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Getting your medications right is always a struggle. It used to be that lithium was the only option. The new medication got expensive, at one point it cost my dad $1,200 a month just for the medication. And not to politicize this, but you could get the meds cheaper from Canada.
My mom and dad were working poor, though no one in America will admit to being anything other than middle class. When my mom had to be institutionalized for bipolar, the bills were huge, and they were always on the precipice of bankruptcy, working out a payment plan.
As bad as mental illness is (there is nothing worse than feeling like your mind - which is YOU - is attacking you from the inside out and ripping you apart) - cognitive decline happens with age to the healthy. The impact is amplified among those with mental health conditions.
I saw mental illness on a microlevel - the bills, the institutions, the struggles, the living a life that isn't normal. And on a macro level, no one is talking about this. Aging populations already have cognitive decline. Add in pre-existing mental heal issues, and then what?
And there's a huge stigma attached with mental illness, and I'll tell you why. No one is really supposed to talk authentically about it, because someone will get hurt. Here's what I mean...
I was never the same after visiting my mom at the mental institution. I felt...alone. As if I could never rely on another adult. That's not something a parent would want to hear. And yet it's my experience and my reality. Any truth on these issues will be hurtful.
Every mental health issue is a catch-22. Does a parent want to know their child may look at them differently if the parent is in an institution? How much must that hurt. I can't comprehend it. And yet I did feel different. I felt alone and on my own after that visit.
And there’s a huge fear of people to reach out when they are having a mental health episode. Everyone really cares about mental health when a celebrity commits suicide, but day to day? You’re supposed to keep this stuff to yourself.
If you let people know about a mental illness, they will use it against you. People have tried used my mom’s bipolar against me. The only people sicker than those with real conditions are everyone else.
Whenever I write about my mom’s bipolar and childhood experiences with it... So many people have similar stories. Mental health is a major issue that we’re not supposed to talk about. Until someone commits suicide or OD’s. As a society we need to grow up a bit. Or a lot.
Mental health issues don’t get written or spoken about because those most qualified to speak about them and who lived them are also least prepared for the hate. The attacks will come. And so people hide under the covers with the curtains drawn hoping the gloom goes away.
It’s hard to not say my childhood influenced my politics. What do you do about the mentally ill? What I hear from so many, “They should have saved up for the medical bills!” The glibness with which serious issues are treated has always troubled me.
Socialism isn’t going to solve the problem, nor snide remarks about “They should have saved up more!” However, the drugs my mom needed cost 1/10th of the price charged in America. $1,200 in the U.S. Every month. $120 if you ordered them from Canada. Which is illegal.
This is an aspect of American living that has to be sorted out.
The @NHSuk might not be perfect, but no one needs to go bankrupt because of an illness.
The American healthcare situation is a joke,even before the farce that was Obamacare.
Please accept my thoughts & prayers Mike.
We all have our stories Mike and where we originally came from. Where we FELL and were BROKEN. What we had to do to get back UP. Some of our stories are STILL BEING WRITTEN. ...You know all about that. 
Some of us have been THROUGH HELL and back...#lowerclass ?
Such a sad story and thanks for sharing it.
Medical bills are the cause of too many consumer bankruptcies and way too few work on consumer protection in these areas.
Say what you will about @ewarren, but she has been fighting this fight her entire career.
Truth!!
I try and teach my kids that being wealthy means you don’t have to have a job to cover your living expenses. Most Americans that think they are wealthy are just high I come earners. Most Americans are one bad car wreck away from the poor house. Life is hard.
This is part of the reason that I am sympathetic to national healthcare because people with serious chronic illness do not need the added stress of juggling medical bills and worrying about how they are going to pay. It will make their conditions worse.
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