Many of my clients have been suffering with whatever problem brings them to me for quite a long time. This is true of pain, muscle stiffness and other physical complaints just as much as it is of depression and anxiety.
I spent much of my working life in the child and adolescent mental health field and one of the questions that we would always ask a young adult and or their family is why are you asking for help now, what stopped you from asking for help a year or six months ago?
Of course in that field today, the answer may well be that they did ask for help a year ago and they had been on a waiting list since then!
I rarely have a waiting list though a same week appointment isn’t always possible. I also urge anyone wondering about making an appointment not to wait. In ecology, there is a saying, “The best time to plant a tree is ten or a hundred years ago. The next best time is now! The same is true of getting help for the psychological, spiritual or physical problems that ail us.
Thank you for calling our attention to that issue. It’s a mistery to me why depression, being one of the most common illnesses of our day and age, gets treated so rarely. I wonder if it has to do with our habits of “toughen up”. That’s what I was always told… “don’t be sad, toughen up!” There seems to be a kind of shame around it. How often do we lie about how bad we feel? “how are you? — not bad”.
Yes, the time is now. For land and people! Let’s start to regenerate.
I think that depression has always been a common illness, just that today we are much more aware of it. To me that is progress. However having treatment that is available, when it is needed and of the best type to suit the individual is something that still needs a lot of work.