It seems like only yesterday our daughter Mia was this exuberant, social butterfly, full of confidence, love and hope for the future. However, in less than a year her physical and mental health started to deteriorate, resulting in dark depression, suicidal ideation. anxiety, panic attacks, and a severe eating disorder.
We searched for over 3 months to find a duel diagnosis treatment center in Minnesota, with no luck. Mia was admitted and discharged from two centers and three hospitals and told they didn’t have equipment, background or specialists to care for her. She was hopeless and we were terrified.
We finally found a facility in Atlanta, GA with the capability to treat the complexity of Mia’s disease. Making the decision to bring our 13-year-old daughter out of state, away from family and friends was very difficult, but we knew it was our last hope. Mia was running out of time.
When Mia was admitted her illness had progressed to such a degree she had to be confined to a wheel chair and fed through a feeding tube. Her status hasn’t changed and we’ve been told she could be hospitalized for up to 6 months. The cost associated with her being out of state and insurmountable medical bills pouring in have already started to put an extreme strain on our family financially. We’re struggling to pay our mortgage, utilities, and all other bills and expenses.
The fear and pressure of financial ruin combined with the very real fear of losing our daughter to this disease is incomprehensible.
No family should be put in this position, but we’ve learned it’s more common than people realize. We just never thought it would happen to us. We never imagined this could happen to our beautiful daughter Mia, but it did.