Can't We All Just Do Therapy?

I won't be the first person, nor the last, to bring awareness to mental health and it's desperately needed services. It's ironic that conversations about mental health still seem to fall flat yet the mental health crisis consistently rises. We are still in murky waters of what mental health really is. Questions that are being asked are by those experiencing mental health issues whilst many who proclaim they don't know anything are actually, and have been, experiencing their own mental health crisis without going checked for it.

If you browse the interest quickly for depression and anxiety there will be a slew of sites offering help and guidance. What constitutes? Is mental health specific and falls into categories? Or does any form of mental crisis matter? And that is exactly what many providers, insurance companies, and the government still haven't figured out; What exactly constitutes as mental health and do all issues matter on the same level?

I took a big mental health step three times in my life: Once, after I had accidentally walked through an exhibition about childhood molestation and could barely make it out without weeping as memories began flooding in. The second time after I recognized I may have been poorly conducting myself in relationships and needed to revisit my past to fix my current. And thirdly, after freeing myself from an abusive relationship and being completely taken over by anxiety and depression.

All three times I sought therapy had me jumping through hoops to make it possible. I was turned away more times than accepted and invoiced more money than I was making. Some therapists plainly told me that I was wrong about my own experiences. Some therapists didn't seem to care. It was a journey as I hiked my way through the mental health system so that I could be whole again. I occurred traumas from the journey, I dropped therapists and picked up new ones while consistently feeling guilt over my choices and actions. I was made to feel as thought until I am physically beaten that my mental torment is surely a cause of my lack of self confidence in which is under my control alone.

But once I found her, my angel therapist, I was finally home. It took me nearly an entire year to open up and begin really speaking from my heart. It took nearly another year to experience some relief. Five medications after, five allergic reactions after, and now years of self work and I can say I am feeling sweet relief. Albeit, this relief is not constant. It is work and I have learned to love the work because there is no other state that I would want to be than in control of my well being. For a much longer time, most of my life, I cringed at a sentence like that.

It angers me that there are thousands of women just like me who need help, have been turned away, cannot afford the help, or are simply forced to seek therapy from someone they do not feel understands them or even persists their trauma. Free therapy is a must and should be just as normal as an included yearly checkup, dare I say a monthly check in. Weekly check in. Daily check in. Whenever you need to check in.

While our friends can be great sounding boards, they are not mental health professionals and come with their own inherent traumas whether realized or not. Having someone who will listen confidentially and give you ideas to provoke change or realization is like that of a guardian angel who simply gives you faith in yourself and in your life. Religion and friendships have their place, and so do therapists.

If you've been lucky enough to find a good therapist, thank them. I probably over do the 'thank you's' at the end of every session to mine. Mental health is treated as a privilege when it should be treated as a basic right. Everyone deserves to have the help they need without worrying of the consequences of getting that help.

Don't be fooled by the symptom checker, I believe you deserve free therapy regardless of whether you tick the boxes of a pre-made mental health list. I see a sea of humans rising up for this request. There are people toppling over each other in the streets in dire need of it. There are relationships ending in death over it. There are children forever scarred over it. And addictions created because of the lack of it. While therapy won't be the only solution, it is a starting place in healing humanity.

#freetherapyforall