to think that the NHS Mental Health Services are USELESS?

[TeenTwinsToddlerandTiaras]

I have been involved with them now for 6 years due to suffering from OCD, extreme anxiety and depression. I swear that I got worse since being involved with them in addition to the stigma and feeling of worthlessness that being diagnosed with a mental health 'illness' brings.

I went for my 2nd follow up appointment in 6 months with an NHS psychiatrist yesterday and I told him that I did not want any more involvement with them as I could manage without their 'help' and I was told that they would not discharge me from their services as they were not convinced I was better . They have had no involvement with me for 6 months since they threatened me with SS and I have never even seen that psychiatrist before! He insisted that I take a CRISIS card with the emergency helpline no. on even though I said I did not need it and never have.

I have been told that as I refused pills (tried them and they made me feel worse) I obviously did not want to get better and must be attention seeking , threatened with social services as being a risk to my children even though the nature of my 'illness' means that I am probably the least likely type of person to harm anyone which has been very well documented (I did get an apology but that still put me in a headspin), told that I would have to live with this for the rest of my life and must learn to 'manage' with it (that took me to the brink I must say).

I was absolutely no closer to getting better until I had the good luck to find myself a good counsellor a few months back, after trying a few duds, who taught me to empathise with myself rather than continuously beat myself up all the time for my failure to get better so exacerbating it. In fact she told me that rather than being mentally 'ill' I was reacting to my experiences and the mess that I had become was totally understandable and even normal as I have been in pain and I had to heal that before anything else would help.

Childhood trauma and abuse, the death of a child and the serious illness of another, the loss of a home and financial security were the cause of my 'illness' and it has been a complete nightmare but I am glad to say the tide is now slowly turning and my terrified brain is starting to calm down but I really feel the NHS offered me nothing but tried to force pills down my throat and a short course of ineffectual CBT which did not even scratch the surface. Has anyone else found this to be the case?

I've had very good people and awful people.

In hospital, I at least couldn't take an overdose etc, but I managed to make myself unconscious for half an hour and have a bump on my forehead the size of a £2 coin. I staggered to the office. (Where all the staff were) to say that I had hurt myself and was worried, and they laughed and said that if I could talk there was no problem. It was safer in there than outside, but it wasn't safe.

Endless patronising twattish doctors.

But I had a wonderful CPN who became like a close friend, she was amazing. I really felt like she was on my side.

I've worked on MH wards too, as a HCA, so I've seen both sides. My mum is making herself ill by throwing her entire life at her job as a MH nurse.

It is basically a lottery. I would always say people should seek help, because you would have to be very very ill (and quite obviously so - I have been caught by the police and let go again in a few hours) to not have the choice to just tell them no if you don't like them. Quite often even a little bit of help is enough to send you towards recovery.

My experience with NHS Mental Health was deeply upsetting. The GP met me for the first time the day he prescribed me anti-depressants and put me on the waiting list for CBT. When I went back in a few weeks later to say I thought I was having side-effects from the meds (hallucinations, jitteriness, panic), the senior GP didn't look up from her computer once to look at me. She saw the shopping bags I came in with, and said something like, you must be feeling better if you're out shopping! I was out shopping because I was unable to sit down in one place for more than five minutes and was trying to tire myself out. I was hearing inanimate objects singing and was feeling suicidal and reckless, all as a result of the meds! She sent me off on my way, telling me to keep going with them.

My husband stormed in with me the next day and got a THIRD GP to review the meds. We went private from then on. I got a call from the NHS CBT people months later for the first time, when I'd already seen the private psych and CBT people three or four times and was getting better. They were really miffed when I said I'd gone private so I wouldn't kill myself while on the waiting list, which was the truth.

I don't know how anyone gets better mentally in Oxfordshire without private medical insurance.

That's awful, Youwiththeface. It sounds like you didn't get as far as secondary mental health services though if everything was done through your useless GP surgery. (Unless it was a long time ago, in which case the CMHT might still have been the gate keepers into therapy services.) Anyway, really glad you got good therapy privately, though it's v v sad you had to do so.

It's all shit. 4 years and I can't see a psychiatrist because some 'graduate mental health worker' thinks I don't do enough to help myself, which reinforces my belief that everything is my fault. I truly don't know how to help myself, but hey, I know I don't matter so who fucking cares?

