I'd just like to say a word about assuming.

We're so many coming to PC, different ages, situations, conditions and history. Some people here have diagnoses, therapy twice a week and seeing their psychiatrist once a month. But everyone doesn't have that. I just wish that this I see sometimes, assuming we all have that, would turn more into asking if we do... or something like that.

I know PC cannot replace mental health care BUT, for some people it is all we have. We try to manage best we can....

Some don't have money for therapy and meds, or insurance, some live where it is far to these, some live with parent that don't let them see anyone, some have suffered abuse from docs and therapists and would hate going back, some had no help from docs and therapists, and in my case, I live where health care is in a collapse state.

So when you ask us to see our health care staff, you might ask us to do the impossible.

I'll just tell you about my own situation. I entered care when health care still had money, so I have the privilege of belonging to a mental health outpatient clinic. People younger than me where I live (Nothern Europe), don't have that, they can only see a GP for mental health and get 5 appointments with a counsellor.

So I have had a steady doctor for some years. Now my privileged situation has deteriorated. My clinic that once had 14 doctors and serves a population of 150,000 people only have 2. So I don't have a steady doctor anymore. I have no one that knows my case. Since I'm not psychotic I don't get one of the 2 doctors at the clinic. Once a year my clinic hires doctors from other counties because they have to see patients once in a while, that is the law.

So once a year I get to see a rental doctor I will never see again. Some actually do their best to check that patients are not going to off themselves or have fallen into a negative spiral, but mostly it is a formality, to fulfill the law.

I then renew my prescriptions over the web. Any doctor who is at the clinic at the time will fill prescriptions. They usually just look at records and see what was prescribed last time and do that over. There is no human contact. The only safety net we have is that we have a form online that allows us to report side effects, we are not allowed to include other messages. We are not allowed to email the clinic. We can not walk into it and ask to talk to someone because the receptionist is just there to take care of people who actually have an appointment.

So if you ever want to tell me to contact my treatment provider.... please don't. I'm struggling alone.

And I'm sure I'm not the only one.