Would you relocate if it means having more options for treatment?

FauxLiz

Diamond Member
I love where I live; I had never considered how much the environment means when dealing with mental health issues however, 2 1/2 years ago, I moved to Florida for a job, and the climate and access to water/beaches have made a huge improvement to my daily mental health. Unfortunately, the metro area where I live has been out of control growth and the availability of access to both psychiatrists for med management and therapists (that have higher education than just LPC or MSW) is nearly impossible to get and those with solid experience are all private pay, no insurance and the going rate is roughly $275-$300 per visit. I make a decent salary but the cost of living keeps going up, and insurance rates are out of control for housing and auto eating up more than any annual salary increases will ever achieve.

So now I am trying to figure out if I should start looking for employment in a state with a lower cost of living but allows for either all remote or hybrid work environment that would allow me to spend more time in this climate during the winter months when the gloom and grey of winter and cold weather have serious negative effects on me. Living in the Florida climate has improved some of my physical health issues as well, so that has to be considered. I am at a point where I hate my employer and the job that I am doing, so I am starting to look for a new position I just don't know if I want to consider another major relocation to an area where there are maybe not more resources but a lower client/patient to provider ratio.

For perspective, in the last two decades, I have relocated for employment reasons 7 times, it is a major stressor every time and has prevented home ownership as the continual moves eliminate any equity. Also, considering the political climate in the US, I am not sure I really feel safe living in the US anymore, and I was born here.
 
i can and have relocated in hopes of better treatment. i have since come to believe that those hopes were born of my over-developed flight instincts. i covered 3 continents before i admitted that maybe i never would find the perfect life and just planted my feet where i was. addressing issues like not liking my boss, missed therapy connections, etc., turned out to be far more effective than trying to run away from myself.

but that is me and every case is unique.

steadying support while you sort your own case.
 
@arfie thank you for the insights. To put into perspective how difficult it is to find providers in the metro area where I am, after a full year with employer-sponsored health insurance, I bit the bullet and contracted with a concierge MD for my primary care. A PCP covered by my insurance was either not accepting new patients or your initial visit would be scheduled 3-4 months out, and when you would get within 6 weeks of that appointment time, they would call and need to reschedule. I literally had to make quarterly return visits to my providers in a northern state because I couldn't get into see a practitioner long enough to just be officially part of their patient load. I was able to keep seeing my therapist from up north for the first year here as during that period of work I was considered contract and therefore had not formally moved my legal address.

I just need someone to talk through things with, who understands what issues are part of my cPTSD what are my social anxiety issues and who can help me help myself.
 
I have moved for better services. I am also in the process of registering my New Zealand citizenship which I get because my mother was a citizen and thus I can reside in NZ without years of the application process. I just don’t care for the US anymore and if I am unable to save our marriage I am going to create a new life for myself in NZ. In regards to therapists you can do it on zoom. I do that, my therapist is a PhD psychologist located in Arizona but she is licensed in several states. Her rates are less than $200 per hour.
 
I moved to a different country half way around the world, because where I was living there were almost zero mental health treatment options and the other country has tons. I moved there in my early 20s cos I realised PTSD was going to be a long journey and that I'd be dead without good treatment options. So, my answer to your question is yes.
 
To put into perspective how difficult it is to find providers in the metro area where I am,
absolute empathy on the difficulty of putting together an effective therapy team, whether in the big, progressive cities i moved to or the smallish ag centers i first started running away from. at present i am living on a farm in an ag center and sorely tempted to move to a metroplex for the sake of greater availabilities. thank you for the reminder that the metroplexes are not as over supplied as they look from my current safe social distance. just a reminder. i've sought treatment in some of the most progressive metroplexes in the world. how easy it is to forget.
I just need someone to talk through things with, who understands what issues are part of my cPTSD what are my social anxiety issues and who can help me help myself.
more empathy. at 70, i still feel like a freakasaurus for having been raised as a child prostitute. getting past that feel remains a recovery challenge. i am not sure i will ever find a quasi-functional adult who does understand, but opening myself to working with what is available seems to work better than my hyper-vigilant flights ever did.
 
A little perspective: I am an American living abroad. I don't want to return because of the political situation and because there are things I really love about where I live. But health care is a mess here and I can’t get any mental health care unless I self finance, and what is available is just an unprofessional mess. So, I plan to move back to the states eventually.

I wish I didn’t have to make that choice. But I think for me, having access to care is more important than prioritizing some of what I love about this place I’m in. Pick your poison, I suppose, but I don’t think it is crazy at all to move in order to prioritize your care.
 
UK based. We would love to relocate to somewhere in the world where both our physical needs and my PTSD would receive effective treatment.
Somewhere where their government isn't as corrupt as ours is.
Unfortunately, that's not going to happen as other countries are demanding too much money for visa's and resettlement, with no guarantees of gaining citizenship.
That's a gamble we cannot afford to take.
 
Yes, I have done this before, and it was a good move.

I think you need to balance the other considerations you mentioned like being happy and able to afford where you live - with looking for treatment somewhere less overcrowded. Could you travel for medical treatment or see them remotely? I know the US has regulations about being in the same state but other countries don't and might see you as a patient.

I have relocated for employment reasons 7 times, it is a major stressor every time

Because of this ^. Relocating is a huge stressor so I think if you can try to make it work otherwise, do that
 
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