I have been suffering from 2 serious mental illnesses for close to 30 years and I am not even 40 yet. I had trouble accessing mental health care due to my insurance. I finally was able to see a therapist 6 years ago and she wasn't very helpful. Her suggestions where almost always medication and church. She did have the insight after 3 of seeing her to refer me to a therapist who took my insurance medicad and that did Diaelectical Behavior Therapy where I learned coping skills. DBT has some aspects of Buddhist practices in it like mindfulness. Before DBT I was suicidal daily and when I was referred to "A," I was experiencing suicidal thoughts non-stop even in my dreams and was in a lot of emotional pain. Now after completing 2 years of DBT, I am only suicidal a couple of days a week at the most. I am working on loving myself and I still doing DBT work. I am also attending the JR College in my county.