I need medication for my mental health. Finding the right prescription was harder than I’d ever imagined.

After being diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder in 2018, I had to start taking medication for my mental health. Both the physical and mental side effects were brutal, and since my psychiatrist often wasn’t available, I ended up in the emergency room multiple times while trying to find the right medication. The process of finding the right prescription took months. During the wait, I realized my psychiatrist’s lack of availability is a symptom of a much larger problem — mental health services aren’t prioritized in the same way physical health services are.