Hey JLS, thank you for sharing all of this, for being willing to be vulnerable, being strong enough to lead with openness about your family's struggle. I hope you see how you are bringing out the best in so many people; your openness has invited so many here to be their best selves. And your talking about this is so helpful to you, it is the inoculation against shame.
I hate to hear that the process of getting your daughter an outpatient appointment with a counselor was so difficult. Not to defend but normalize and offer an explanation that might help, I hope helps, encourage some. As a counselor, when the discharge person from an inpatient treatment center would call and make an appointment for a person, which of course was really helpful, those patients would show to their outpatient appointment exactly zero times. We all realized that if the family did the finding and scheduling, that effort, exasperating as it unfortunately can be, got folks to show up to their follow on appointment, and start rather than neglect, that process of healing and health. Inpatient is really just to stabilize the struggling person, the outpatient is where they grow and become stronger from the experience.
Something just too, too, too often happens between inpatient and outpatient. Nobody thinks they are going to be on the wrong side of statistics, but very well intended people just usually do not even start, much less continue their outpatient treatment. So, you guys, through that unfortunate extra burden, have started those steps, and good on you.
Thoughts, prayers, and hopes sent your way. Be encouraged, be blessed, and know you are loved.
