Thread by @BossRVA

I’ve been starting to share my mental health journey more publicly but let me back up to the beginning.

The short story is this year, at the age of 30, I was diagnosed as bipolar after my PCP prescribed me Lexapro which triggered a manic episode and landed me in inpatient. 1/?

The past year has been a tough personal journey for me between work changes and physical surgeries. In January/February, I was feeling the strain on my mental health. 2/?

In February, not only was I calling for @GovernorVA’s resignation as part of RVA Dirt, but I was investing a lot of long hours into renovating my office space to set up the agency.

Sidenote: YO #ResignRalph

Anyway... 3/?

In March I remember sitting down and cold calling psychiatrists for help from my health insurance website. Health insurance I only have because of the Affordable Care Act.

Only one ever called me back: @VCUHealth aka MCV. 4/?

MCV said it would be a 6-8 week wait for an intake PHONE CALL to determine if I was a good fit for their program. The first actual appointment wouldn’t be until AUGUST.

For anyone playing at home, check the month that I’m tweeting this. 5/?

I had a crying breakdown on the phone because I knew it was more urgent than that timeline. I didn’t know what was going on but I knew I wasn’t okay. The intake person told me to see my primary care physician. 6/?

I didn’t have a great relationship with my primary care physician and didn’t feel comfortable going to them. I hoped other places would call me back. They didn’t.

I ended up switching to a different PCP in the same practice. 7/?

My first appointment with that PCP was April 2nd. By this time, I was having anxiety attacks daily. In addition to refilling my adderall, they prescribed me Lexapro and Xanax. I started Lexapro that day but I barely took the Xanax. 8/?

They hooked me up with a psychiatrist whose first appointment was 2 months out. When May 31st came, they had to reschedule because of illness. At one point the first reschedule date was over a week out but they were able to get me in on June 4th. 9/?

On June 2nd I woke up feeling like myself again. Everything was perfect. I went to a Farmers Market. I bought a journal. I went to Byrd Park and started writing. I was reintroducing myself to myself. 10/?

On June 4th I had an appointment with my PCP and another with my psychiatrist. I felt fantastic. I thought Lexapro was finally working and wanted to keep it versus making a change when I felt so good. 11/?

On June 5th I had, what I know now, to be my first manic episode. I won’t get into details on this thread but I am very lucky to have supportive family and friends that came when I called them.

The short story is I was having hallucinations, delusions, & paranoid thinking. 12/?

On June 6th, I had a second manic episode. This manic episode is the one where the cops got called. Again I was having delusions, hallucinations, and paranoid thinking.

I can’t stress enough how I only survived these episodes because my friends and family were by my side. 13/?

I went willingly to MCV’s ER to be checked out. I felt fine and didn’t know why I had to go. Once in the ER, they put me in a room alone right before the hospital went on lockdown for a shooting victim that came in so my family couldn’t get to me. 14/?

I’ll summarize this part and just say: shit got weird.

This was the height of my visual and auditory hallucinations.

This is where they had to sedate me with 2.5 or 3 doses of haldol. I remember at least 6 if not 9 people holding me down to strap me down. 15/?

The next morning I woke up on the adult psychiatry unit of MCV with a temporary detention order.

The TDO originally was going to send me to Central State because there weren’t enough beds at MCV.

The TDO has the wrong SSN and says I have blonde hair with brown eyes. 16/?

When the TDO expired, I volunteered to stay which means I willingly signed away my 2nd Amendment rights to own or possess a gun. I would have to go to the circuit court to petition a restoration of those rights. 17/?

In total, I was there for 6 days but it took about a month before I felt “leveled out.” After 2 months one of the medicines made me sleepy all the time and they changed my medication. That medication made me hallucinate and disassociate. 18/?

The journey of recovery after a mental health break is not easy and does not end.

I’m still struggling to get appointments for testing that will tell me if I’m ADHD after being diagnosed for 5 years and medicated for it for 3 years. 19/?

https://twitter.com/bossrva/status/1167635972084908033?s=21

Almost 3 months after my mental health break, I am just now getting back to work. Thank god my family stepped in and handled my business when I couldn’t.

I am grateful everyday that I was given the opportunity for #HelpNotDeath because Marcus-David Peters didn’t. 20/?

When I resigned from RVA Dirt, it was on August 6th. The 3 year anniversary of creating the platform and 2 months since I went to MCV’s ER in a manic episode. I knew back in July I was walking away because my story changed. 21/?

I am a progressive small business owner with marketplace insurance who was diagnosed with a mental illness through a mental health crisis.

That’s my story.

Welcome to my journey. 22/22.

@threadreaderapp unroll plz & thank you