KU student: “It’s OK to get help”

Michelle, a master’s student in geology at the University of Kansas, figured she could handle things by herself. “I’m very stubborn,” she said. “For

a long time, I thought I could do it on my own. That I could deal with the struggles I was going through.”

Until she couldn’t.

“I had a mental health crisis, and I finally accepted that,” Michelle said. “I needed help immediately. But I didn’t know how to get help.”

That’s when she reached out to the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center.

“I looked into a bunch of places but nobody called me back,” she said. “Bert Nash was the only one that responded to me.”

Michelle, who grew up in Virginia, had gone through therapy before, beginning when she was in elementary school.

“I had gone to a lot of therapy, but I didn’t have a good experience and it usually made the situation worse,” she said. “I kept thinking I didn’t want to talk about my issues.”

Fast forward to last spring, during the pandemic, and Michelle found herself struggling to cope.

“I was supposed to finish my master’s last summer, but after everything shut down because of Covid-19, I lost my safe place, which was my office,” she said. “For a full month almost, I couldn’t go into the office and working from home wasn’t working for me. I was away from my family. I didn’t have a lot of friends here. I kind of had a breakdown, where I couldn’t do this anymore. I needed help.”

Once Michelle started coming to the Bert Nash Center, her situation began to improve.

“They were so prompt and so nice to me. I just appreciate how friendly everyone has been. They were so kind. They answered all of my questions,” she said. “They paired me with my psychiatrist and my therapist. They gave me a lot of tips that really helped me.”

Michelle also overcame her fear about taking medication.

“Getting over that phobia was another really big thing that Bert Nash has helped me with,” she said. “Everything they have prescribed for me has worked.”

Michelle has done virtual therapy with her Bert Nash Center therapist Connor Wyckoff.

For Michelle, reaching out when she was struggling proved to be a turning point in her life.

“I feel a lot better than I had in a really long time,” she said. “They told me I didn’t always have to carry this burden. They made it manageable and they made it palpable. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone.

“The biggest thing,” she said, “Is it’s OK to get help.”