- For many years, Liz Obert woke up, got dressed, went to work, and acted as if everything was fine. Once she returned home, however, she found herself lying around depressed, feeling hopeless and full of dread. Diagnosed in her early 20s with depression, Obert said she tried therapy and medication, but nothing seemed to work until around five years ago when a psychiatrist diagnosed her with bipolar II disorder and put her on mood stabilizers.
Brian and John Paul are basically me. That's scary. Yep. This is a thing. I was doing that for a long, long time. Up until about a month and a half ago when that dam broke and my life has been in absolute shambles since then. Working on building from the very bottom at this point, and it's weird how you don't really think of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs until you realize just where you stand on that. This is a very cool project, and as I become more open about mental health (I'm still grappling with the idea that I suffer from mental illness?) it's something I find to be more and more shockingly lacking in this country.Obert feels the dual life she led for so long isn’t unique for people who suffer from mental illnesses and who “must mask their symptoms in order to function in the outside world.”
You're a smart and self aware guy, I applaud you for taking a close look at yourself and taking the appropriate actions to diagnose your situation. That's huge man. There's definitely a stigma to mental health and there shouldn't be. Keep it up!
I mean, yeah, there's a stigma. But I'm talking more about a lack of mental health resources in general. At least on college campuses. My college has hired two new people this year, and I believe they will be hiring a third. Yet you know what one of the most signed petitions is on our Student Government petitions portal? Increasing the mental health resources available on a college campus. One night when I had a meltdown people ended up calling our campus safety and I ended up talking to them for a long time. One thing they told me: I was the third person that day that they had to respond to for a mental health situation. This was only 8pm at night. One day. Maybe it's exacerbated in college but it's unacceptable to me that the statistics are something on the order of 1 counselor to 1800 students at my college, with a nationwide average of 1 to about 1500. Sorry, this became a rant but as I've been reading more and more into this I've been wondering how much is stigma related and how much is lack of knowledge or access to resources related. Especially when reading stories of other people such as what you've linked to. Which was fascinating and all too accurate. Edit edit: Sorry about bringing me into this, I don't want to take away from how interesting or a read and project this is.
Yeah, that's a real problem. There definitely aren't enough mental health resources, be it in college or in general. For example, I have a pretty good health insurance plan but mental health, or therapy isn't covered at all. I have to meet my deductible of like $1500 before it's covered. It's such an important thing, and it's very, very much undervalued. edit: no need to apologize, making a topic personal makes the discussion all that more interesting and valid.