Steve
Steve
The path to the right treatment
Since he was about 17 years old, Steve has experienced episodes of anxiety and depression. Sometimes the episodes lasted a few weeks and sometimes a few months. Once, he had an episode that lasted five years.
Severe anxiety and depression have caused him to go on medical leave from work. To help, he has tried different medications, different therapists, different approaches.
Steve’s journey to find the right treatment for his issues has been a long one, but he’s finally in a place where he is symptom-free and ready to tell the world that it’s important to seek help.
Given that I have been lucky enough to find the right treatment for myself and have learned how to better manage my condition, I feel grateful and would like to share that with other people who are experiencing the same thing.
I also think that being honest and forthcoming may help decrease the stigma around mental health.
Being afraid to speak out about it because of what other people may think is what’s keeping so many other people from coming out and seeking help if they need it.
In college, Steve met regularly with a counselor to deal with his issues, and he has been seeing a therapist regularly since his mid-20s. He started taking anti-anxiety medication in his early 30s.
In his 50s, he was hospitalized twice at McLean Hospital. At McLean, he took part in the hospital’s cognitive behavior therapy program (CBT), which teaches skills that improve a person’s mood and ability to function.
He calls CBT “the most effective treatment for me because it taught me how to manage my condition.”
Even though I have been doing well, there have been stressful times where I thought I might fall back into an episode.
The skills and techniques I have learned from CBT have helped me do what I need to do in order to prevent a slip from happening.
“Being afraid to speak out about it because of what other people may think is what’s keeping so many other people from coming out and seeking help if they need it.”
With the help of CBT and the support of his family, friends, and husband, Steve is moving ahead in life. He enjoys traveling. He likes to cook and garden. He takes classes to stay up-to-date in his work as a software engineer.
Steve wants other people to learn from his journey and take steps to address their mental health issues.
I would tell people to seek out a reliable mental health clinician. It might be advantageous and more comfortable for someone who is afraid to ‘come out’ about their condition to start there.
Then, I would suggest seeking out someone in their personal life who they completely trust.
From there, it may become even easier for that person to continue seeking the help they need to help their condition.