My GP told me that it would be irresponsible to take antidepressants in pregnancy. This goes against recommendations, but who cares? When I finally made it to secondary services a full 21 weeks later, I was far too freaked out to take the drugs prescribed by the consultant that I desperately needed.

Ambrosia, forgive my language, but who ARE these fuckers? How dare they play with your life like that?? Have you complained? I complained to the Head of CBT for discharging me and I got seen within about two weeks.

In my PCT the CMHT decide what treatment is appropriate. As I didn't magically get better after 6 counselling sessions, and some CBT, the 'graduate mental health worker' decided that it was because I wasn't trying, and therefore discharged me back to my GP, who can only refer back to them but they say I don't help myself so they can't. Head/brick wall situation.

YANBU. When I had a breakdown two years ago I felt the help I received was pitiful. I was actively suicidal and went to my GP telling him that I had made a plan and I needed help, I was sobbing hysterically and in a terrible state. He referred me to the local crisis team who came to my house four hours later and they were utterly useless. I told them I didn't feel safe and that I wanted to die. Their advice? 'How about doing something to take your mind off it like dusting the house for half an hour.' Dusting the house?! I wanted to disappear into oblivion and they're suggesting I get the Pledge out?

To cut a long story short I did attempt to take my own life after they left. After a few days in hospital I was discharged and before long I was begging for help from the crisis team again. My DM was at her wits end and asked if there was any possibility of inpatient treatment - the CPN said: 'Not enough beds and tbh you wouldn't benefit from going to the local mental health unit as a lot of the patients are sex offenders.'

I was put on a waiting list for CBT and was told it could be up to four months before i saw someone. I was also referred to a psychiatrist who was an arrogant shit to put it politely. He went through my history with me and I explained that I had been abused as a child which has affected my whole life. He kept saying: 'Why is that relevant? That happened years ago, it shouldn't affect you now.' I walked out.

I ended up getting help privately, it cost an arm and a leg but it saved my life. I honestly believe that if I had continued to seek help from the NHS I probably wouldn't be here now.

Some of these stories are horrible :(

Am feeling very lucky for the standard of the mental health team around here today.

It is shocking. I have been very lucky to have had 25 CBT sessions. 6 would have done nothing for me.

TempNC, I am disgusted with your story. I really don't know why some of these people work in the sector they do. I have had similar re: abuse... erm, how can the NHS peddle on the one hand the notion that everything we as parents do is of vital importance to the future wellbeing of our children and yet discount the effects our parents' much more heinous actions may have had on us?

There is something so abusive about some man you never met before, who knows you for an infinitesmally small moment of your life suggesting that your feelings and experiences "shouldn't" be. It is disgraceful.

YABU to make such a blanket statement. I don't know the details of your circs so you may get a YANBU for that.

I had the fortune/misfortune to be on a locked ward in Manhattan about 13 yrs ago. I was admitted for being psychotic. I was an inpatient for a week. Whilst I was there I came across people 'choosing' ECT to treat their illness because it was cheaper. Others not taking medication in the past because they couldn't afford it. In my case the insurance my employers had organised just covered my 7 day stay. I was having nothing but anti psychotic meds and monitoring. If I'd been there a day longer would have owed more than £2K.

The NHS is not perfect but we are so lucky to have it. I had brilliant support from the perinatal team after the birth of all my kids. My GP, although restricted in what he can do is great. Not all the interactions I have had with the NHS have been wonderful but the mental health teams I have encountered have been way above the other doctors.

Be grateful for what you have. Cameron and his buddies are working hard to remove it and then people may be choosing the wrong/no treatment just because it is cheaper and not because it is what they need.

I don't agree loverofwine, and I work in the NHS as well as being a service user. An inconsistent service that offers very little help to a huge number of people does not constitute "luck".

I lost count of the number of parents I worked with who received "family therapy" and "parenting courses" because they presented with children who went on to be diagnosed with developmental delays and disorders such as autism etc. I saw parents told it was their "attachment issues" causing epilepsy etc. At least in the Manhattan situation, people had some choice. In the NHS, if they don't think you are "high risk" enough or have resources to treat you, you get told you don't need services or it's your own fault you are unwell because you are not trying hard enough. Essentially, it is the pracitioner (often with limited training/at graduate level) who is making the choice, often on the basis of a limited assessment.

