Help Hannah fight mental illness and live Campaign

 

The world can be a judgmental place, filled with critics who don't believe in mental illness. She needs to be punished for this behavior, she is being manipulative, she is oversensitive, she is using it as an excuse. The list goes on. 

 

 Mental illness is taboo in society, and I used to be worried about speaking openly about our situation in fear of judgment.

 

Now that I am more educated, this is no longer a concern. Mental illness is real. Although we can't see it like we can a broken leg, it is real. It is not her fault and not her choice.

 

I promised her 3 years ago that I would stop at NOTHING to help her. It was my promise to her, and we have been on quite a journey since.

 

After accumulating crazy debt and then going through the available channels at work for free sessions with psychologists it was clear that she needed more. Without medical aid, I spent 2 weeks 8 hours a day contacting hundreds of psychiatrists across South Africa, reaching out for help. I contacted any and all lifelines I could find. 

 

3 years later, a suicide attempt, a diagnosis of bipolar, many doctors, counselors, two 21-day stays in a clinic, brain scans, blood tests, psychologists, psychiatrists, anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, mood stabilizers, pills to go to sleep, pills to wake up, pills to focus, pills to relax...bags and bags of pills ... she is still on her best day feeling a 2 to 5 out of 10. Unable to wake up happy and face a day. Feeling panicked as if she had a gun to her head most of the time.

 

 

 We went to see a new doctor and with new testing and monitoring she was able to show images on her screen with graphs and facts explaining why Hannah is unable to function. Everything she said made absolute sense and we understand now more than ever how much my child is suffering! 

We now also have a new treatment plan that feels so right! Focused more on treating the root than the symptoms. 

 

Scientists believe that depression and mental health conditions may be due to a connection problem between nerve cells in the areas of the brain that regulate mood. Research suggests that people with long-term conditions may have fewer synapses that allow these nerve cells to communicate.

Medically supervised ketamine infusion therapy has found to be reactivating existing connections and to grow new ones, helping the brain to shake loose negative thoughts and shift out of depression. Because the brain has actually been reshaped, it may explain why anti-depressant medications that didn't work in the past, may help after ketamine therapy.

 

Let me say, that this doctor is an angel on this earth. She has already done some pro bono testing and has gone ahead without any payment as yet. I told her, I don't yet know how but I WILL make this possible! I just have to!!!

 

She will need therapy afterwards, too. 

 

Now, this is the part where this very desperate mom is reaching out to anyone willing and able to assist with our fight against mental illness, our fight for a normal life.