{"id":2617,"date":"2011-04-15T09:46:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T13:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/?p=2617"},"modified":"2011-04-05T09:47:01","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T13:47:01","slug":"tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html","title":{"rendered":"Tips for Navigating Through the Mental Healthcare System: An Interview with Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today I have the pleasure of interviewing one of my favorite bloggers\/writers\/professors and just plain talented people out there. Dr. Monica A. Coleman<\/a> is a minister, scholar, activist, and writer. (Yes, it is possible to be all those things \u2026). Presently, she is Associate Professor at Claremont School of Theology. And she has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder! I was relieved to know that Harvard graduates can be bipolar too!<\/p>\n

1. So as I read through some of your posts, your trip through the healthcare system\u2014finding the right doctor\u2014was just about as confusing as mine. What advice would you give to the person just starting that journey? What are some of the qualifications of good doctors, and red flags of bad doctors?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monica:<\/strong> If I could do anything over again, I would take a trusted friend with me as an advocate.\u00a0 When you\u2019re sick, you cannot be your best advocate.\u00a0 You just want someone to take the pain away, and you can\u2019t make the clearest decisions.\u00a0 At least, that was my story.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not just about mental health, but it\u2019s especially true in this area.\u00a0 My advocate could speak up for me, write things down, help me process them afterward, and talk about aspects of my journey and symptoms that I might not think to say.\u00a0 This friend or advocate can also know you well enough to know when there\u2019s not a good match in terms of values, personality, style, etc.<\/p>\n

There is one thing I did that helped a lot \u2013 when I was looking for doctors about 10 years ago \u2013 I wrote all my symptoms down.\u00a0 I wrote down every pattern I could think of, and answered all the questions I thought a doctor would ask (after all, they tend to ask the same introductory questions).\u00a0 Then I handed these sheets of paper to a doctor.\u00a0 It was much less exhausting than re-telling my story and symptoms every time I met with a new doctor.<\/p>\n

I think that finding a good doctor is about finding the right match.\u00a0 I want to have doctors with the same values and worldview that I have.\u00a0 So I ask questions about their philosophical approach to health care.\u00a0 I also want doctors that are feminists.\u00a0 It sounds like an odd requirement, but I had a bad experience where a doctor in the hospital asked me why I moved to a particular city for a job when I was dating someone in another city and wanted to maintain the relationship.\u00a0 I could barely believe I had to explain that my career was important to me too.\u00a0 I need doctors who are not afraid of talking about faith \u2013 without eschewing medication.\u00a0 I need doctors who understand the advantages and disadvantages of medication and alternative therapies, and who are willing to work with me across modalities<\/p>\n

2. As a reverend, you are obviously a religious and spiritual person. How has your faith played a part in your recovery?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monica:<\/strong> My faith has been the ground and saving force for me in the midst of living with a bipolar depressive condition.\u00a0 In my most difficult darkest moments, I know with every fiber of my being that God is with me, and that God understands what I\u2019m going through and how I feel.\u00a0 In those moments, I feel like no one else can get inside my head and know me and understand me like God can.\u00a0 I feel that God wants my wellness, but sits with me and holds me when I\u2019m unwell.<\/p>\n

When I crave community \u2013 or need community \u2013 to sustain me, the worship traditions of black churches are like a balm to my soul.\u00a0 The music of the spirituals and the cadence of black preaching styles and the ritual of altar prayers transport me to some of my happiest and most spiritual moments as a child.\u00a0 I feel the pains and joys of the ancestors and those in the present community and I literally feel uplifted and buoyed.\u00a0 My parents and grandparents raised me in this tradition, and no depression yet has extracted this from my cells.<\/p>\n

3. Do you find the stigma among the African American culture even thicker than the white culture? If so, how do you penetrate that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monica:<\/strong> In many ways, I do think that there is a greater stigma among African American culture than among white cultures.\u00a0 I live in southern California, and many white people will freely reference \u201cseeing a therapist\u201d in normal conversation. Black people don\u2019t do that.\u00a0 Seeing a therapist is generally seen as a sign of weakness or a lack of faith.\u00a0 There is still an active mythos of \u201cthe strong black woman,\u201d who is supposed to be strong and present and capable for everyone in her family \u2013 and neglects her own needs.\u00a0 In the midst of a depressive episode, I had a friend say to me, \u201cWe are the descendants of those who survived the Middle Passage and slavery.\u00a0 Whatever you\u2019re going through cannot be that bad.\u201d\u00a0 I was so hurt and angry by that statement.\u00a0 No, depression isn\u2019t human trafficking, genocide or slavery, but it is real death-threatening pain to me.\u00a0 And of course, there are those who did not survive those travesties.\u00a0 But that comment just made me feel small and selfish and far worse than before.\u00a0 It made me wish I had never said anything at all.<\/p>\n