YANBU. To summarise all the proven complaints of inadequate/dangerous treatment on this thread:

1. My referral for therapy got lost, they forgot to follow up
2. They gave me the wrong pills
3. They told me no treatment was available when it was
4. They failed to refer me to a psychiatrist when I was very ill

Yep, all of them have been done to me too. In varying degrees of danger, too.

What gets me most is that the treatment, if it's not denied to you, is so slow that you're really very ill indeed by the time you get to see someone. Would this be acceptable for a diabetic? A child cancer sufferer?

I agree that nothing is perfect but to me lack of money means complete lack of choice. Agreeing to have your brain frazzled because it is cheap isn't a choice.

In my case I am 'lucky' enough to be sufficiently mental to be designated severe (bipolar) and the services I have received have been good. They are not perfect but after my manhattan experience I am very thankful that I live in the UK not the US.

Winelover, I'm glad you're Ok about it, but your point is the same as saying "I so love London because there's more choice in the grocery shops than there is in the camps in Rwanda."

Some comparisons don't mean much. Some are rather tasteless.

Oh, and we pay A LOT OF TAX for the NHS. The US don't.

I can understand that, but I think it is such a lottery. When I had my intake appointment at 28 weeks pregnant, 22 weeks after referral, the psych basically told me I had severe OCD and it was a shame I wasn't referred earlier (earlier than 6 weeks pregnant, with a perinatal psychiatric disorder?) but I wouldn't feel better before the birth. He would refer to CBT but they didn't prioritise pregnant women and it would be unlikely I would be seen. See ya. I was distraught. I was 100% convinced I or the baby would die in the pregnancy and that if I didn't save us by getting help there was no future. I was also fairly lucky that I had enough support around me for this not to be the end of the road... but god, there were times I was so close to the edge it was unfunny. I would never have presented looking for a crisis team though as I was just so ashamed of how unwell I was... which I now gather is fairly par for the course. I just found it rubbish... I feel I gave them all my trust at the most vulnerable time in my life and they put my and my baby's life at risk.

I also believe if I hadn't been able to afford private CBT and Mindfulness at that stage of pregnancy, we wouldn't be here right now.

loverofwine, my sister had her brain 'fried' as you delicately put it in an NHS hospital against her will. For a condition that it isn't a recommended treatment for, before a solicitor could be engaged to challenge the decision. I'm a socialist and a big defender of the NHS, but NHS mental health services that I have experienced as a patient or family member have been crap. To be told you need a 'good shag' by a CPN to cure PTSD? That's nothing but gross misconduct.

Sorry, you said 'frazzled'.

Just because its shitter somewhere else doesn't mean its not shit and we don't deserve better in a 1st world country.

I've needed an emergency assessment in the past. Out of hours. There was 1 social worker on call to serve a population of well over 100,000. This social worker had been on duty since 6am. By the time she saw me it was 1am. I'd been waiting since just before 5pm.

So yeah I am going to say NHS mental health is useless. As much for the sake of that woman as much as anyone she serves.

I've started to type out a reply a few times now and erased it because I honestly do not know what to say. I am so, so sorry that so many of you have had these experiences. This thread is a real eye opener. I've had shit treatment from GPs (PND/painkiller addiction went untreated after a junior doctor told me to just get out twice a day with the baby and I'd be fine) but I've been lucky enough to not need the more serious services AND also to get better enough on my own.

"My GP told me that it would be irresponsible to take antidepressants in pregnancy."

Oh yes, same here. When I eventually saw my consultant and told her I'd stopped taking my antidepressants she was not impressed!

"Be grateful for what you have."

I get what you are saying, but at the same time you wouldn't tell someone with a physical health problem (like cancer) to be grateful for intermittent/dangerous care because some countries had none would you?

Yes DH was under our local mental health team. His psychiatric worker was a waste of time. DH had to go once a week then once every two weeks then once a month when he started working.
All the bloke talked about how a job in the NHS is brilliant and DH should get a job in that organization :-/ every week it was just about him how he felt and how his job was good with the NHS.

DH did tell him how he felt etc like he was meant too but it always went back to the bloke.

In the end he left the mental health centre and instead of signing DH over to someone else he signed him off as if his depression had gone.
He told DH if he didn't still feel himself and depressed to go back GP for another referral.

Needless to say he didn't he's given up hope because of his CPN and still suffers bouts of depression.

So yes it's utter crap.

is so slow that you're really very ill indeed by the time you get to see someone. Would this be acceptable for a diabetic? A child cancer sufferer?

You'd be surprised. Or maybe not.