While I recognize the value so many are getting from it, my last brush against trying to explain a mental health crisis to a professional involved seeking practical advice for changing a job environment that felt utterly toxic, and which was eroding every other part of my life.
The response honestly felt like the solution was going to be a cocktail of chemicals designed to address what was wrong with me in order for me to stay in the very environment that was hurting me. It was extraordinarily disappointing, disenchanting, and left a very bad taste.
Even with income and health and family crises and these plague times I have yet to experience the crushing tear-filled nervous breakdowns I did in that environment. Walking on eggshells every day will do that, though.
Again, my experience. But it has imprinted a deep skepticism of pathologizing the person before the conditions they inhabit.
That Star Over There 