I am just now learning that vulnerability is strength.\u00a0 I am learning to speak and write boldly about the reality of living with a depressive condition. Even when it\u2019s hard and I don\u2019t have it all figured out and it\u2019s actively kicking my butt.\u00a0 It\u2019s the most terrifying thing I\u2019ve ever done.\u00a0 It feels like running naked across the front lawn.<\/p>\n

But I also feel a lot of affirmation when people respond \u2013 especially other black women – and let me know that their processes and challenges are made lighter by hearing their experience reflected from a pulpit, leadership, the classroom, or wherever I am.\u00a0 That confirms what I\u2019ve felt is a calling from God.\u00a0 It encourages me, and helps my health.<\/p>\n

4. You are a beautiful writer. Is it therapy for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monica: <\/strong>Thank you.<\/p>\n

I think a lot of my writing emerges from the experience of living with a depressive condition.\u00a0 I\u2019ve often tried to hide my sadness and retreat into myself \u2013 while putting forth the exuberant, happy, productive side of myself.\u00a0 I would pour the sadness into my writing \u2013 journal writing, poetry, short stories and prose.\u00a0 As a teenager, I think my writing teachers saw my challenges more than anyone else.\u00a0 I still find the page to be a safe place to express myself.\u00a0 I still actively journal.\u00a0 It\u2019s a place to put my most raw emotions and be validated without worrying about the impact of those feelings.<\/p>\n

My more public writing is ministry for me.\u00a0 I have been so deeply moved by books that I personally know the power of the written word to create community, to validate, to encourage and nourish and create new worlds.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know that my writing has done this for others the way some writing has done this for me.\u00a0 But I hope it does.\u00a0 If I can accomplish even a fraction of that for at least one other person, then I feel that I am living out my calling.<\/p>\n

Visit Monica’s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Click here to subscribe to Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a> and click here to follow Therese on Twitter<\/b><\/a> and click here to join Group Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a>, a depression support group. Now stop clicking.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I have the pleasure of interviewing one of my favorite bloggers\/writers\/professors and just plain talented people out there. Dr. Monica A. Coleman is a minister, scholar, activist, and writer. (Yes, it is possible to be all those things \u2026). Presently, she is Associate Professor at Claremont School of Theology. And she has been diagnosed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-depression","category-inspiration-and-prayer","category-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"\nTips for Navigating Through the Mental Healthcare System: An Interview with Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tips for Navigating Through the Mental Healthcare System: An Interview with Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today I have the pleasure of interviewing one of my favorite bloggers\/writers\/professors and just plain talented people out there. Dr. Monica A. Coleman is a minister, scholar, activist, and writer. (Yes, it is possible to be all those things \u2026). Presently, she is Associate Professor at Claremont School of Theology. And she has been diagnosed…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-15T13:46:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-04-05T13:47:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/04\/Monica_Coleman-photo.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tips for Navigating Through the Mental Healthcare System: An Interview with Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman - Beyond Blue","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tips for Navigating Through the Mental Healthcare System: An Interview with Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman - Beyond Blue","og_description":"Today I have the pleasure of interviewing one of my favorite bloggers\/writers\/professors and just plain talented people out there. Dr. Monica A. Coleman is a minister, scholar, activist, and writer. (Yes, it is possible to be all those things \u2026). Presently, she is Associate Professor at Claremont School of Theology. And she has been diagnosed…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html","og_site_name":"Beyond Blue","article_published_time":"2011-04-15T13:46:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-04-05T13:47:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/04\/Monica_Coleman-photo.jpeg"}],"author":"Beyond Blue","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html","name":"Tips for Navigating Through the Mental Healthcare System: An Interview with Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman - Beyond Blue","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/04\/Monica_Coleman-photo.jpeg","datePublished":"2011-04-15T13:46:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-04-05T13:47:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/04\/Monica_Coleman-photo.jpeg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/04\/Monica_Coleman-photo.jpeg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/04\/tips-for-navigating-through-the-mental-healthcare-system-an-interview-with-rev-dr-monica-a-coleman.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tips for Navigating Through the Mental Healthcare System: An Interview with Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/","name":"Beyond Blue","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Therese J. Borchard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75","name":"Beyond Blue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","caption":"Beyond Blue"},"description":"Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet.com. She is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist. You may find her at her personal blog, her website, or you may follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.","sameAs":["http:\/\/thereseborchard.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/author\/tborchard"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2617"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2626,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions\/2626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}