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Is this the end of the road for my mental health with the NHS?

28 replies

Gormlessgorgon · 03/05/2026 21:36

Started having a low, tearful mood with instrusive thoughts in my early teens. Was with CAMHS(?). My mother got the gp and then a psychiatrist come to my house at 18. I didn't have any friends and never left my bedroom. They told me I was anxious and had depression. Over the last 15 years I had gone through 5 antidepressants at a variety of doses. I have had three sessions of CBT including high intensity. I have been taken on two trips to a&e for suicidal ideation. I have seen multiple GPs over and over.

I have had severe social anxiety, low mood, fatigue, emptiness, numbness, lack of joy/pleasure etc etc for basically 20 years. I do all the right things that are meant to make me feel better, but they don't.

Is there anything else the NHS is supposed to be offering me but aren't for whatever reason, or is this it?

Also, my NHS app has me down as 'mild anxiety disorder and depressive symptoms', which feels devastating because what I have been through does not feel mild.

OP posts:
TheLargeOnes · 03/05/2026 21:47

I think autism / ADHD are worthwhile looking at as per PP. Have you been offered antipsychotics or mood stabilisers?

Thinking outside the box, have you heard of Flow Neuroscience headsets? "The NHS has used Flow in 10 NHS services across Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, West London, Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber, Norfolk and Suffolk and Practitioner Health"

Do you have any money to explore private options? (Possibly not as you're asking specifically about NHS). Or any family to help with funding non-NHS options?

Scoreagoal · 03/05/2026 21:41

NHS on knees - best thing you can do is get private therapy.

yes it will cost you but the best investment you can ever made in yourself.

most of the nhs interventions are short term cbt based and many people with long term issues need longer term psychotherapy that the nhd just rarely provides.

honestly - beg, borrow to fund your own therapy and set a course towards recovery.

Waiting on the nhs you will get worse and worse as resources are just not there.

harsh but true - you have to take control of your destiny and your therapy in order to get better .

Quietasamouse3 · 03/05/2026 21:39

Have you looked at autism
I was diagnosed age 50 ,but had a similar history to what you described
Just recently I've been diagnosed with ADHD,the mix of the two is probably why I went undiagnosed so long .