I’ve been enjoying all of the content online for Mental Health Awareness Month, and I thought I’d contribute my own story. Here’s my own experience of why advocating for yourself is important.

I have severe psoriasis, an autoimmune skin condition that makes itchy, flaky plaques where my skin cells regenerate too quickly. During my recent hospitalization (for severe depression), I let my doctors know about this in a brief, it’s-not-that-relevant-but-you-asked kind of way. When the psychiatrist asked if I had any physical conditions, I informed him of my psoriasis.

A few days later, I was meeting with my social worker to discuss my treatment plan. Under “diagnoses,” Major Depressive Disorder and psychosis were listed. Before I even said anything, my social worker quickly brushed it off and said, “Don’t worry too much about the psychosis- it might just be that you were confused when you came in.”

Now, I’m the kind of person who will eat the wrong food at a restaurant rather than speak up and point out a mistake. I’m the kind of person who willingly takes the middle seat on an airplane because my neighbor explains that she has to pee a lot. Seriously. I am not assertive.

However, diagnoses are a whole ‘nother bucket of fish. When I saw that on my treatment plan and heard my social worker minimize it, I made it clear that I was confused by it and wrote my concern in the questions portion of the form. The next time I saw the psychiatrist, I steeled myself in preparation to ask about the mysterious psychosis that I definitely didn’t have. Before I could bring it up, he sat down, sighed, and said, “It turns out that they couldn’t read my handwriting and thought I wrote ‘psychosis’ when really, I wrote ‘psoriasis.’ It’s all fixed, now.”

I laughed about it at visiting hour that night and for many nights after. Really, we’re still laughing about it. We’re getting some serious mileage out of that one.

The important thing is that I spoke up for myself and that it got remedied. I almost had an incorrect diagnosis which could have caused more confusion down the line. So, speak up! If something doesn’t look right or feel right, let your doctor know. They’re people too, and sometimes mistakes happen.

Also, handwriting is more important than you might think.