Getting Help --Two

This spring, I had a mental health setback during which my depression got to the point that had a hard time functioning and doing basic self-care tasks like cooking, cleaning, and shopping. I stopped answering my phone. I isolated myself more and more from friends and support communities like church, my German group, and other arts' communities I used to be active in. In fact, I found all human contact to be very painful. When I did venture out into a social setting, I was often tongue-tied and had nothing to add to the conversation. Instead, I spent most of my time at home staying in bed or listening compulsively to talk radio. I stopped listening to and playing music. I stopped writing my blog and journalling. I stopped doing exercise like swimming, walking, or biking.

At this point, I knew I had to do something drastic to get help for myself. So, I enrolled in a partial hospital program in the mental health unit of a Minneapolis hospital. It was a very intense experience during which I met five days a week from 9 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon for several weeks. The program I entered included all kinds of groups. There were therapy groups in which patients were encouraged to process the issues troubling them that had brought them to the hospital in the first place. Many groups were educational in nature in which we were taught a multiplicity of skills to help us better navigate our world. These included DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) skills like mindfulness meditation, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and opposite-emotion action. We were taught breathing, movement, and relaxation techniques. We were encouraged to set weekend goals. We were shown a variety of TED talks and power-point presentations on topics like self-compassion, self-esteem, sleep hygiene, psychotropic medications, and stages of grief. The program also had an occupational therapy component in which we were encouraged to express ourselves creativily though arts and crafts.

I was amazed at the great variety of people who attended the program with me. They ranged in age from seniors like myself to those in their twenties or thirties. Most were women although there were a few men like me. Some were college graduates. Others were parents. They brought with them a wide variety of diagnoses both physical and mental health. Many had experienced all kinds of traumas. I was also impressed at how knowledgeable many were about their illnesses and what brought them to the hospital. I found them to be very articulate and sensitive. I also experienced a lot of caring and concern for others. Because of the short-term nature of the program, there was a lot of turnover. That made it hard for me to adjust to all the new faces I encountered each day.

One of the things that impressed me the most about this program was the excellence of the staff. I found them all to be very caring, competent, and knowledgeable. It was amazing how many staff people - therapists, nurses, occupational therapists, movement therapists, and social workers I encountered during just one week. I found myself bonding with some of them in a special way. I was also impressed at how skilled many were in fostering two-way discussions during which patients felt comfortable in expressing their questions and concerns. It made me feel very grateful that I found such a wonderful program to help me weather this difficult chapter in my life.