#11 My Experience with Talkspace - Would I Recommend It?

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Hey there, welcome to the Mental Refuge podcast. Here we talk all things mental health and Christianity. I am your host, Angela McDonald. I run my website, The Mental Refuge, where I talk about my own personal struggles, mental illness, while also being a Christian and a mom of two. And I help others by giving tips and tricks on what has helped me. To be clear, this is my story. I personally live with bipolar disorder and live with anxiety, so I know what it's like to go through the trenches of life and to feel alone. My goal is to bring you weekly tips and education on how to thrive with your mental health while giving you real examples from my own life and also provide you with a much needed dose of Jesus. I hope you stick around and stay a while. Welcome guys. I have realized that it has been a hot minute since I have recorded a podcast episode. I took a break from it last year, because summer break had just started for my kids. And I just couldn't find the right time to record it since they were either, always at home or I was at work. Part-time. I just really had no alone time to record or to come up with an episode outline. And I kept telling myself over the summer at the, I would start back up in late August or September when school started back. But I feel like once you stop something, it's a lot harder to start back up. Maybe you're that way too, but it's now the new year. It is January 20, 25, and I have a new mindset towards my work, and I really wanted to start this podcast back up. So here we are today. If you're new here. Welcome. I am Angela a. My wife and a mom of two, and I live with bipolar disorder. On today's episode, I'm going to be talking about talk space. That's right. The online psychiatric tele-health service competitor to better help. I'm wanting to be giving a real honest review of Talkspace and let you know if I would recommend it or not. It's a new year and a lot of people really take their health seriously this time of year, not just physical health with diets and exercise, but with our mental health as well. A lot of people are prioritizing therapy and meds this time of year. So I wanted to start the new year off. And my comeback episode with talking about tele-health through Talkspace. But first let's talk about what is making me happy. I want to start off each episode with something that is making me happy in order to have a positive mindset for the day. And hopefully it will occur to you to have a positive mind, self yourself. Except for the past two weeks, it has been our kids winter break. We have spent so much time playing dominoes, putting together puzzles, looking at Christmas lights, just driving around. I also had a full week off of work during Christmas week where I really tried to take the time to relax, even though it was Christmas week. And it was a little bit chaotic. It was still a time of recharging my battery and spending quality time with my family, which I will always treasure. Today's the first day back at school for my kids. So actually half the time, true court, this episode, which is really, really nice. And I just feel like I have been so refreshed over these past two weeks, and I'm very thankful for that. Okay. So let's dive into my experience and my review of Talkspace and super important to note is that I use Talkspace for their psychiatric and medication services, not for therapy. So I actually met with a psychiatric nurse practitioner who prescribed me my meds. So keep that in mind. So a little background about why I even tried out Talkspace in the first place. The very first psychiatrist that I ever saw was amazing. He was a wonderful doctor, was very knowledgeable and I felt like he was exactly who I need it. When I was first diagnosed bipolar disorder back in 2017, but unfortunately, well fortunate for him. He retired and he sold his practice, which meant that I needed to find a new psychiatrist. Now, before he left, he did give me four months of refills to make sure I had enough to get by and give me time to find a new doctor. Well, those four months flew by. I had asked around so many places and either no one was taking new patients or they weren't taking my insurance, which side note health insurance is a joke when it comes to our mental health. You would think that if something as important as mental health, that more doctors would take a variety of insurances, but they don't. I was looking at some psychiatrists in my area. And even an hour and a half away because I was willing to drive. If they would accept me. And there were five to$600 per appointment. Per appointment five or$600. Seeing a psychiatrist can be seen as a luxury if you don't have the proper health insurance. So. That's just real great. So, anyway, I asked around, looked for the entire four months and I had no one to go to literally no one to go to. I was in a crisis mode at that point, and I needed to find a new psychiatrist before my med refills ran out. So my husband. I was actually the one who looked into Talkspace for me. I think he even did the questionnaire to match me with someone because at that time of my life, I was in the deepest and darkest depressive episode of my entire life. I was in that dark depressive episode from November to March of the next year. And I'm talking suicidal thoughts daily for months on end. It was a very horrible time for me. And throw in the fact that my refills were running out and I just had to do something. So my husband found Talkspace for me. What's great about Talkspace is that they not only offer therapy, but you can also see psychiatrist or not. Nurse practitioners, like I said earlier. In order to get your meds prescribed to you. So I signed up and I was matched with a nurse practitioner. Her name was Felicia. One thing that Talkspace does very well is