What thing would help people's mental health

Yes, I really relate to this. Before I was diagnosed ND mental health practitioners would ask things like "What do you think is going to happen in (whatever situation) that you feel anxious about?" and I couldn't even really get the question as there wasn't anything that I thought was going to happen. It's just the sensory overwhelm of the situation made my body feel terrible anxiety. The nearest I could get was "I feel anxious that it will be really loud and people will be really close to me" and they would not accept that as the answer. I don't know what would have helped though, maybe more physical calming techniques. I would have felt more supported if they'd at least believed me and not rolled their eyes.

Sensory issues, no thoughts just overwhelm and visceral reactions.
Neurodiverse minds have different wiring making different connections, and often can have processing delays
Synesthesia
I could go on, it's not as simple as thoughts cause all behaviour
CBT can be great for certain things but is definitely not suitable for everything.

In 2021 I had a mental health crisis. I called the mental health team and crisis team numerous times a week begging for help as I know I was in a bad place and if something didn't get done something would happen, my ex then fed our oldest a pack of lies and our son called me all the names under the sun so I thought what was the point and went to my mum's grave and had medication that I took the wrong dose. My best friend had seen a post id made and knew where I was and got my other half who got me to hospital. The next morning I was told I could leave and I was handed a leaflet and told to phone these people if it got bad. It was the numbers I had been calling for weeks. I just laughed. I saw the mental health team once I was on the mend with the right medication but it could have been done quicker if they had more people helping the people that are begging for help instead of waiting till they actually do something silly.

Also it helps if the people on the phone for the crisis team don't say they aren't sending anyone out as she is just doing it for attention. I ended up sectioned that night.

It's a very long view but I work in perinatal MH and what would make a massive difference is babies being born into stable homes with emotionally resilient parents who can provide secure attachments and model good relationships and emotional wellbeing.

It really does start at the very beginning - so many repeated patterns of emotional neglect, poor living standards, poor relationship choices etc etc in our patients, it's quite depressing to see things carry through generations.

There's no importance placed on intervention or support at the very start of life and so it rolls on and on

These are exactly the things that help me personally

Mental health care in the uk is so underfunded and desperate. Services are stowed off and waiting lists are long. The help people often need is medicine and talking therapies such as CBT, DBT,Psychotheraph etc. Social care is also in the gutter so it’s very hard for people when they don’t even have the basics in life.

@LoudlyProudlyHorrid It sounds lovely, but probably difficult to achieve.

^

More community
More nature
A 4 day working week
Lower cost of living

You are welcome, I can understand why you would not routinely engage with MH topics - I think I should do the same

This is spot on in my opinion (yes opinion only).
It’s such a difficult discussion to have as it is inherently emotive!
Therapist here, having worked with adults and children in therapy -counselling/ psychotherapy. I’m so lucky as I get no time limit on how long I can work with yp so if we need up to 25-30 sessions or more even (for example trauma or complex mental health alongside neurodiversity) we can have it which is great when accessing service HOWEVER that then means big waiting lists up to 10 months atm. We would need double the team size to deal with influx of referrals.

Neurodiverse yp make up half of the waiting list/caseload I’d say. Truthfully as a neurodiverse practitioner I’m not sure anyone can be properly ‘fully’ trained in ND. It presents so differently and you need imo a humanistic response and versatile practitioners - so training across person centred/CBT/DBT/Attachment or DDP/Play therapy! A lot of funding needed for training /staff retention/ actual staff!

Some things I’ve seen that impact young people the most right now in order of what appears to be most common:
—Social Media and its impact on selfesteem/friendships/
-Isolation
-Neurodiversity and not understanding how this presents, how it differs from actual ‘mental health conditions’ and how it can exacerbate mental health
-Poor sleep and diet
-Sadly some parents want to outsource behaviour management and emotional support
-Lack of social and employment opps

this is my opinion, probably haven’t given a full overview but I’m tired and this is a quick summary / snapshot of what I see every day at work

And therein lies the problem, if someone doesn’t find CBT helpful, it must have been a problem with the practitioner, or the client didn’t engage properly. It can’t possibly be that CBT gives us one way of understanding some causes of distress but doesn’t fit for many causes of distress.

