I'm a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, board certified through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

Psychiatry wasn't originally my plan.

I started my nursing career caring for patients recovering from cardiac surgery and later spent two years working in labor and delivery. When I became a nurse practitioner, my first role combined family medicine and psychiatric care. I quickly found myself caring for patients with complex psychiatric medication histories, including high-risk medication combinations.

That experience taught me something important: psychiatric care is rarely as simple as identifying a symptom and prescribing a medication.

But the biggest shift in my approach came from my own experience.

For years, I told myself I could simply work harder and eventually everything would get better. When I started struggling with anxiety, irritability, and chronic insomnia, I initially relied heavily on medication. It helped, but it didn't address everything that was still going on.

I could be exhausted and still lie awake for hours.

Eventually, I started looking at the bigger picture: sleep habits, exercise, nutrition, caffeine, alcohol, routines, and other factors affecting my mental health.

That changed how I thought about psychiatric care.

I'm still fine-tuning my own sleep and health habits. I still have difficult nights. But I understand now that knowing what to do doesn't mean everything changes overnight.