Insurance companies are evil.
That’s the feeling I get whenever I write a check for a premium. I get that feeling when I’m denied payment for a medication because it’s out of formulary or the co-pay goes up. Insurance companies encourage fast-food treatment for what can be lifelong difficulties…when we take that approach with nutrition, we end up obese. When we take that approach with behavioral/mental health and addiction/alcohol problems prescribing only medication as the answer, we can end up as zombies with mind-problems that are hidden and never resolved, or chronic conditions that we don’t learn how to live with.
Twenty years ago I was a privileged patient of a psychotherapist in Ashland, Oregon. At the time, I was having some trouble with life that was rooted in low self-esteem. I couldn’t pay the bills no matter what my income; everything I did seemed somehow wrong. I attended individual therapy and a men’s group and also joined a self-help group, and over the course of years I made significant changes that affected my larger future. I also started meditating. In short, a combination of therapeutic, behavioral and spiritual efforts worked.
By the way, I’m not a Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Moslem or a devotee of any religion…I just meditate regularly. It works for me.
Since then, I temporarily added medication into the mix for some anxiety I was experiencing after a heart attack, along with individual therapy and self-help. The medication worked. I no longer need it or take it, and I don’t participate in individual therapy, it worked, too.
Today, I have a good life, and a holistic approach to treating the body, mind and spirit is integrated into that life. Others can and do find this successful, too.
A friend of mine recently couldn’t get the medication mix right for his depression. It took day-treatment to get him on track. Now his medication is right, he made some behavioral changes and it worked…depression faded away.
There’s too much evidence around me about what works to ignore it.
Insurance companies exist to make money. Wendell Potter is watching them, but still, they will demand fast-food treatment because it’s cheaper for them. Effective treatment takes time and a combination of efforts targeted toward body, mind and spirit.
The patient has to want to get better, and that’s an inside job. From what I’ve seen, it’s usually a patient choice to recover by taking the tough road. He has to do what it takes to recover, body, mind and spirit…or just take drugs and even though the patient doesn’t realize it, be slowly changed into a different person.
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