Healing by people to us. Have we experienced disapproval from family, friends, or professionals? People do speak the truth to us and how does this tie into our mental health? People tell us to speak up when things are bad or we don’t agree with something.
5 years ago when my sadness and anxiety were impacting my health and well-being I met with a psychiatrist. I monitor my mood daily. I use a scale from one to ten. One means I am in complete darkness and ten means I am free of symptoms and experiencing joy and pleasure. My psychiatrist said, “Let’s have a goal of consistently achieving daily an eight and nine.
Fast forward to the present moment. I was at a seven and eight until about two months ago when I dipped back to a six and seven. The new psychiatrist I had said, “You may need to accept this is the way things will be”. I walked away from the appointment feeling sad and irritated with their assessment. A different psychiatrist met with me this past week. This psychiatrist took time to understand my situation and listened to my desire to improve my mood. Note: My doctors are at Mayo Health Care they have a residency program. They provide psychiatry for one year and then a new resident is assigned to me. A Senior Psychiatrist oversees my care and meets with me at each appointment along with the resident.
I spoke up as an advocate for my care. Due to an open and honest dialogue with my psychiatrist, a modification was made to my medications. We need to have the gumption and courage to speak out with fortitude so we can manage our care. When we do this it is done with love, gentleness, attention, tenderness, and with insight. Doing it in such a way that we come out as inviting to the truth of our mental health challenges, addiction, and trauma.
We need to trust our instincts about our care so that we do our part rather than being a passive spectator. This applies to all the people on our treatment team. Some of those people may be a therapist, support groups, family, peer mentors, primary physicians, friends, and others who make up your team.
When I speak up and offer my input it is awkward at times. Not too long ago I shared my thoughts with my psychiatrist and I found myself feeling apologetic and said so to my doctor. Their response was, “You have a right to be an advocate for your health.” At that moment I felt complete joy, my trust in them increased, and a smile came to my face. Loving ourselves enough means we want the very best for ourselves.
SuperHuman Being
Peace
Larry
email: ljw@superhumanbeing.net
website: https://superhumanbeing.net/
