My anxiety is crippling me - do I qualify for the crisis team?

[umwhyisthishappening]

Ever since I had my DS, 18 months, my anxiety has been crippling. I have diagnosed Pure O and the first six months of his life were hell. Things started to get better but for the past three months, the anxiety has been crippling. I’ve been waking up from panic attacks twice a night, in the morning the first thing I feel is anxiety which I try to calm with diazepam, I can distract myself during the day with work even though it’s always there, and the evenings are terrible. I am becoming very very depressed again and although I’m close with my DP, I don’t feel I can talk to him openly about it and I don’t have a good family relationship.

I’m under the community mental health team, a private therapist and CBT but nothing is working.

In the past I have been under the crisis team 4 times, once for 12 weeks. I feel like I need them again, but this time I’m not going to hurt myself. I have my son to live for. But I do have thoughts and I do imagine just not being here anymore.

I’d like to be under the crisis team again because the last time they really helped me through a dark period, but I understand resources are stretched and because I’m not a suicide risk I don’t know whether I’d be allowed.

Does anyone have any experience with this or advice? Thank you

I think you can phone them up?

We have a mental health line here a bit like the Samaritans but not a direct crisis line unfortunately. It’s A&E but going in non suicidal I wouldn’t have thought they’d help

Ring in to your mh team on Monday morning and ask for a call back or to talk to whoever is on duty, tell them what is happening. Keep ringing if they don't contact you back immediately.

I'm sorry to hear how you are feeling. I have been there. Does your CBT therapist do ERP? Exposure response prevention is thought to be the best therapy for pure O. I know it's hard, but remember you are not your thoughts. xx

Your GP or an out of hours GP can do a crisis team referral and they will assess and make a decision based on that. They can also advise your current team if they need to step up their level of care for you if you don't meet threshold. In theory crisis team isn't just for those who feel suicidal- it's to get you through a crisis point. But as you say resources are stretched, that's not your issue to worry about though. You should ask for the help you feel you need and will benefit you.