[pasbesoin]

I'm going to come at this from another perspective. Some years ago, a friend lost a significant portion of their health to a couple of unfortunate injuries. Doctors have not been able to fix these problems and have actually on more than one occasion made them worse.

As this person describes, before this occurred, life had it's ups and downs. But even with the serious downs, it was typically about a three day cycle before they started to "bounce back". Even when the underlying issue was not resolved, the current day and current experiences started to once again predominate, and things started to come "into perspective".

Currently, they experience some level of discomfort almost constantly, and the infrequent "good periods" are quite unpredictable. The result is that they often simple can't concentrate on things in a sustained fashion, and so they also can't enter the state of "flow" that used to make them so productive.

My point: GUARD YOUR HEALTH. And pay attention to your health. If you are struggling, stop and ask yourself: How am I doing, physically?

I've become convinced that a significant portion of the U.S.'s "mental health" issues actually have their origin in physical health, or lack thereof.

--

One of my issues with health care in the U.S. is that, when the doctor makes a mistake, you "pay twice" to -- hopefully -- have it fixed. If you don't want to do that, and/or they don't fix things, you face a very expensive and uncertain process. In this person's case, all they really wanted was to "feel better". One would think that addressing this, medically, would be the simplest solution, But... the U.S. health care system has a way of entirely reversing priorities.

Insurance helps ameliorate this somewhat (a cap on your own, immediate out-of-pocket expenses). If you don't have insurance (perhaps, ever more so these days, through no fault of your own), or they deny your claim, you're fully screwed.

[housewife]

This is a really great point. I have long believed that physical and mental health are so connected to one another. I actually have had this proven to me very recently in two instances. My mother in law has cancer, and she recently stopped responding to chemo, so she stopped the treatment. Now basically all she can do is fight with sheer will (which she has a LOT of luckily) and she's doing this vegan diet, which has been known to cure some people. The funny thing though, is that she was saying the other day she feels so much more able to fight it now that she's off chemo and not feeling sick all the time. She's feeling like a million bucks, I hope it stays that way... The other instance is myself; I am currently recovering from my second go with postpartum depression. I am ok now, I actually feel like dynamite too :) but I did have to go on meds for it. It's unreal how it affects you physically. I was sleeping like 16 hours a day for a few weeks, and still exhausted (and I was blessed with a baby that slept through the night at 5 weeks, so it wasn't due to actual sleep deprivation). And now I'm really feeling healthy. Anyone will tell you too, exercise and sleep and diet are some of the keys to keeping depression at bay.

I am fortunate that I live in Alberta, and don't have to go through the woes of the US health care system. I never take our free healthcare for granted. I am sorry for what your friend is going through...

Thanks for the post pasbesoin!