Help Any help on how you get over the hump to actually tell someone and get help?

[Yazzerton]

I'm not sure why, but even though I have been suffering with different levels of depression, self harm, and suicidal thoughts, I still can't bring myself to tell anyone or get actual help. My environment is not the main cause of my issues as my life is fairly easy and nice compared to most. That's why I think meds might help me a lot since my main problem is probably just chemical. But I still can't and haven't told anyone or taken steps to get help. I know it's logically the correct decision, but it's incredibly difficult to bring myself to do it. I think it may just be me wanting to hide my pain so my family and friends don't know. If I could get help without them knowing that would be awesome, but I'm still on my parent's health insurance so they would. I'm 22 now so maybe I just wait until I'm old enough for it but I'm honestly not sure if I will do something drastic by then. Any recommendations from anyone on how they got over the hump to get help?

 

[Guy Smiley]

You could make an appointment with your primary care doctor and tell them (if you don't have a primary care doctor, any general practitioner doctor will do). The doctor would then likely refer you to a behavioral health provider who could get you started on therapy and/or meds.

Even though you're on your parents' health insurance plan, as an adult you still have medical privacy rights, so neither your doctor nor any behavioral health specialist can legally tell your parents (or anyone else) anything about you without your permission. If your parents go over their health plan claims, they would be able to see that you visited a doctor and behavioral health specialist and maybe also any med prescriptions that you have filled at a pharmacy, but if they ask you about it you could just make something up that's relatively innocuous, like you've been having a little trouble sleeping or have just been stressed out or something like that. Doctors/therapists often prescribe anti-depressants even for relatively minor issues such as those, and people see therapists for all kinds of reasons, so there shouldn't be any reason for your family or friends to think that there is anything more serious going on with you.

I hope you find the help you're looking for and that it proves to be helpful for you. Just let me know if you have any questions or anything. Take care.