Here’s How Skipping Dinner Out Can Change Lives

I want to share something with you that I don’t think a lot of people have ever really thought about. I never even really thought about it until it was staring me in the face. People need access to health care services. Period.

We are having to pick and choose how to live and that isn’t right nor fair.

Now, I am speaking from my tiny space in the world, so hear me out about this for a second. I have gone several times in my life without medical insurance. For some people, this would either be no big deal and they’d choose to deal with the risk and repercussions, but how about for those who can’t afford their health plans, insurance or deductibles?

I know the quick answer could be to look at Healthcare.gov, but have you actually seen the prices and coverage and deductibles? There is the crazy.

I have been one of these people who opted not to have insurance coverage because I just couldn’t afford it. Now, that is a dangerous game that I’ve played with fortune a time or two because I choose to be medicated to feel “normal”.

Right now, I have a $280.00 bill that has accrued with my mental health service facility. I had to make a choice to live medicated and try to buy some time to pay it or to go without. At this moment in time, I cannot even get a refill on my meds until I pay them in full and schedule a new appointment, so that I can get more meds.

I have been shortchanging my prescriptions and underdosing myself, just so I stay somewhat propped up. I am 20mg under what I need daily to feel in good mental health.  

Do you understand what happens when people who struggle with mental health cannot get access to their medications or affordable counseling services? We suffer. We suffer on our own. We try to get by to make the thoughts go away. Some of us can’t. Some of us don’t. Some of us won’t.

If we all chose to skip a night of eating dinner out, it can help pay for someone’s mental health that is so very needed right now.

This is why I am choosing to support To Write Love on Her Arms and am asking for donations to help people like me who cannot afford access to the care that they need. Please consider donating here.

Today is different. Today, I now have insurance so I will have access to these services and my full required dosage of medications. Not everyone who struggles with mental health will be able to get what they need today or a tomorrow, without non-profits like this to provide the care so many desperately need.