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Old 10-31-2012, 01:35 AM   #1
Ibby
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Another (personal) reason we desperately need MORE health care reform

I'm a college student struggling with nearly-crippling depression, social anxiety, and trans* health care issues.
I'm still covered under my parents' Tricare coverage, because my father is a retired Air Force veteran and a current employee of the Department of Defense... and yet, technically, I'm uninsured at the moment because I need to marshal a BUNCH of forms to prove I'm a full-time student (which, yes, I am), to reinstate my Tricare coverage.

But I'm depressed and anxious enough to make documenting my coverage and reinstating my coverage a perilous and problematic venture. Therefore, I had to prioritize by filling my HRT out-of-pocket while being unable to finance my anxiety, insomnia, ADHD, and depression treatments out-of-pocket.

Which leaves me so depressed and anxious that it's difficult to marshal the resources necessary to reinstate my coverage and leave me in a medically-treated state where I'm more capable of doing my paperwork in a timely fashion, because I'm flat-out terrified to actually admit all my issues in a way that gets me the prescription coverage that leaves me able to deal with all the issues facing my education.

I'm currently at risk of losing all my medical benefits, because I am not currently able to have all my medical issues treated.

I am far from the only American affected by a systemic failure to effectively treat mental illness and personal issues in a way that leaves Americans like me able to remedy the effects of my health issues.

And yet, I have been, for years, a very effective member of the State Department, holding a security clearance, and furthering the gains of our diplomatic missions overseas. I'm not a fantastic academic, but i am a highly effective employee of the federal government who has proven my worth as a $15-an-hour employee. But my untreated mental issues have left me in a position where I have trouble being able to gain the bachelor's degree I need to re-join the State Department as an effective Officer. Not because I've failed any threshold, but simply because my Bachelor's degree has been delayed by my anxiety and depression.

With nationalized or otherwise guaranteed health care, I would be able to access the care I need to reinstate my earned Tricare benefits. Without, I'm on the path to lose my family-earned health care coverage and my parental financial support I need to complete my degree and earn health care independently by having a productive job with the State Department.

And I can't possibly be the only one.


It's a big deal for me to be laying my health care issues publicly on the line like this. It really is.
In a just world I wouldn't need to. I would already have unquestioned coverage for my crippling issues that would have me treated, and able to become the productive member of society I plan and want to be.

Why do Republicans think that's something I shouldn't have, and a reason for me to become a homeless, destitute, uneducated, sick person, unable to gain the sort of societal improvement they say they want to see from the "lower classes"? If being a good candidate for the Foreign Service is something that should only be available to the financially secure and luckily healthy, why should we trust our foreign OR civil service to be an effective force for the good of the American people?
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Old 10-31-2012, 02:36 AM   #2
Adak
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This is not a "just world". That is a fantasy, that will never be reality.

Being anxious is a problem, but it's one you can work on. You learn what triggers it, and set up mental (and practical physical) defenses against it. You should have learned a few of these, along with your meds.

Don't rely on the meds alone - rely on yourself, and try to wean yourself off the meds. Doctors will not always have the fix for your anxieties, since they are uniquely your own. You are with yourself 24/7, so no one else will know you better, or know at any moment, what is the best course of action to take to keep yourself on the path to best health.

As your anxieties decrease, your overall mental state should improve as well. Tell yourself not to accept being depressed and morose, and act like you're happy, anyway. Listen to some uplifting music - watch a cartoon or show you really like. You be strong for YOU, and you can't do that being depressed.

Nationalized health care would help some people, but care is always rationed. You can wait a LONG time for that doctors appointment or treatment. Some treatments are simply denied, as too expensive. Those requiring the most care, are the ones who will be most hurt, and you have NO right to object by filing suit in court - because this is the gov't, don't you know.

If you are promoted in a job, the responsibilities and pressures usually become greater. The manual labor part may decrease, but the managerial/administrative part, will increase.

You can do this! Adapt and overcome, and don't depend on others to make it easy for you - or you'll really be weakening yourself. You have to tackle your life - not wait and hope someone will catch it and offer it to you, all clean and shiny.

Life is messy sometimes, and it certainly can't be "just" or "fair".

Good luck in your pursuits!
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Old 10-31-2012, 05:44 AM   #3
Griff
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Sorry things are so bad right now. At the risk of being annoying sober guy, please watch your alcohol intake. It doesn't help anxiety/depression at all.
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Old 10-31-2012, 07:31 AM   #4
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I absolutely understand what you're saying Ibby. You know what you need to do but doing it is something else entirely. Sometimes I think I'm just barely squeaking through.

Though I believe there are cognitive steps one can take to help themselves...I also understand that one does not just will away depression and anxiety. It is a continual struggle. A vicious circle even: you know you need to do this or that to help yourself feel better but it's like something is blocking you from doing this or that. Like there's a wall there you can't get through.

