THE MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM IS COMPLETELY BROKEN: NOW, IT’S TIME TO BE 100% REAL ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH

Psychiatrist, psychologists, counselors and all those people out in the field. They’ve read about in books. But do they really understand the sheer hell that we go through? That’s why it makes sense that this younger generation is not opening up to these professionals. They want someone they can relate to. They want someone who has seen hell like them. Someone else whose mind has been a prison to them. Someone who has experienced the racing thoughts, the thoughts of suicide, the delusions, the off-the-wall ideas that no one would listen to, the voices, the cries for help that no one would think were real and the people that have just been told to sleep it off or think positive and everything would be better.

The mental health system is completely broken. People are sent to the psychiatric ward when it’s too late and they are let go way too early with no one checking in on how they are doing after they get out.

Good passionate mental health professionals are way too hard to find. It takes months to schedule with a psychiatrist and even then they will meet with you for five minutes and they proceed to prescribe you with something that some pharmaceutical rep pushed on them for some monetary compensation to hopefully make you feel better and send you on your way. It’s no wonder we have a mental health crisis. The system is god awful.

Then you get your medications and all the sudden there are severe side effects that push you to give up on them. What if there was something that told you whether or not there would be side effects to a certain medication that you are prescribed rather than playing the guessing game? Well, guess what? It exists. If psychiatrist truly cared about their patients rather than putting money in their pockets from pharmaceutical companies then every psychiatrist would use it, which is why you haven’t heard of it.

GeneSight is simple genetic testing that is even covered 100% by Medicaid. A simple test will show you the results of every antidepressant, antipsychotic, mood stabilizer or other mental health drugs and show you the severity of their side effects all from knowing your genetic makeup. You get results that show medications that will have no side effects, to moderate side effects, to severe side effects.

How nice would it be to have a list of medications that you could work with to figure out what works for you and know that they will cause no side effects? The sad thing is that many offices do not use this, but you can find online on their website at GeneSight.com where there are offices near you that offer this. The only thing is you have to be an established patient and many times it is difficult to get in with a new psychiatrist.

While medications play a huge factor in the recovery of someone with a mental health disorder, people with mental health disorders also need people they can relate to that have been through it all so that they feel comfortable opening up about their experiences. The only way the stigma is going to end is for more and more people to open up about their struggles with mental health. Because people with mental health issues feel alone in this battle, we need to band together and battle this together. We need to support each other through our struggles. Millions and millions of Americans are suffering including prominent celebrities. It’s time to speak up.

This year I will start a nationwide mental health tour speaking about my experiences. I paid the ultimate consequence in paralysis except barely escaping death. The consequence that too many with a mental health issue suffer. I want to show them that no matter what their situation is they can still achieve greatness. My goal is to change one life at a time. To get people in schools to start opening up to one another and to their families and friends about their struggles with mental illness so that they finally reach out and get the help they need. I want to create support groups inside each school with those students that are struggling so that they can band together and not fight the battle alone.

My first step will be reaching out to The LeBron James Family Foundation to schedule a meeting to see how we can battle mental health together back where I was born and raised in Akron. I want to give it back to the community that raised me into who I am today. From there the sky is the limit and the fight continues.

I’ve been helping to fight the battle through speaking, writing and working with people one-on-one since 2012, but now it is time to address the entire nation. I’ve been through hell and back and nothing is going to stop me. I can handle anything you throw at me. I want everyone to get to that point.

I can’t do this alone so if you’re struggling share your experiences. If you’re winning the fight share how you’ve done it. 2019 is going to be a fight, but I’m not going to give up on that fight until the day I die. But we must fight together. It’s time for all of us to keep it 100% real about mental health.