[ranae1221]

i do agree with you, often mental illness is not considered "important" as a physical illness.

here is a perfect example- my roomate Shirley was in the hospital several times last year, had 3 pretty major surgieries. The first 2 were unexpected, unplanned. Both those 2 times she was not given her antidepressant, which made her depression severely worse, and increased her confusion dramaticaly. It was horrible. I several times asked the nurses to do something, get her back on her antidepressant, call the doctor, anything. It was brushed off as no big deal.

The 3rd operation was planned, and I asked the suregon beforehand to PLEASE make sure her antidepressant was continued. He replied that because she had to be NPO (nothing by mouth) for awhile there was nothing he could do.

This p*ssed me off, because if she were diabetic, or had a heart condition, would they not give her medication, just saying "oh well"?? But because it was "just depression" it was chalked up to nothing important.

It was one of the most frustrating things to go through, knowing what the problem was when she was so confused, and yet no one caring to do anything.