis.  She went over options for medication, and when I said that I did not have insurance she helped me work on getting an assistance program and samples for the medication I am currently on.

     My previous psychiatrist was an adamant believer that psychiatric medications had no impact on weight gain despite many people, myself included, who ate the same as before but continued to gain weight on certain medications.  I am lucky in that I had a therapist who is willing to sit in on doctor’s visits to describe what has been going on from her perspective as well as mine.

     Again, I do not know how often other people in the system find this, but this is the first time in all of my years of attempting to seek treatment that I have encountered it.

    I have found that being in the hospital can be a dehumanizing experience.  Very true the rights of patients have gotten so much better compared to even twenty years ago, but I often felt patronized and belittled.  While I understand the purpose of short term hospitalization is to allow time to recuperate after a crisis situation, and people cope differently.  I was in two hospitals where you spent most of your day doing absolutely nothing.  To compound matters you were not forced to participate in the therapeutic process.  Out of the hospital stays I have had, most of the group therapy activities are bland and clinical.  I found the walls to be an off-putting color and very bland.  It was sterile.  It made me feel all the more sick.

     It is not entirely the fault of the hospital though.  They receive such little funding, and each year that funding is cut.  You are sent in, get a preliminary diagnosis, get put on some meds, and then you are given your discharge papers with follow-up instructions.  That’s it.  You aren’t told how having this diagnosis is going to change your life.  That is what I wish I would have been able to learn in the hospital.  How these medications were going to make me feel, how others would treat me, what my options were when it came to doctors, medications, and therapists. 

     Without proper funding, mental health care will continue to decline and make it harder for people to get the help they need.    All governments need to realize this is a priority.

--JJM