Hello everyone!
I just wanted to share with you an update on my mental health journey. I've recently found a program at a local psychiatry residency clinic in which they offer the very new treatment for depression called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). I'm officially a patient at this clinic, and I have been approved and have officially started TMS treatments. I will say, there's still a small part of me that feels doubtful this could work. However, many people have participated in studies of this treatment and discussed it's beneficial aspects including one of my all time favorite writers Jennifer Lawson (best mental health advocate imo!). I wanted to share this with all of you, let you know that a few weeks ago I was honestly feeling incredibly suicidal and just full of existential dread, and just the hope of this experiment and getting approved for it helped pull me from that really dark place. I'm still feeling quite depressed, so don't think I'm like already super better. However, I now have hope that there could be a better tomorrow. Anyway, that's really all I wanted to share for now. I also wanted to let everyone know who may be interested in researching it that my insurance (which covers a large chunk of most treatments for things) still isn't quite covering the whole bill of this procedure (so I doubt there's very many insurances that would foot the whole bill) and I have to pay nearly $700 out of pocket. Compared to some things, this isn't awful. And with the idea that it could potentially cause my depression to go into remission for a large chunk of time, it seems highly worth it for me. That's not always the case for everyone, though, so I figured I would share that. In addition, I knew it would be weeks of treatment when I originally looked into it; what I did not know was that they expect you to show up everyday M-F for six weeks. Each appointment isn't very long, only like 30 min max, but still for me, that's asking A LOT when it comes to trying to make time in my work schedule. I figured some might find this helpful or good to know beforehand, so I felt like sharing. I do plan to check back in and let all of you know how I think it went in six weeks! 🤞💕