YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Okay. I'm finally at the point where I'm giving up on doing this on my own because I've been exquisitely unsuccessful thus far. The next logical step is therapy and letting someone else try and fix things. I have insurance that is awful for mental health and I barely make a living wage anyways, so then my option is county mental health that deals with lower income individuals....except that's where I work. We are the resource for people like me. It's just too close to home for me because I know these people, we work with the same clients.

I deeply, deeply afraid that getting help via my work will set me up for losing my job if they found out how bad things are for me at times. I'm pretty good at only falling apart at home, but HR may not see it that way (note: I am not a psychologist or counselor, so I am not directly in charge of the mental well-being of others).

So where else do I go? Even the local therapists that work on a sliding scale are beyond what I can afford.

That's a hard one.

Do you live near another city or town with a mental health facility? Maybe you could go out of town.

Or, do you have someone on staff that you trust? If so, you could approach them about the issue and ask for some kind of referral. You're not responsible for the care of other individuals, so I don't think asking someone on staff you trust for a referral would be a problem.

There's also psychcentral.com. They have a Q&A forum with mental health professionals, so you could submit your question to them and see what they could do.

My last idea would be your doctor. They might be able to find you a referral?

I hope you would find acceptance of your needs in your workplace. After all, your organization is on the front line of mental health. Not knowing you, I can only speak for myself in saying if it were me, I have so much trouble with pride and feeling like I shouldn't need help. If any of that is playing into your decision not to work with someone in your office, please give yourself the same care and compassion you would anyone else.