Signified Need for Treatment

So I'm curious because I never asked anyone before, what situation or symptom or whatever was it that got you to realize you needed treatment for your mental illness?  Did you get treatment right away or was it delayed?  Mine was after reading an article on the mental illness I've been diagnosed with and relating to it a lot but me getting treatment was delayed 7 years but I was used to it seeing as how I had it practically my whole life, that is until it got out of hand and then I got into treatment because someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder pointed me in the direction to go.

[wj74]

I was initially diagnosed with depression. I went to the doc b/c I knew I was depressed and wasn't sleeping. That in itself was driving me mad. I started antidepressants and my mood swings really picked up. I kept track of them for a few months and was diagnosed with my mood disorder 4 months after starting treatment.

[adel_ezz]

In the seventies patients were diagnosed as having ADHD that was the style of the era. This era it's BP. Usually as it occurred to me I started being depressed so i was given antidepressants along with an AP. Once i stopped the AP and got manic after a few months, so I was dx BP.

I am not convinced (i said this befre a hundred times) of being mentally ill. This I consider when a person can't differentiate between right and wrong. The person loses the logic. Mood swings is something else even if under drastic mood change.

[ILADVOCATE]

I sought treatment on my own but as I've stated I self diagnosed (which is a poor idea for anyone) as having ocd (after having read about that, I did have obsessive thoughts but a psychiatrist I saw later explained that they masked psychotic thoughts) and was given Anafranil (what was available then) which made severely worsened mania (as I have the bipolar aspect of schizoaffective) and so I had to go to the psych. hospital. I started having auditory hallucinations and delusions and signs of mania and depression at the age of 13 but they were labelled as "bad behavior" and I thought I had "bad thoughts". It was not until I had a full psychotic break at age 18 after my stepfather died having had to leave college (to which I returned after treatment to another school) that I realized what I had might be more severe and what it was. But it was not until I was hospitalized that I recieved the correct diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder and the correct follow up treatment with an antipsychotic and mood stabilizer.

[starbunny]

First ever time I got 'help' for mental health problems I was 12, my parents took me to the doctor and I got admitted to hospital but I can't remember if it was straight away. It was probably the start of the bipolar.
I sought help myself as a teenager for depression and as a young adult because of suicidal impulses, help was very very slow and I did not see a psychiatrist for a long time but spent years on and off seeing a community psychiatric nurse.
The last time I had an episode I just happened to be in hospital for a different problem and a nurse told me I'd had a breakdown and called the emergency psychiatrist immediately and I got help right away. He said that I was 'classic' bipolar had been so for years undiagnosed because I only recognised the depressive episodes. It also explains why I could not tolerate antidepressants because I could not get any sleep / became extremely agitated on them..

[kathy434]

I started with depression when I was 15 but just figured it was the stress of my home life as well as the loss of a boyfriend.  However, the depression continued for years.  Even then I didn't realize anything was wrong because I had lived with this for so long I just figured I was a bad person.  Eventually I was diagnosed with Major Depression.  Little help did I find with antidepressants.  Then I was put on Lithium and suddenly I felt totally normal for the first time in my life.  This led to the dx of bipolar disorder.  New cocktails of medications pulled me out of a life threatening mindset and into a normal life.  I took these meds for years, faithfully.  They literally saved my life.  When I tried to stop the mood stabilizing medications, I started into a manic state which felt really good at first, but then went beyond what would be normal for my behavior and it was obvious to me then that I needed to be on mood stabilizing meds for the rest of my life.  My pdoc also thought this way.  I take the meds and they help me to feel stable and I can fit in with society with little problems.  I am not angry that I have bipolar.  It just is, and I am just grateful that my diagnosis was correct and that there is help for me.

[Xila31]

I knew I needed treatment for years and years. Being suicidal is not normal. I knew that. Hating yourself passionately is not normal, either. I wasn't a cutter or anything, but I had other problems. I always felt abnormal and unloved. I would reach out for people trying to get someone to help me and usually I was rejected. I had no idea how to get help by myself. I kept trying and trying to fix myself but nothing would work.

Basically, I knew I needed to get help or I would eventually not be here anymore. I could feel myself getting worse. Last year was terrible and I know it can get worse if I don't do something now. It was the worst possible year for me to get so bad because we have so little money. I'm hoping that changes this year.

[Alex_X_18]

I was diagnosed at age 11 that was the start of things I had a long period of instability where I fialed about 4-5 years of school and wasn't taking good care of myself. I went to the doctor be we weren't in as good of communication as we should have been and it was hard to work with her because I had a lot of denial about my illness and for a long time becase of these two things I wasn't thinking clearly...I didn't start actualy attempting to treat myself better until around 2-3 years ago. It started with me relaising that I needed a stronger stupport system and that I needed to be better organised with things espically my meds. slowly I started doing things to improve Over time I became more stable. But then suddenly I had two major manic epsiodes within a matter of months. I managed to treat them living on my own without hospitalizations it was difficult. I think the point where I really saw the biggest change was the period after when I had depression and rapid cycling. I wasn't really unstable but I just told fainaly myself I wasn't gonna let this take me down. It took a whole semster and I had to move back in with mom but I managed to stablise my meds stop cycling loose the weight I had gianed and raise my GPA in the prosses and get my blood sugars down to a decent level. since then I managed to keep myself mostly stable my mood shifts from time to time but I deal and with regulat doctor visits.

[zzzmykids]

I started with migraines and depression at about eleven. My chiropractor said I never had enough cortisol. My parents were told the headaches would go away if I ate breakfast...I hate breakfast. The depression they did not deal with because I wasn't suicidal like my sister. So from eleven to forty two I handled it on my own and sometimes had a counselor. The migraines went away when I was 33 and had the big hyster.....for women...six months after the surgery no more migraines. But the depression was there. I was taking four college classes to become a counselor. Psych 101, the pages bounced off right into me! I knew what I had been experiencing all my life was bp. Had two counselors agree and my gp, didn't go to pdoc...big mistake.  But that is how I knew there was a name for what I had been feeling for so many years.  At eleven, I couldn't name it but the sticky, dark place. At 26 or so I was told it was depression and at 42 it was given a name, Bp2 and for the first time I started meds. zzzmykids

[BeeKeeper]

I had been depressed and suicidal off and on for many years.  Would go through spells of having tons of energy/ideas to being wiped out and doing things I shouldn't have.  a few years ago things started getting out of control - not sleeping for days, extremely sicidal, migraines, etc.  For the fist time I went to see a pdoc and he said I was manic depressive and needed to go on meds...i declined and tole him i could handle it myself.  about a year later I could feel myself losing my hold on reality...extremely suicidal again so io made an appointment to see the pdoc again.  As it happened both my CIO and VP approached me that day and said that perhaps i needed to look for work elsewhere because I seemed so unhappy...and I went off on them.  Yelling that is was non of their business if i was happy or not as long as I was doing the darn job.  They promptly laid me off.  Ironically I worked at a hospital so i walked into the pdoc's office and said I need help.  his reaction was that either i immediately start medication or he would put me in in-patient.  So I started med treatment, talk therapy and DBT...that was a year and a half ago.   ...and no, did not get my job back.  Had to find another job in another state.