Why?
According to the Archives of General Psychiatry, 14.8 million American adults, or about 6.7 percent of the U.S. population ages 18 and older are affected by major depressive disorders. Depression is the cause of over two-thirds of the 30,000 reported suicides in the U.S. each year. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. for all ages. I am sure at one point in your life you have fallen into some form of depression. With the exception of those few individuals who always seem to find happiness at every corner, depression plagues the human mind when least expected. It becomes a black purgatory of negativity, dissolution, and immobility. The scarier part is exposing yourself to those around you that, “Hey, I have a problem…I am depressed.” For many cultures, asking for professional help in the midst of depression is taboo. Others who have the means of receiving professional help often wonder if they have the “right” therapist, “right” drugs, or “right” path of escaping this hell on Earth. It becomes almost near impossible to truly trust those around you because you cannot even seem to trust your own judgment. And from personal experience, the hardest part is choosing from a plethora of information about what you should do to cure yourself both mentally and physically. At this point, you take refuge in your faith to inhale a breathE of hope…and even this still feels like you are hanging off a cliff waiting for a hand to lift you up.
But, what if there are others like you out there with the same problems? What if someone who is your age, religion, gender, ethnicity, etc. has faced what you are currently going through and has been able to persevere? What methods did this person utilize? How was this person able to free themselves from a cursed state of solitude and hopelessness? Imagine when you sit down in front of your computer screen, and you type yourself into a frenzy trying to find someone to help you, understand you, and you either fall short or encounter too much selection to choose from. Why is there no means of filtering through the madness when you need it the most? Why is there no one there to help you organize what is most or least important when solving your problems? Well, I have been there, and realized this was a problem. We have all been there at one point and have undergone this hunt for answers on a Google search engine. Been There © is a service that has been developed for individuals that are facing depression and need someone to turn to that will be able to provide advice and guidance on the same situation they faced, and how they were able to combat depression. It’s for those who are sick of receiving the wrong advice, wrong pills, wrong therapy, and wrong style of living. Why wait? It’s time to filter out those who can and those who can’t. In this day and age, everything has a rapid turn-around rate, It’s time that what matters most–mental health–be placed at the front end of problems the US should tackle regarding mental health.
How?
It’s interesting to ask how this service would be able to create any type of change in the way that current depression therapies are conducted. Well, the average person may pay for therapy or may choose to battle this on their own and seek counsel from friends or family. Those who choose therapy may not have enough money to continue seeking professional help, the therapist may take some time to discover the core causes and resolutions of how to treat the depression, or finding a therapist that truly cares to see you be an independent versus a dependent client. Those who choose counsel from friends or family may be receiving the wrong advice; friends may undermine the seriousness of the condition, or simply do not have time to care for the problems of another human being. I am not discounting that some of these factors may provide useful aid to those facing depression, but at the same time the individual should have the autonomy to choose factors that they need help with in a quicker manner.
Been There © creates another layer of carefully selected factors that assist people in the selection process in an efficient manner. You do not have to wait to make an appointment with your therapist, wait on your friend’s phone call, or await a hug from your parents. Been There © allows you to cut your time in half and tackle depression effectively. You have the opportunity of meeting people who have undergone similar, if not the same experience you have dealt with and be able to contact them whenever possible. People need to feel someone that they can relate to that they can identify with. Why wait? You can type in your problem, find someone in your same state, zip code, gender, age, etc. and ask him/her for help. This is a free service that will not cost you the pounding amounts of debt nor calls from hospital debt collectors. You are not only meeting people who know what it is like to have been there, but people who may even become your life-long friends along the way.
What?
Been There © is an extremely secure and anonymous means of contact. The service is offered via app or website. It provides users the means of contacting those who are most similar to them and receiving help as to how they dealt with the situation. The service asks you to filter your profile to ascertain a person that is most competent to help you in the path to recovery. There are no photographs of those individuals involved, but a profile will be offered to make sure that whom you are reaching can serve you. The filters vary by key demographic factors, such as age, income, education level, ethnicity, gender, etc. Granted, this service might not cure your depression 100% because holistic approaches are highly recommended on the road to recovery, but this becomes another valuable tool in the set to pick from. Been There © only works with the expectation that there is an active and open community who is willing to lend a helping hand to those in need. As human beings, we share the need and want to be accepted. Been There © accepts you no matter how severe your depression is and how far you have fallen. We are here to help you get up because we have been there in your place at one point in time.
