Clan of the Red Band welcomes you to the site. This site was created for those with mental health issues to talk about and share their experience with others of our community. You may discuss your issues with what you are and what you were going through and what treatment methods you are taking.
Don’t think that you are the only one that has to deal with the issues you are going through. there are many of us that deal with mental illness daily and have found ways to better cope with it.
Methods of treatment can be anything from talk therapy, to seeing a psychiatrist regularly, taking medications regularly, along with other methods that may not be listed here yet.
The main goal of this site is to create a community driven site that is there to support one another through there issues and help to suggest ways to get help.
Currently trying to get the help you need for mental health issues can be challenging. it could take you months just to start getting the help you need. Also, in some cases you may need to check yourself into the emergency room and be transferred to a nearby facility that can better deal with the immediate issues and stabilize you. These facilities are not designed for long term care usually, so they look to get you in and out usually in 72 hours (3 days) from when you were first admitted. most are an involuntary hold so don’t expect to be in and out until the 72 hours is up. This gives the staff and Dr’s a chance to adjust any medications that may be needed.
Sometimes family or friends may have to take the steps to have their loved ones admitted to these facilities because they need the help but won’t go on their own. There was one such case with someone i meet in the facility that I was in. this was an elderly lady that was so upset about being there. she didn’t think she needed to be there and wanted to go home. she was upset and i went and talked to her on multiple occasions sometimes just briefly just to see how she was doing or sometimes for a reasonable length of time. after a few days there she was much better and happier than when she first came in. they had adjusted her medications, and she was getting ready to go home the next day. She realized after she had her medications adjusted that she was much better than she had been even before she had originally come in. If it wasn’t for her family taking the steps to admit her into the hospital she wouldn’t have got the help for the adjustment of her medications.
Another person i meet in the hospital had already been in there for over a month she said. she would sit alone and sometimes start crying. after a number of days i ended up talking to her a bit when she was upset. at first she really didn’t want to talk but after a few times of just taking even a few seconds to see how she was doing she started talking to me more and when she would start getting upset and crying i would ask her if she would take a walk up and down the hallway with me. i would sometimes just talk about stuff I had went through or any other subject. she would stop crying and would feel a bit better after I was done talking to her. I found out that i was like the only person that even really talked to her while she had been there. she had been going through her own issues including not remembering stuff and said she had lost stuff that she had like her phone that she had just got shortly before going to the hospital. While I was there i talked to her about some stuff that she was going through and told her to talk to her dr there to see about having her medications changed. before I left there her dr had changed her medications and she said she was starting to feel better.
While i was there I was dealing with my own problems. Severe depression and suicidal thoughts along with wanting to kill myself. I have been slowly getting worse with my mental and physical problems. I can’t do the things that I once was able to. Then being on the different medications, I have had side effects from them. I ended up checking myself into the emergency room when things got really bad and was transferred to Sierra Vista the next day. I ended up being in the hospital for over a week because not only wasn’t I getting the help I needed but when I tried to explain to the dr there what i was dealing with he didn’t really listen to what I was trying to tell him. i ended up trying to get in contact with my social worker all day the one day and never saw my worker there. the next day i was in not such a good mood because nothing was being done so I got some paper and a flex pen and wrote up some info that had been going on since i had been there and about my issues and handed it to a member of the staff. in a very short time, my worker was there and briefly after my worker showed up to talk to me my dr was there. after a few minutes of talking to both my worker and dr there things were resolved overall and a date to leave there was set. unfortunately, sometimes it takes going around and around in circles before things start working out. In my case you have a Dr that is already over worked and has a lot of patients to see every day.
sometimes you have patients that end up being there for any number of reasons and end up checking themselves in but really aren’t going to get the treatment that they need because they basically lie to the dr because they want to get out as soon as possible. now if they follow up without patient services as soon as possible they may be able to get the help after they are out of the hospital however sometimes they just fall back into the same situation they were in when they first went in.
Those that are seeking help need to be honest with themselves and their dr’s and not just look to get out of there as soon as possible without at least a continuing plan to seek regular care for their mental issues.