Treatment of mental illness

The treatment of mental illness can consist of many efforts that combine to make you well or at least make you feel better. Some things work for some people, while other works better for others. It is necessary that you help find out what works best for you. For the majority, it is a combination of the various efforts that works.

Some of the efforts are offerings where you need a referral from your doctor. Others are only offered during admission to the hospital, but a number of them you can seek out on your own.

When it comes to the treatment of mental illness, most probably think of either drug therapy or psychotherapy. But people are typically less aware of offerings such as psycho-education, which means to work with yourself, as well as getting support from your family and social network.

Here I will try to review various forms of treatment.

We start with drug therapy. Drug therapy makes it necessary that you work out in cooperation with your doctor or psychiatrist the drug and the dose that is effective on your symptoms. Depending on the drug you will be taking, it may take up to several weeks before you feel any effect of the drug.

You can usually expect to take the drug for several months, perhaps several years, even. While you take the drug, you must be aware of both the effect of the medication, but also its possible side effects. And talk to your doctor about it if you experience side effects.

When you feel you are getting better, you can begin to discuss with the doctor: how long should I continue to take the medication? When can I gradually reduce the medication? And when can I maybe completely stop taking the medication?

Psychotherapeutic therapy is conversation therapy. This can be done both individually one on one, or in groups of typically 8 to 10 people with the same therapist.

Individual psychotherapy or group therapy may be offered to you while you are admitted to a psychiatric ward, but it is typically conducted as outpatient therapy. You can also receive individual psychotherapeutic treatment from a practising psychiatrist or psychologist. This requires a referral from your doctor.

Therapy provided by a psychiatrist is normally free because it is covered by the Danish public health insurance. You may receive therapy provided by a psychologist if you have a referral from your doctor, or you can contact the psychologist yourself. In the latter case you must as a rule pay for it yourself.

In special cases, public medicare may pay for your psychological therapy. The rules change from time to time and we can therefore not say exactly what will apply to you in your situation.

Psycho-education is one part of the therapy that has proven to be very important for getting better. This simply means that you learn something about your illness and how you can live with it on a daily basis.

By gaining insight into your illness you get a greater understanding of your symptoms and why you respond the way you do. Not least, you learn about what signs you must be especially aware of that can signal that the illness is getting worse or that you will get a nasty relapse.

You can also learn a lot about what you can do to feel better. Psycho-education is typically offered during admission as an outpatient or in the patient association where your illness may belong. You can also find out more knowledge on your own about your illness.

Support from your relatives is often an important part of the treatment. That also goes for support from your friends and other people you know.

If you are being treated by your doctor, have been referred to a psychiatric outpatient clinic or admitted to a psychiatric ward, your doctor or the staff at the hospital will try to involve your relatives in your treatment, but only if you want this.

If you do not have any relatives or a large social network otherwise, you can try to expand your social network on your own. You can seek out places where there will be other people. Your municipality can for example have a number of offerings which are targeted to those who are mentally vulnerable.

These can be drop-in centres, day-care facilities, activity offerings, café offerings or something else. Just do it.

Curing a mental illness does not happen by itself. It often requires very hard work. You have to work with yourself to get better.

The work may for example consist of finding some new methods and strategies for how you can relieve a symptom that is unpleasant or keeps you from doing something that you would very much like to do.

As I said earlier, it is very demanding work. Over time you will find the right methods and strategies that work just for you. And together with all the other efforts I have mentioned here, this will help you gradually get better.