Since my diagonosis with severe ocd their has been a fear besides living with a mental health disorder that thrives on fear that has at times equaled my disorder in panic and sadness, that is getting mental health treatment in the USA.
At a time where I believe mental health advocates should be pushing for free mental health care and/or affordable healthcare to deal with the trauma of the pandemic we are all dealing with I find myself being dropped from another program that treats OCD because of the protocols set up at the teaching/experimentation system of OCD care that takes patients who cannot afford 300 dollar per 50 min therapy with the promise of making them well but with not stats or sucess rate to back that claim (If you ever want to suprise a therapist ask them their sucess rate ) and then either experiments on them or has them work with undergraduate psychological students.
This can be a decent exchange when you have a mild case of ocd even though the ideal would be to live in a country that does not profit on sickness. And its understandable that training and experimentation are needed for their to be treatments at all but I do think it's slightly unfair to do it on the backs or the poor and middle class.
If you are wealthy you can go to residential treatment, you can go to a top OCD specialist get assessed at 900 dollars and then pay the 300 per session and after 6 months be assured you got the best OCD care there was. If I had it I would not be writing this. OCD is a dream killer, a life waster, a horrible disorder, think of what you would pay to get rid of OCD, how desperate it makes you, people get labotomies, shock treatment, and can take up three ssri medications if a genie came along many would give up there last cent to rid themselves of this disorder and some do.
The charitable organizations are concentrating on stigma control when in reality it would be affordability that is the most helpful to the masses of people, 800,000, that have sever OCD. What makes it sadder is that some charities have the top residential ocd specialists on their boards but the residential centers are still quite unaffordable, you would think that those who have the power to give help would try to make treatment more affordable but that has not happened yet. I'd rather have a person without ocd say "I'm so ocd" if it meant I could afford OCD treatment in the weatlthiest country in the world.
So here I am at the tail end of scrounged up ocd care hoping to find the next lily pad to hop on, but after so many years of trying to get adequate care I'm giving up because its adding to my stress, anxiety, and making me worse.
To anyone who has read this I appreciate your time. I hope one day their is affordable treatment in the USA for severe OCD.
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Tikirob
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Thanks for your response and for getting past all my mispellings!
I am glad that you are a writer supporting the cause of mental health treatment. My journey has been so eye opening as I am sure yours has been too. When I was diagnosed I was amazed how sick I was and how unaware of my condition I was. It was a momment of sadness yet a moment of feeling like my mystery finally had an answer. Yet as I pursued getting healthy I then ran into the secondary problem I discribed above. Its great there are care centers for people who cannot afford treatment and the people that perform that work have a really hard job. However the taboo of mental healthcare treatment, the expense of it, and the lack of role models in the field on the treatment end have allowed the profession, patients, and there needs to become marginalized in our society.
How is your anxiety today and what do you attribute to getting well?
Medication helps some but not others. In my case it took my life falling apart to finally try the meds to find out. Just know that no matter what the treatment is you are the expert on you (my therapist told me that). I think it’s brave of you to get treatment to be the first in your family to do so. I am grateful for my journey because by doing so I now know that whether you have mental health disorder or not it is necessary to keep your mind at its best. I know people with ocd who have a much better perspective on life and it’s woes than some of their friend and family because they understand how important it is to deal with their thoughts abs feelings in a diplomatic way. I wish you the best and al glad that we are able to discuss this.
Well, I like to give you 'some advice', but note that with these things plus a good therapist, I am still struggling heavily with my severe OCD. Also I am fastly running out of finances. Subscribe to a good mindfulness meditation app, read some quality OCD self help books (written by Jeffrey Schwartz, David Burns, etc) and try the methods described in the book/ books. With the help of a good mindfulness meditation app (I don't want to name them here. I tried a few and selected one), you will begin to notice your brain' biases and games it plays. Concentrate two aspects of meditation Viz auditory (your inner dialogue and monologue) and visual (your imaginary scenes ). Do these meditations how many times a day you can. After a couple of months, you will get a clear picture of what your mind is doing inside you. This will help you in your future treatment whether it is with the help of a therapist or on your own. Allow your thoughts and feelings, but try to avoid analysing your thoughts or feelings. Stop analysing your thoughts and feelings is very important to avoid depression due to our hopelessness. Best wishes.
Do you have insurance? If you have a severe case of OCD and you have the proper diagnosis by a psychiatrist you may be able to get Medical Assistance. This is your state run Medicaid plan.
Also you should look at McLean Hospital in Boston. They were the first in the nation to have a residential care OCD program. They were very helpful in reducing our son's cost of treatment after BCBS refused to pay beyond the first two weeks for residential care. They looked at our son's meager income and reduced his cost of room and board from $200 daily to $20 daily.
Thank for your response. I’ve contacted all three major OCD residential centers (McClean now owns two of them) also contacted a program in Philly recommended by Dr. Byrnes, I’ve asked every place for grants, reductions, and such, McClean Boston did offer reductions but it still was going to tally in the tens of thousands, when I initially applied there I had a job and there were no reductions given but now I have lost my job and even though their is a discount I can’t afford 20,000 dollars. I can’t afford the 16,000 dollar Bergen treatment either. I have state issued insurance but I don’t live in Massachusetts. How did the program work for your son?
Keep looking . Our insurance dropped us and for 5 days I was devastated and going over and over all the paperwork. Ended being that billing department had applied the codes in the wrong claims.i can’t still get over that hopeful feeling even though my son is back in an OCD program...
check NAMI they have advocates to assist you find mental help . Good luck
Thanks but Nami has caused me so much grief. I won’t get into the details because it would be more wasted energy. Even with insurance which I have you can’t get treatment for severe ocd where I live unfortunately so you have to piece together odds and ends like teaching hospitals, groups, apps, and look into holistic healing, etc, I appreciate your advice though, very lucky to have other people to talk to about it, hope you are holding up and able to get back on track.
Hi - Its no better in the UK. You wait on average 5 months for Talking therapy- by which time you could be almost suicidal. I don't feel severe OCD is treated with the seruliousneds it deserves Yet you can get help for almost any other mental health disorder much more quickly! The mental health service is only interested on whether you are suicidal or not- they don't seem to be interested in much else! That's my experience anyway!
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