I'm sure it's difficult to understand for those who don't go through it. I would think I was crazy if I weren't me.* As it is, I make myself more anxious by comparing myself to all the 'normal' folks and I find myself horrified if they knew just how far I let things slide sometimes.

Hang in there.

*ch'yeah...I do know I'm a little crazy. It's part of my charm.
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Old 10-31-2012, 07:44 AM   #5
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Sorry, Ibby! I wish I had some useful insights for you, but I don't. I just wish you the best and hope you find a way through this.
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Old 10-31-2012, 08:53 AM   #6
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*hugs*

Totally understand, m'dear.

Not much advice to offer I'm afraid. Filling in forms, giving details and explaining myself to access assistance was never my strong suit. I have at times racked up hundreds of pounds in late payment fines, or even unclaimed cheques, for the want of at worst a bus journey into town, and at best two minutes on the internet. Making benefit claims and registering with doctors' surgeries and suchlike seem like paralysing processes.

Are there any avenues for help through your university?
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Old 10-31-2012, 08:54 AM   #7
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Ibby, I'm sorry things are so hard right now. I kept my mouth so completely shut in your food blog thread, but you sound like you are on the edge and really need some help and this is the only help I know how to offer.

Your diet is fucking up your head. You know it's true. You eat basically nothing but wheat and dairy, plus beer which is just more wheat.

Given that you are in a mental state that makes it impossible for you to even get your own meds, I do understand you are probably not in a place where you could consider making yourself healthier in other ways. But please acknowledge, at least in some tiny corner of your mind, that this is part of the problem. Save the thought and tuck it away, to be re-examined once you are back on your meds and thinking more clearly. If nothing else, you are denying your brain all the vitamins it needs to work properly. But you've said before that you are pretty sure you have a gluten intolerance, which undeniably causes psychological symptoms. Studies have shown that even a significant portion of people diagnosed with institutionalized-level schizophrenia are actually just reacting to gluten, and when they remove it from their diet they are not schizophrenic anymore, even the least little bit.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm truly sorry if this post makes me a harping nag. But I hate to see my friends in pain. I will now STFU.
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Old 10-31-2012, 12:40 PM   #8
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Ibby, my heart goes out to you. I know all too well the issues you are struggling with. And ADHD can be the condition that pulls those knock out punches. I know that for me, ADHD is more responsible than any other one thing for my difficulties with paperwork, getting things done on time, coping with anxiety and depression - on and on in a dizzingly downward spiral.

How big is the town you live in? Almost every town in the US has an Independence Center which is an especially mandated service to help people with disabling or potentially disabling conditions such as you describe. They will provide you with an advocate who will help you with your paperwork, sending off for forms, etc. The Independence Center in Durango is fantastic! If you can't find one listed in your local phonebook, try looking on line as well as asking the folks at your school's mental health center (if it has one).

If all else fails, please PM me because I have tons of info for all over - not just Colorado because I do volunteer work with the Independence Center here and we have a listing of most of the other Centers in the different states. The service is free, so you don't have to worry about getting some big bill from them.

And please don't hesistate to let them know that right now your symptoms are giving you a lot of difficulty to the point where you do feel disabled. There's no shame in it, we all go through difficult times at least a few times in our lives.

Also, if you want, PM me, and I'll give you the link for a really fantastic ADHD online suport group. Many members there deal with dual diagnoses like you (and I) do. This group has helped me so much!

Hang in there and I'm sending lots of good thouhgts your way~
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Old 10-31-2012, 12:58 PM   #9
Ibby
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Thanks for the support, everyone but Adak (go to hell)... seriously. Though I really did intend this to be a political thread not an ibby bitches thread!


Quote:
Originally Posted by Clodfobble View Post
Ibby, I'm sorry things are so hard right now. I kept my mouth so completely shut in your food blog thread, but you sound like you are on the edge and really need some help and this is the only help I know how to offer.

Your diet is fucking up your head. You know it's true. You eat basically nothing but wheat and dairy, plus beer which is just more wheat.

Given that you are in a mental state that makes it impossible for you to even get your own meds, I do understand you are probably not in a place where you could consider making yourself healthier in other ways. But please acknowledge, at least in some tiny corner of your mind, that this is part of the problem. Save the thought and tuck it away, to be re-examined once you are back on your meds and thinking more clearly. If nothing else, you are denying your brain all the vitamins it needs to work properly. But you've said before that you are pretty sure you have a gluten intolerance, which undeniably causes psychological symptoms. Studies have shown that even a significant portion of people diagnosed with institutionalized-level schizophrenia are actually just reacting to gluten, and when they remove it from their diet they are not schizophrenic anymore, even the least little bit.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm truly sorry if this post makes me a harping nag. But I hate to see my friends in pain. I will now STFU.
I think you're misremembering. I'm pretty sure I'm fine with gluten, even though my mother seems to think i have mild aspergers (and I'm pretty sure I don't and i'm not in a hurry to get it checked or anything). I slightly suspect i'm not so good with lactose cause sometimes cheese makes me gassy but not so bad that i would stop eating cheese.
But, I need to go on a diet anyway - maybe convincing myself that it's for my mental health, not my waist size, would motivate me?
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Old 10-31-2012, 01:08 PM   #10
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To address the more political point: I agree. Help should be available free at the point of need in my opinion. The most anybody should have to do to access care is register with a doctor and make an appointment.

