May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Here’s my controversial opinion: we don’t need more mental health awareness. We need more tools to get well and stay well. We need practitioners willing to think outside the box, beyond the checklists and low-efficacy treatments.
At 18, I met the criteria for a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
When I was diagnosed, I experienced symptoms of hypomania and mania that impaired functioning for weeks at a time, such as:
- racing thoughts
- lack of sleep
- grandiosity
- heightened energy
- impulsivity
- increased risk-taking
I also experienced symptoms of depression that impaired functioning, for weeks at a time, such as:
- low mood
- inability to get out of bed
- sleeping too much
- no joy in previously joyful activities
- no motivation
- fatigue
- hopelessness
BUT there were many other things going on in my physical body that were not addressed. Nobody blinked at chronic antibiotic use, chronic strep infections, or mononucleosis occurring at the same time. Nobody looked at trauma, hormones, or cortisol. Nobody looked at lab data at all.
Getting a diagnosis to match my symptoms didn’t give me information about the cause of the disorder or a solution to manage it.
I had to figure that out on my own.
I was very aware that my mental health wasn’t okay.
I didn’t need “mental health awareness.” I needed tools. I needed to process what a diagnosis would look like for my future. I got a label and meds that came with terrible side effects (and did little to tame my symptoms or treat the root).
