> How and how well do you keep track of your mental health

Mentally. Not very well. This is an area in need of improvement for me. I'm mid-30s and mental health is getting to be pretty important as of late.

> , particularly for those with a history of mental health issues, and those with a family history of mental issues.

TBQH I think that means everyone.

I live in America. In America, mental health takes a backseat to just about everything. Man up and get work done. If you've got a mental issue then feel free to get fired because there's a dozen more people behind you waiting to be employed for just as cheap. If you can't afford to be fired then that's just too bad.

I don't trust insurance companies. Outside of insurance, therapists are expensive as !@#$, particularly if you're poor. You're paying for someone else's time and "time is money, friend."

My employer's insurance has an Employee Assistance Program. I looked at it and... therapy is over the phone??? I would never talk therapy to someone over the phone. First I have a lot of trouble understanding people on the phone. The audio quality is poor to begin with but I genuinely have trouble hearing/understanding/remembering/responding to words people say. There's a ton of body language which is just gone when you're talking on the phone (or VOIP or even webcam). There's a delay between transmission and reception. Then there's also the fact that phones aren't secure. I have trust issues so security is important.

I have literally no idea how to even find a therapist other than asking my employer's insurance company for a list. I don't want to do that. I don't want to tip anyone off to think "oh man @inetknght is a mental case, we'd better fire them" or "@inetknght thinks dark thoughts, we need to put them in a mental cell" which is basically a permanent thing (good luck getting out of a mental cell). I know there are different kinds of therapists and I have no idea how to find the "right" kind nor how to find the right trustworthy kind. I have no idea how to find someone I could trust.

A lot of that is part of growing up poor, nearly destitute. So I've had no direct opportunities to be diagnosed with any sort of mental issues either. Mental health wasn't covered under my parents' insurance (when we had even some health insurance), and was never part of any school program (not that I had much school), and no employer seemed interested in the mental health of employees. Growing up, I'd heard many anecdotes about people who had a mental breakdown and were quickly dismissed from employ so I definitely never mentioned it merely out of fear of "oh is this something we should worry for you, uniquely? then you're fired". Literally nobody even asked about my mental health until after I was 30.

I'm willing to admit that I'm terrified of going to a therapist. Terrified of the therapist thinking I'm a nutcase when all I did is grow up on the internet with a different set of social values than those around me. Terrified that one therapist would think my rights need to be taken away. So I bury my head and don't tackle the problem because there isn't an easy trustworthy discrete door to go into. There's no way I'd trust any business with my mental health. Not insurance, not a silicon valley startup, and not my employer. No way in hell.

I also know that if there's an emergency then I have friends who I trust to help. They're more than I used to have a few years ago; I used to be depressed to the edge of suicide. My friends have helped a lot in fixing that. They're not therapists. They're more support than what others might have, though, and that means a lot to me.

Tracking mental health? That sounds like a good direction. I'm not opposed to an app to do that but I wouldn't put that on my phone. Nor would I put it on my computer. I wouldn't put it anywhere with internet access. Requiring internet access would be a non-starter.