Senate Mental Health Support Thread

I understand. Insurance and changes of personnel are games that neither you nor anyone else deserves to be put through.

 

My psychiatrist of 20 years retired just as COVID was blowing up in spring 2020. His replacement in the office was a neurologist who was also a lawyer, and rambled on to me at my second appointment with him about some machine that could cure my autism. Like, WTF? I cut ties with him after that and got a referral from my primary care doctor to a new psychiatrist who has been much nicer. So I kind of lucked out there, but yeah, personnel changes are not fun.

 

Being on the spectrum isn't something that requires a cure, neurodiversity is as valuable as any other kind of diversity in society. It certainly does help when people around you are understanding and supportive. Conversely, lack of empathy can increase anxiety symptoms depending on how hostile a situation is.

 

Agreed, Tina. Neurodiversity is important. I enjoyed attending Hill School of Fort Worth from 2001 to 2005 (when I graduated with only 11 people in my senior class). None of those 80 people (in my alumni association) needed to be cured. They're some of the most genuine people I've met. I can see why people theorize that Albert Einstein had dyslexia and high-functioning autism. I heard about that as early as 2001. Doesn't surprise me at all. These matters are common, and they are in no need of cures.

 

I just read the letter of recommendation my now former therapist, and totally lost my ****. I'm going to miss him.

To whom it may concern,
I have known Kristie since March of 2020. Since this time I have witnessed Kristie work to better her life and make decisions that are helpful for her future goals. Like all of us, Kristie has faced adversity, and I would suggest that Kristie has demonstrated relatively significant resilience as she consistently demonstrated the ability to endure difficulties.
She has also stated that her experience in navigating through life’s difficulties has inspired her to begin a career in the social sciences. She appears to have a passion to engage with others and to offer them the help they desire to increase life satisfaction and well-being. She has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to find and utilize resources, and this will assuredly be a strength that she can share with her clients.
Kristie has consistently proven that she will strive to make significant improvements in her life. She has expressed her desire to provide exceptional quality of care in the future, and is motivated to make a difference in the lives of all who cross her path. Kristie is an outstanding individual who is not only passionate about her future in the field, but is also particularly well-suited to collaborate with others to ensure that they can discover what they are searching for."

 

Wow, that's quite the recommendation - hold onto it.

 

The most important lesson I learned from him is there is no good, bad, right, or wrong; there is only harmful and helpful.

So.... with that in mind, I am going to stop dwelling on losing my therapist, because nothing can be done about it--plus, dwelling is harmful. What is helpful, right now, is my appointment tomorrow, with the new therapist. That's what I need to shift my focus to. I've been told my new therapist is pretty new at the center, so she probably doesn't know who I am. Most people in that building know who I am, because I lived in their parking for several months. I'll probably start off with that--the homelessness, because it's what led me to here, about to start school. What I need support with is the transition to school and maintaining everything I need to maintain, in order to make it all work. It's a lot to think about.

 

That is a wonderful therapist!

 

I'm going to miss him. I already do.

 

That ****ing sucks. The guy I have seen on and off was relatively young when I started seeing him when I was like 8 cause I was impatient and had some other stuff. Now I see him cause of the anxiety. But I am glad he was relatively young so I’ll probably be able to stick with him for a long time. Until I move out of state maybe. Although honestly my anxiety is nowhere near what it used to be in early 2014. I have thought of just stopping altogether. But I think checking up every once and a while like we have for the past year is best in case things take a turn and sometimes it can get worse.

point being I am glad I have been able to stick with him for like 13 years. I went to two other therapists in my life. And it wasn’t that they were bad. It was just that I always felt so weird talking to them about stuff. Go with what you know and all that.

but the fact that the dude was talking about that machine is weird as hell

 

I had my first session with my new therapist. We talked about Joey's departure and how it affected me, and what he and I were working on recently. She was very cool about meeting me where I'm at and helping me move forward from here. She does DBT, which is what Joey and I were doing, so my treatment plan isn't going to change very much. I feel okay about going forward from here.

 

Soooo glad to hear this

 

My school also offers counseling, and I'll likely utilize it

 

Good definitely take advantage of whatever resources they're offering.

So they doubled my Abilify and I feel sooo tired but unable to take a nap. Ugh.

 

Do you have tea or weed?

 

That's a really beautiful letter he wrote. I'm glad you were able to see that and "hear" that from him. And a therapist, if they're a good one and have a good relationship with their clients, knows their clients on a very deep level. That's really special.

And I'm glad you've had a good initial experience with this new therapist. My therapist retired a few years ago and I had to switch to a new guy and it was pretty awkward the first couple of times, but I now feel like I've made real progress and, in some ways, I think we're a better fit than I was with my original counselor. Hope you have a similarly good experience with this new person.

 

@harpua I just wanted to say that's a really lovely letter of recommendation. Glad to hear things seem good so far with your new therapist!

 

This was a couple of months ago, but my therapist changed her availability and I didn't find out until the eve of our appointment. It's now Monday through Wednesday at weird hours, so that's not going to work with the current work schedule.

 

I'm at the mental health center, in my car, under my tree, where I lived for so many months. I still come here when I need a quiet place. Last night, I called the crisis center, and we talked abòut Joey. We found, what I am experiencing is grief. I lost somebody really close to me, very suddenly, with no notice. It makes sense I can't think about it without crying. I thought about what I said, about not dwelling, and dwelling being harmful, and I realized I was wrong. The thing is, I am experiencing grief, and I need to allow myself to go through it, and take all the time I need. It's been a really hard week.

 

Definitely grief and you deserve to go through that however you need to.

Tea yes. I don't think I can do weed, judging by how bad Delta 8 made my anxiety.

I made it through Christmas ok..took a nap today to get time away.

 

xmas was super low key this year. I feel like ****, and Jaiden wasn't really into it, so we just did our things.

 

Oof, my life in a nutshell

 

i always get the blues after christmas

 

Well, for what it's worth, Harpua, we value your time and insights on things. I wish we had more people to listen to you in real life, since in my opinion, every individual (introverted, ambiverted, or extraverted) deserves to know friends or associates who will listen to them. It's a tough world, but listening to each other (with authenticity) can bake it better for some of us.

J-Rising, I'm actually the opposite insofar as I like the late December days. I loved Christmas in 2020 and 2019, but this year, it was one of those years where I was anxious for it to end. I like hanging out with my gf and friend in town, but otherwise, I value time by myself so I can read, write poetry, or listen to music. I think that hobbies and other activities should be encouraged for individuals. Sadly, there's often too much shallowness in society, and we should affirm that every individual has something to contribute in terms of uniqueness or talent. Again, that's a bit of the positivity I learned from my four years at the Hill School, but I believe that can be applied to any situation. Better to be creative (in a right-brained or left-brained way) than to tear others down, I say.