Austin Nugent remembers the moment when someone first suggested she try therapy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was in Europe, and I called my mom from a four-star hotel on all-expense paid trip\u2026and I called my mom from the hotel bathroom crying,\u201d Nugent said. \u201cShe\u2019s like, \u2018why are you crying? Why are you so anxious? You\u2019re on this once in a lifetime trip, and you\u2019re still anxious.\u2019 She was like, \u2018When you get back, you\u2019re going to therapy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With help from her mom, Austin started seeing a therapist after she graduated college. However, she was still apprehensive to accept, and advocate for her mental health wants and needs. It wasn\u2019t until she was talking to her brother, who has Down syndrome, when she realized that her mother might have been right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI kind of had this a-ha moment\u2026I would always talk to him about wanting to make sure he had pride in his disability, that concept of disability pride, owning his needs and feeling validated that he is human,\u201d she said. \u201cSomewhere along the way of having these conversations, I was like, \u2018I feel a sense of hypocrisy because my needs are not being met.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Austin initially received a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). At the time, that made sense to her. After all, in general, she was anxious. But it was not the right answer – not really. She would spend seven years in treatment for GAD before realizing that wasn\u2019t the answer. Then, after an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) specialist presented a case, Austin\u2019s husband suggested that she revisit her diagnosis. Nugent contacted that specialist, who diagnosed her with \u2018moderate to severe\u2019 OCD. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI kind of had an identity crisis,\u201d she said. \u201cFor the past seven years, I\u2019d been the girl with generalized anxiety disorder. What do you mean I don\u2019t have that? What do you mean that\u2019s all been a lie?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On top of that, the most common therapy for GAD, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), can be counterproductive to OCD treatment. That meant that not only did Nugent change her treatment plan to OCD therapy, she also had to spend time unlearning much of what she had learned in her previous treatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEverything I am feeling is still the same, but the way we approach it is so different,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was a point where I really struggled with being angry at the mental healthcare system. It wasn\u2019t anyone\u2019s fault, but the fact that I had been misdiagnosed for so long\u2026to know I\u2019d spent seven years feeding my OCD and making it that much more intense meant it was that much harder to get a grasp when I finally received my diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nugent says it can be difficult to find high-quality holistic mental healthcare: care that takes into account all of a person\u2019s needs. There’s a shortage of mental health professionals, and by the time people seek help, they may have already hit a crisis point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And there are times when it\u2019s difficult to tell when a condition is a symptom of something or just a general emotional response. People without mental health conditions can also experience periods of anxiety and depression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nugent also stressed that people should not be afraid of medication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy therapist was trying to open my eyes to the idea of medication,\u201d she said. \u201cI was so resistant. I was like \u2018I don\u2019t need meds,\u2019 because of that stigma around medication. She explained that taking medication for a mental health condition is no different than if you have a broken foot and you put a cast on it and you use crutches until your bone is stable enough to walk on its own\u2026that\u2019s no different from mental health medication. It\u2019s helping support your brain until you can develop those coping mechanisms and strategies to do it on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While it\u2019s important to build coping strategies, it\u2019s also important to have a support network. Sometimes that takes the form of an encouraging friend or partner, and sometimes it\u2019s something as simple as having a pet to snuggle with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the most important aspects of having a support network is a therapist you can trust. Just like other relationships, not every therapist will be an ideal fit. Nugent says it\u2019s important to trust your instincts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think we as humans, to a degree, know if something is helpful or if it\u2019s maybe just filling time and space,\u201d she said, adding that sometimes, \u201cfinding the right therapist, one that you feel comfortable with, yet is going to challenge you, can be difficult.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI cannot tell you how many times I\u2019m in a therapy session and I am so clammy, my heart is racing, because we\u2019re actually unpacking and trying to work through what I need to work through,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is uncomfortable. Behavior change and facing our anxiety is uncomfortable. If it felt good, we\u2019d be more willing to do it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in the end, Nugent stressed that everyone\u2019s journey looks different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is no right path on a mental health journey,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not a linear path.\u201d This means that there\u2019s also room for people to cut themselves some slack if they have a rough day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This article represents the opinions of the author and interviewee, not that of the University of Kentucky. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Austin Nugent remembers the moment when someone first suggested she try therapy. \u201cI was in Europe, and I called my mom from a four-star hotel on all-expense paid trip\u2026and I called my mom from the hotel bathroom crying,\u201d Nugent said. \u201cShe\u2019s like, \u2018why are you crying? Why are you so anxious? You\u2019re on this once […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":20844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,28,16,14],"tags":[18,19],"class_list":["post-20843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-leadership-self-advocacy","category-news","category-priority-area","tag-merge","tag-merge-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdi.uky.edu\/merge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}