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Guest column: Improper mental health treatment

Post Register (Idaho Falls, ID) - 6/21/2016

There are three words that I have yet to see when it comes to mental health treatment: Waste. of. Time, writes Kim Palchikoff.

By Kim Palchikoff

Say "mental illness" and a lot of other words come to mind: depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, anger, suicide, crying, hopelessness. I should know. I've spent a life living with bipolar disorder. But there are three words I've yet to see mentioned in my years of reading blog posts and medical journals: Waste. Of. Time.

Time takes on an entirely different meaning when your mind isn't working right. I used to have mood swings, lose friends, then go into damage-control mode, trying to repair relationships.

Just think about those who are homeless, often because their mental state prevents them from working. They lose their job, their house, the car they can no longer afford, the good credit they once had. All these things can take months if not years to get back.

Many mentally ill people in need of psychiatric care end up instead lying in a hospital emergency room, waiting to get transferred to the care they need from specialists. ER doctors are not psychiatrists. So someone with acute depression can spend endless days in an emergency room with nothing to show for it.

I've spent a lot of my time trying to understand what my brain was going through. Fed up with feeling blue, I saw a psychologist when I was a college senior.

I spent nearly a year visiting her office, paying her per session. She never took my history to learn if anyone in my family had mental illness, often a sign that the patient may have it as well. She never sent me to a psychiatrist when I didn't get better, to see if antidepressants could help me, although that is standard procedure. She just kept telling me to come back, and I just kept trusting her.

I graduated from college, no better off than when I started, a heck of a lot poorer and having wasted a lot more time.

For years I kept going to psychologists, trying to figure my life out. They welcomed my visits and my Visa card. But in the end I found out I needed medication, not a Freudian analysis.

When you have problems of the mind, it's like living with a continuous Humpty Dumpty syndrome: You're constantly falling off walls, trying to put yourself back together again, climbing back up, only to fall off the wall again. Everything takes time and physical and mental energy.

And it feels like an enormous amount of wasted time.

But there are ways to deal with it. There are mental health support leaders from groups like the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health America who can help patients navigate the complex world of mental health care.

I am a firm believer in second opinions, whether with my primary care physician, or a consult from another practicing psychiatrist, who can offer up an expert opinion as to the effectiveness of my mental health care.

Patients often understand this second-opinion practice when it comes to issues like cancer or heart problems. But when it comes to matters of the mind, many don't always think to do this. Many believe that mentally ill people are supposed to suffer for long periods, that it's normal to be depressed for months on end. I prefer therapists and doctors who don't believe this, because neither do I.

Patient education is also a way to cut back on time wasters. Some medical providers are up to date on continuing education and do their best to inform patients, but that's not always the case. I've largely had to understand my mental health issues on my own.

I'll never get my years back. For quite a while, I was angry at how much time I've lost, but there's no point in looking back because I know for sure that next year will be better. I'll make sure it happens.