Often there are many parts of the mental health treatment process that you can’t control.
“Providers can let patients down, medications may fail or cause uncomfortable side effects [and] there is enormous stigma around mental illness,” said Kelli Hyland, M.D., a psychiatrist in outpatient private practice in Salt Lake City, Utah.
But you can control your role. For instance, you can accept your symptoms, educate yourself about your illness, build your treatment team and speak “up when you feel small and scared,” she said.
Advocating for your mental health provides significant benefits. “Taking an active role in the healing process brings empowerment, confidence and can build quality of life independent of cure or physical wellness,” she said.
Below, Hyland shared several ways you can become your own best advocate.
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I almost can’t believe this article. Yes it would be nice to do those things, but really if you can you are probably not in a critical phase. It’s very hard to speak up when you feel small and you’re not sure what’s real and what isn’t. Additionally this all assumes you’ve got the right tone. In the middle of a MH problem you probably sound whiny or aggressive which doesn’t help your case. Furthermore, providers don’t listen to you and bully you into treatments you have no intention of taking, even if you know it is not the right way. You have to take certain drugs before they will help you. And you don’t get a list of alternatives… they tell you, you will feel differently in a few weeks…. and then you don’t. I am in the UK I don’t know if US is any different on this, but I suspect not.
Spot on!