matching you with your provider, whether it's for therapy or not. The matching process is phenomenal. It was so thorough. Now I did this psychiatry side saw I was going to be matched with either a doctor or nurse practitioner who could prescribe me with my meds. But I'm assuming that the matching process would be the exact same. If you were wanting a therapist as well. When you first signed up, you are asked a ton of questions. Some are about your background and others are about what symptoms you're dealing with and also how long you've been dealing with those symptoms. It is very thorough, a little long. But I thought about it and I would rather answer these questions in my own home and take my time with my answers and really think them over. Rather than doing a five page intake form at a doctor's office from destruct it. And I'm getting annoyed by the person. That's across from me. So I really did appreciate that. It was so thorough because I thought the app did a great job, matching me with my provider. Some more positives about Talkspace. The provider schedules are pretty open. I could log in. And if I was really needing to talk to my provider, I could look at her schedule and I could get in sometimes by the next day, other times I would have to wait until maybe four to five days, but most of the time I can get in right away. Which you probably already know is rare for the mental health industry in general. If you were to go somewhere in person, especially for meds, you are waiting. Sometimes you're waiting for months. Like you better be prepared to schedule an appointment at three to four months in advance because you could be waiting that long. So I really appreciate it. The fact that I could personally see her schedule and find something that fit into my own schedule. Another really positive thing. If I had any questions about the meds that I was on, if she didn't know the answer right away, she would then go ask her colleagues and get answers from them, which I thought was really cool. She never once acted like one of those doctors who knows everything, we've all met them. Right. She owned up to the fact that she didn't know the details of every single medication or their interactions, but she made sure to ask one of her colleagues and get back with me with any questions that I needed answered. I'm not sure if this is provider specific. It probably is. But the nurse practitioner at that I had was very laid back. And since it was over my computer or phone, I didn't feel like it was, I was in a stuffy old person's office with leather chairs and books everywhere, you know? I felt like I was just at home because I was, and like I was talking to a friend and it could have been because my provider was around my same age, so that could have something to do with it, but it really did feel like I was talking to a friend when I was meeting with her. And last positive they have their customer service is phenomenal. Keep listening, because I'm about to share with you the biggest negative thing a provider could ever do. One of the worst things actually. And I'll go into details in just a second, but for right now, I'll want to let you know that their customer service is phenomenal. 10 out of 10. Great. So all these positives, right? So they have really, really amazing customer service. Their schedules are flexible. Um, the person that I met with was really laid back, great to talk to their matching process is phenomenal, but there's gotta be some bad things. So. I met with my provider, Felicia for just over a year, things work right. A negative though, I would pay$175 for a 30 minute appointment. Which is a lot of money because I was paying out of pocket because they would not take my insurance, but I thought. Well, it's better than the five or$600 though. I would have to pay if I were to go somewhere in person that was an hour and a half away. Um, I thought I'll just pay the 107 to pop.$175 for a 30 minute appointment. And it wasn't like it was every single month it was spread out. So I justified it. However she would stay on probably seven to 10 minutes. So she never, ever failed the whole 30 minute appointment asking me questions. Um, it was kind of rushed through. And that was probably because she was ready to get on for her next appointment. Um, but so basically I paid$175 for a seven to 10 minute appointment. So just to get my meds refilled, it wasn't, like I said, it wasn't for therapy. We weren't talking or anything, about how it was or solutions to problems. If I had questions like that, she would say, well, just talk to your therapist about this. This was just to see how I was doing all my meds. So$175 for my. Uh, seven to 10 minute appointment. Crazy expensive. So. For the juicy stuff, if that is your thing. I thought things were going great with my provider. Felicia wonderful. Actually. Until one day I had a scheduled appointment with her. And she didn't show up. So that's right. She never even logged on to our session and she completely missed her appointment. So I did what any person that situation would do. And I messaged her. So Talkspace has a feature where you can directly message your provider. Which is really cool. So I reached out and I said something like, Hey, we had an appointment today, but you didn't log on. Did you need to reschedule it? And nothing. I didn't hear back from her. So I messaged her again the next day. And once again, nothing. So this is when I started freaking out because my provider didn't long onto our scheduled session. She's not responding to my messages. And now I'm at the point where I realized that I need my medications refilled. And she's the one to do it. So I'm freaking out. I even went as far as Googling her to see if she had an obituary out there somewhere. That's how serious and strange this was that she wasn't even logging on. Because she was so consistent. She never, ever, ever missed an