It is May 1st, the first day of Mental Health Awareness Month and what headline did I wake up to? This: Trump admin stops grant funding for school mental health : NPR. The grants came from the Safer Communities Act which was a bipartisan law passed in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting. Republicans…
A year ago, I went through an intensive outpatient program (IOP) because I was having suicidal ideations. I wrote a series of posts at the time chronicling my journey. When I realized that was a whole year ago, it got me thinking, and I figured I’d share my thoughts. The first thing is that the…
NPR ran a story the other day, Veterans will be hurt by Trump’s back-to-office order for VA therapists, sources say : Shots – Health News : NPR. The gist of it is that there simply is not enough room at the VA offices to bring everyone back. The telehealth provided by the VA will be…
I have Major Depressive Disorder. I have also been the primary caregiver for someone with depression. So, when I ran into this article, How to support someone with depression | Psyche Guides by Emma Cotterill, I was doubly interested. If it was a good guide, I wanted to help get the word out. And it…
You ever have one of those days? Well, I had one today. I really didn’t feel like posting anything today, but blowing my streak on the fourth day of the month would make me feel even worse. So, what made it a lousy day? It’s hard to explain. I did get a terrible night’s sleep…
I have the strongest urge to start this last piece about my mental health journey through an intensive outpatient program (IOP) with an apology. I can’t tell if it’s an acceptable urge or if I should use opposite action to resist it. The thing is, I don’t feel like I’ve done a very good job…
Well, I finished my intensive outpatient program (IOP) today. It’s a day earlier than I expected, but I’ll talk about that later. For now, I was customarily early, but the fourth to arrive. These new group members are something else. It was a big group today, so check-ins took all of the first hour and…
This is the start to my last week of IOP. I’m all kinds of conflicted about it. Over the past two-ish months, group has become kind of homey. At the same time, I think it’s time. I have to get back out in the real world sometime. I just wish the real world weren’t so…
I overslept this morning. Well, that’s not quite right. Technically I woke up when I was supposed to. I just kept hitting snooze and hitting snooze some more. I was only about five minutes early to the IOP. I was also third to arrive. It was one of those mornings. The pacing was a little…
I was third at the IOP this morning. These new group members are early birds. I guess I’m going to have to get used to it. I can’t reasonably get there more than fifteen minutes early every day. Plus, the normal clinician was out today, so I started the day a little out of sorts….
