Finding Your Marbles
A Mental Health Survival Guide

“You have depression.”

I can still hear my doctor’s words. I had been to see him because I knew something was wrong. I was tired, my moods were all over the map and I just couldn’t seem to focus on anything. After asking me a few questions, he gave me a depression screening test, and the results came back; I had “moderate to severe major depressive disorder.”

The words were like lead weights.

“Major Depressive Disorder.”

I felt like a freak.

Being diagnosed with depression was one of the lowest points in my life. My mood and my self-esteem, already low to begin with, sunk even further. The writing was on the wall. No matter what I said, or did, I couldn’t avoid it; I had depression.

It took me over 2 years of going to therapy and taking medication to recover from depression. And along the way, I made a lot of painful mistakes. However, the worst mistake I made was when I treated my diagnosis of depression as a negative label; a label that I was crazy or worse.

If you are reading this article, and you, or someone that you know, has recently been diagnosed with depression, I hope that my words will help convince you. Being diagnosed with depression isn’t the end of the world. In this article, I hope to share with you the advice that I myself should have taken when I got my diagnosis. It would have saved me a lot of pain.

Continue reading “What to do If You Have Been Diagnosed With Depression” »

Therapy is expensive. Really expensive. I used to joke with my therapist that for the amount of money that I spent on therapy I could have gone on a cruise, or at least had a great weekend in Vegas.

One thing to keep in mind when you are trying to figure out how to pay for therapy is that therapy is very important. Your mental health should be one of your top priorities. Therefore, when you are trying to balance your budget, or when you are looking for a way to pay for your therapy, try to keep things in perspective. Think of any money that you spend on therapy not as an expense, but as a necessary and positive investment in your future well-being and good mental health.

Continue reading “What to do When You Can’t Afford Therapy” »

In Part 4 of the Therapy Series: Leaving Your Therapist, I discussed how therapy relationships end, and how to end a relationship positively. In this final section I will share some of my thoughts on therapy and I will talk a bit about “alternative” therapies that I have encountered.

As I mentioned in the Introduction, therapy saved my life. If I hadn’t gone to therapy, my depression would have spiralled out of control and I don’t know where I would have ended up. Therapy is the single best tool for treating mental illness and I can’t recommend it enough. It is one of the necessary steps to full recovery.

Continue reading “Therapy Series Part 5: Thoughts on Therapy” »

In Part 3 of this series: “What To Do After Each Session,” I talked about what you should do after each therapy session. In this section, I will discuss how therapy relationships end, how to tell when your therapy relationship is coming to a positive end, what to do when your therapy relationship breaks down, and how to manage your “after therapy” relationship with your therapist.

Therapy relationships are not permanent, and eventually, your therapy will come to an end. You will either end the relationship yourself, or your therapist will end it, or you will come to a mutual agreement that you no longer need to continue in therapy. Leaving therapy can be a frightening and emotional experience. However, in a healthy therapy relationship, leaving therapy can be a form of rebirth. If you had a positive experience with your therapy, it will form a strong foundation on which you can build a healthy and happy life.

Continue reading “Therapy Series Part 4: Leaving Your Therapist” »

In Part 2 of this series: “Your First Therapy Appointment,” I talked about how to prepare for your first therapy session, and what to expect from therapy and your therapist. In this article, I will discuss what you can do after each therapy session to make your therapy more effective, and to help you survive the most difficult parts.

One day I was talking to a friend of mine who was going through some particularly difficult therapy sessions for anxiety. We were talking about how we both felt after our sessions were over. My friend described the “after-therapy” feeling to a T. He said, “It’s the feeling that you get after you have been to the gym or after you just spent all day working hard. You are exhausted, sore, and at the end of your strength, but there is a little voice inside you saying “Hooray, I did it!”"

Continue reading “Therapy Series Part 3: What to do After Each Therapy Session” »

In Article 1 of this series, Choosing a Therapist, we talked about how to find and choose a therapist. In this segment, I will talk about making your first therapy appointment, how to prepare, and what to expect when you get there. Finally, I will talk about the evolution and growth of the relationship between you and your therapist.

Continue reading “Therapy Series Part 2: Your First Therapy Appointment” »

Choosing a therapist is a lot like dating. You want to find someone who is supportive, someone who understands you, someone who is compassionate and who cares about your interests, and, above all, someone who you can trust. Also, just like dating, choosing a bad therapist can be a total nightmare, and one bad experience can be so discouraging that you are tempted to just give up. Finally, to make things worse, there are hundreds of therapists and there’s no easy way to pick the right one.

So what’s a person to do?

The answer is simple. Do some research, ask lots of questions, and be patient.

Continue reading “Therapy Series Part 1: Choosing a Therapist” »