Unfortunately, mental health is the Cindarella service in nationalised and private health systems alike. For serious problems care is often inadequate and inconsistent and the lack of corresponding social services (help with housing supported living etc) often undermines even that care.

For less critical (though at times no less disabling) conditions though, such as depression, it seems an important point that people are less likely to be prevented from seeking help in the first instance, much of which can be done through ordinary GPs, if there are fewer hurdles in the way of them doing so.
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Old 10-31-2012, 01:32 PM   #11
orthodoc
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Unfortunately I have to agree with Dana regarding mental health care being the Cinderella of most health care systems. From personal experience as both a provider and a seeker of care for family members, my perspective is that it's a mess in both the US and the Canadian (single payer government guaranteed health insurance - not necessarily care) systems. It can be very difficult to access here in the US, but I've found it infinitely more difficult, nearly impossible, in the Canadian system. A single-payer nationalized system isn't a guarantee of access, not at all. Even GPs are almost impossible to get registered with, in Ontario.

I hope, with Clod, that you'll consider the role diet plays in your health (whenever you feel able), and I wish you success in filing your forms and getting reinstated with Tricare. I'm not sure I understood one phrase in your post - do you mean that if you don't get reinstated with Tricare, your parental financial support will somehow stop? Hopefully I misread that.
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Old 10-31-2012, 01:44 PM   #12
DanaC
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If what you need is standard meds to deal with clearly diagnosed conditions (adhd, depression etc) then that's easy enough under the NHS. Registering with a doctor is also very easy. Anything which needs care as well as medicine is when problems start.
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Old 10-31-2012, 01:59 PM   #13
orthodoc
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I should add that I only have experience with Ontario, within the Canadian system. Each of the provinces administers its own health care program. I've heard that Quebec's is a nightmare (substantiated by the huge numbers of Quebecois who cross the Ottawa River for care in Ontario, rather than in their own system), and Alberta's is fantastic. But no personal experience.

The Ontario government, in its wisdom, decided in 1991 that doctors were the reason health care costs were rising, and fewer doctors would mean lower costs (i.e. less access to care, less billing of the system). The government put some programs in place that begged doctors to leave, slashed medical school enrollments and residency training programs, and waited for the magic of lower health care costs.

The crisis is ongoing twenty years later. There are still completely inadequate numbers of physicians in the province. It's nearly impossible to get a family doctor, which means it's impossible to get access to specialist referrals or anything else. People use Urgent Care and the ER for basic care.

No system is perfect. I do prefer a system that guarantees access to insurance (but preferably also to care). I think the European medical systems have worked out better than the Ontario system has, on the whole.
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Old 10-31-2012, 02:06 PM   #14
Ibby
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Quote:
Originally Posted by orthodoc View Post
I hope, with Clod, that you'll consider the role diet plays in your health (whenever you feel able), and I wish you success in filing your forms and getting reinstated with Tricare. I'm not sure I understood one phrase in your post - do you mean that if you don't get reinstated with Tricare, your parental financial support will somehow stop? Hopefully I misread that.
not directly, but right now I'm having a lot of trouble getting myself to do the transfer paperwork to get from CCV to UVM, and if I'm not enrolled in school next term, the folks're basically gonna cut me off.
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Old 10-31-2012, 02:51 PM   #15
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Quote:
Though I really did intend this to be a political thread not an ibby bitches thread!
Just from a political point of view...

I've long believed the biggest hurdle for mental health treatment is,
in part, that we have politically separated "mental health" from
"physical health", just as we separate "dentistry" from "medicine".
Maybe mental health is a hold-over from olden days of voodoo
and religion, versus s blood soaked, broken-bone mentality.

A simple, yet inexplicable, example is the staffing of emergency rooms,
where dentists of the community are not on-call and do not participate.

This was what so impressed me when John Edwards first
proposed an all inclusive model for a national health care plan.
He actually included mental health in with traditional health services.

IMO, health care should be just what it says, "health care"...

and if a person has a "health" problem it should be included in the health service,
not smoke-stacked away into hierarchies of covered vs not covered,
and available vs not-available services.
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