appointment. If I ever messaged her, she got back to me right away. Like this was really, really strange. And I didn't know what was going on. And I think I had enough meds for like the next two days or something like I was due for a refill and she was not logging on. So after sending her a couple of messages, that's when I reached out to Talkspace customer service directly. I told them over a chat, what had taken place. And that girl was just as shocked as I was. And she was so apologetic that that had happened to me. She also immediately gave me a refund of the$175 that had prepaid for the appointment. And it hit my bank account within just a few hours. She informed me that she was going to reach out to Felicia and get to the bottom of this. And I trust her heart, whole heartedly. I really, really was impressed with our customer service. Well guess what. She the customer service person who works for Talkspace, she couldn't even get ahold of Felicia. After a few days had passed. She messaged me and told me she couldn't get ahold of her. She was once again, so extremely apologetic towards the situation. And she even got back to me a few weeks later to once again, tell me that she wasn't sure what happened to her. So here I was, again, no psychiatrist or nurse practitioner to prescribe me my meds. And I had completely run out of refills at this point. Thankfully alpha Medicaid at the time. And I reached out to our local behavioral health facility in our area, and I amazingly found out that they were taking new patients. And I could get in within a week. I was shocked. This was an answer prayer for sure. I finally had a psychiatrist in place. Now. I will say I had a little bit of a rough start with a psychiatrist. I felt like we couldn't relate on a personal level. And he was 100% completely all business. I felt like he didn't take my concerns too seriously. I even told him that I was previously diagnosed as having bipolar disorder type one. And he told me that there was no way that it was possible. And that I have bipolar disorder type two instead, which I thought was inaccurate. Thankfully though, as of right now, it's been about a year and a half since seeing him and things have improved greatly. Even though he's not as personable. He does take my care seriously. And it shows with medication. He has never once throwing a bunch of meds at me, and he's very cautious about what he prescribes me, Amex, extra shore. There's no interactions with each other. I even had previously taken Latuda, which is an anti-psychotic. And I took it for many years, but it made me gain around 60 pounds. It worked great for my mental health, but my not for my physical health. And since I was even more overweight than I was before I had a really, really low self-confidence. And I had little motivation to do anything. So I ended up actually had bariatric surgery in March of 2022. I had the sleeve done. So a very large portion of my stomach was removed. And I lost right at 93 pounds and my confidence skyrocketed. All of that to say, my now psychiatrist took my surgery and weight loss into consideration and switched over my anti-psychotic to a different one, and really looked out for the side effects for me, which I'm really thankful for. So things are really are going great in that department. All of this to say. What I recommend Talkspace. Actually, I hate to say it, but I would not recommend it even for the good that it did provide for me at that time of my life. I just can't truthfully recommend it to you guys. Unless you were in an emergency situation where you have to have your psychiatric meds, like right away, like I did, and you can get it in right away. I would try to avoid it, even though it went good while I was utilizing it. And the appointment schedule was really flexible. I don't think I could ever bring myself to go on that platform again. I told you guys, I was going to give an honest review and that's definitely what I just gave you. Even though things could go right. I think online platforms like Talkspace just have too much room for error with the fact that a provider can just completely ghost you with no warning. At least if you're seeing the provider in a regular office setting and there were to suddenly quit or retire, their practice would definitely reach out to you to tell you what's going on and would set you up with a new provider. I'm sure of that. And that just doesn't happen when you're meeting with somebody online for some. Especially for something that's important as your mental health. I just wouldn't chance it. God, I thank you for this day. I thank you for the people listening to this podcast and for everyone who wants to prioritize their mental health, this new year. Got to know that everything you do for us happens break greater purpose. Even when things don't work out the way that we think they should. I pray that the, no matter what direction people go in for their mental health, they find a provider who truly listens to them, give some great recommendations and who most importantly, doesn't give up on them. I pray for many blessings ever, my listeners and that their mental health improves with each and every day. Amen. Well, that's it for today. I. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you would like to support this podcast, please consider clicking on the link in the description area of either apple podcast or Spotify or wherever you're listening from. This is a way where you can make a difference and help someone who might be struggling with their mental health. Also, if you will, please leave a review of this podcast, it really helps spread the word about this to others and believe it or not, it actually makes it visible to others so they can find it. I truly hope your mental health improved this year and that this year provides you with focus. And it is full of growth and joy. I'll talk to you guys next week. Bye.