As we celebrated our second anniversary, my wife Caroline, suffered her first panic attack. Caroline spent the next week praying and speaking to every loved one in her life, but she could not find any reprieve from her anxiety; she felt helpless when her anxiety spiraled out of control. With nowhere else to turn, Caroline confided in our pastor, who recommended that she see a mental health counselor. The counselor discovered some root causes of Caroline’s anxiety, uncovered by the COVID-19 pandemic, but ultimately found that Caroline was suffering from biological depression and would need to go see a psychiatrist—more time and money. This was a tough pill to swallow for Caroline, who was already overwhelmed (and having spent hundreds of dollars on treatment). As she soon learned, psychiatry is a process of trial and error, so she would spend the next ten months trying various medications that did not work; all of this was expensive and largely not covered by insurance.
Nearly a year later, Caroline has finally found a promising medication, but the whole experience has taught her that the past year would have been much easier if she received preventative mental health treatment before her anxiety and depression spiraled out of control.