I wonder how many 'cases' of poor mental health are really just down to people having the wrong expectations of what life should feel like. Many people claim to be anxious and depressed and so on. But maybe that's just the default human condition. Everyday stress and misery. Materially our lives have never been better. Are the promises of consumerism that we can consume ourselves happy really what's make us think we're sick?

Thanks that’s very kind. It hurts a bit when you have given your working life to something and someone just knee jerk says ‘you shouldn’t be practicing’ over one post on an anonymous forum.

I think it’s best to be honest. Our Trust has separate autism and ADHD services that are not part of the general CMHT (although they are over run with crazy wait lists) so I will either refer people on or suggest they get a private assessment if they have the means when I suspect neurodivergence is relevant for them. I don’t go around making amateur diagnoses outside my competence.

The state of knowledge moves on. It is the truth that adult autism and ADHD services were in their infancy as little as 10 years ago and practically unheard of 20 years ago so within my working lifetime there has been a huge surge in awareness and understanding. Conceptually I think it is problematic to lump these conditions under ‘mental illness’ and I think many people with lived experience agree.

Similarly the understanding of the effects of trauma and the spread of trauma informed care is also quite new. In the past many things were shoe horned into biological psychiatry models and labels that didn’t fit and because we don’t have the services to address those needs mainly because it would be so expensive we are stuck with no treatment or the wrong treatment.

mental health services have no parity at all in terms of funding compared to physical health but as there is no extra money we have to decide as a society what we want to stop doing if we want more investment in psychotherapy which is inherently costly.

@MiraculousLadybug I agree about the breathing! I feel stressed just hearing about 'box breathing' 🙄🙄🙄

You sound oddly like a rich, white 12 year old.

FWIW I found what you wrote very thoughtful and interesting - and quite validating of experiences I've had trying to access help. Also refreshing for a mental health worker to be humble and admit that there are areas they might not be able to help in - very different to my experience of them in the wild and sometimes on this thread - namely the patient blaming that goes on much of the time.

Thank you. That does help to counter the people who think I just ought not to bother practicing.

And this is why I have the mental health topic hidden (got reeled in via AIBU). I thought I had taken the time to engage with the topic thoughtfully and truthfully but no apparently I just ‘shouldn’t be practicing’ because I am not a specialist in neurodiversity. I did say that I have done the required mandatory training about reasonable adjustment etc I just do not consider myself able to give a specialist opinion in those areas.

sometimes my thoughts drive my feelings, but there’s other stuff going on too that needed to be addressed

Such as??? Your thoughts drive everything you do.

I'm sorry your CBT practitioner let you down but that doesn't change the basic principles. And it's also the basis of good relationships - communication, trust and respect; it doesn't have to be any more complex than that.

CBT is just one theory though and doesn’t fit for many people. I wouldn’t want my child taught in that way to the exclusion of other understandings of human development and wellness. I found CBT to be almost gaslighting at points in my process - yes sometimes my thoughts drive my feelings, but there’s other stuff going on too that needed to be addressed.

Research shows that the one thing that makes a difference therapeutically is the quality of relationships - children who have people who believe in them, that are positive and have ambition for them tend to do much better in the face of adversity. I’d rather schools focussed on the quality of relationships between staff and pupils than try teaching one narrow theory.

@Eyesopenwideawake I didn’t phrase that well, I also meant teaching them about how their minds work.

This is a specialized area and expecting already overworked teachers to take this on would be a big ask. At the very least, teachers would need additional training to do this effectively.

Perhaps it could be worked into teacher training in the future, but perhaps something else might have to be dropped in order to fit it into the school day.

I know several teachers so I’m rather defensive about what we parents expect from them! IMO, it’s already a lot.

Not thinking they are likely to have mental health problems.

I'm not talking about addressing mental health - I mean teaching children how their minds work (including neurodivergence) as a straight subject. How many adults would be happier today if they had learnt that they are not at the mercy of their thoughts and feelings?

It's also fascinating stuff, which is a bonus!