Jonathon K My mental health journey has been peaks and valleys.
Meet Jonathon.
My name is Jonathon K. I’m 34 years old, I live in the lower South Hill neighborhood of Spokane and I do philanthropic work with local nonprofits, specifically meeting the needs of low income women and single parents living at or below the federal poverty guidelines.
My mental health journey throughout my life has been full of peaks and valleys. I lost my parents when I was a teenager and I’ve been going through life primarily on my own without any family support, whether it be financial or just guidance through life in your early adulthood.
“There’s been high highs and low lows.”
I had a pattern of using unhealthy, intimate relationships and alcohol, specifically to cope with my own trauma and my own mental health just because it was something to help me feel different from how I was feeling. I finally decided to look around and find some mental help for the first time after I got a DUI in 2018, and that’s been a journey in itself.
All therapy can be helpful. And I’ve been in therapy, no less than once a week, every week for the last three years. And the first therapist you find isn’t always going to be the right fit for you. And my first therapist was very much not a good fit.
Life is full of challenges — emotional challenges, social challenges, and it’s always great to have a professional that you can confide in to help you through life and process those things in a healthy way as they come up.
There are very few services available here in Spokane. You need to be signed up for health care, even if it is Apple Health, which if you’re low-income is free. Oftentimes people don’t know how to sign up for Apple Health.
So I think (having) more educational resources available in frequently trafficked areas in the community that people go to, maybe in the grocery stores. Have pamphlets at the kiosks or when you’re walking down to the store. Bus stops would be a great place to have access to mental health services. Those steps take a lot of funding and a lot of legislation to get through, but I think those would be great.
