TW: Suicide

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Hi friends!

First, a little bit about me. 

I’ve been on my own mental health journey since beginning college in 2010 and experiencing anxiety, depersonalization/derealization, and panic attacks. Through various trials of different medications, therapies, and learning all I could, I found what has worked for me.

I lost my brother to suicide in 2012. He suffered for many years and I saw the good times and bad. He fought harder than I will ever know. I cannot imagine the mental hell he was experiencing, but I know it must have been immense and unrelenting. 

I have carried the love I have for him, moving forward and trying to find my own purpose and reason to wake up every day.

I decided I wanted to go to nursing school in 2014 and took an accelerated BSN program, graduated in 2017 and began working in inpatient/acute crisis psych. In 2019, I started grad school and graduated this year with my MSN. I became board-certified as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner.

I recently accepted a job at a small, outpatient clinic and will be seeing children, adolescents, and adults of all ages.

So, I am curious…
I know my own experiences from being a patient, watching my family and friends be patients, and also caring for patients as a nurse.

If you’re comfortable, I would love to hear some of your experiences. 

I was thinking of compiling information to provide handouts to my patients with common side effects of their medications, resources online such as apps, meditations, etc., as well as any additional information I could gather here.

My questions are:

1) If you are comfortable saying, what medication do you take, how long have you been on it, and is there anything you wish your provider had told you about it before/during your treatment? If you are a parent of a child receiving care, I would love any insight from you about this as well!

2) In your experience with nurse practitioners, psychiatrists, therapists, counselors, etc., what has stood out to you as a positive experience with seeing one versus a negative experience?

3) Appointments: any noteworthy things that have contributed to you being more comfortable/ at ease during the appointments, as far as how the office is set up? Lighting/music/fidget items? Anything that has been unpleasant about the environment that you think I should know?

4) Anything else you think that my patients would benefit from? Resources you’ve found helpful, techniques or therapies, anything at all? 😊


Thank you for taking the time to read this, even if you don’t have anything to share. I want to ensure anyone receiving care under me feels valued, heard and understood.

You are all so strong. I never saw this as my career but here we are. Helping you helps me. ✨