I left a very abusive ex partner, he was exceptionally emotionally and mentally abusive, managed to convince me I needed psychiatric help in order for our then relationship to get better.. I actually feel sick thinking about the pleasure he must have got from it. After leaving him, it transpired he had told the Police about his concerns for my mental health and our daughter shouldn't be in my primary care. During Court Proceedings, he diagnosed me with PND and borderline personality disorder, despite the fact he has vehemently refused to provide his medical records by direction of the Court..
Now we move onto the local authority, we have currently local authority involvement owing to post seperation domestic abuse and the local authority are currently undertaking a children's and families assessment.
My daughters social worker also expressed concerns for my mental health as I have understandably been through a lot and have not yet sought counselling.
I explained that I feel my mental health is extremely robust but I certainly do feel pressure from all corners and that I do at times feel anxious but I do not project these feelings in my DDs presence. I explained that as a result of being in a very abusive relationship I have learnt to squash my feelings down and carry on with day to day life as a busy, working single mum.
At present, counselling has a negative connotation for me as i was so severely gaslighted by my ex that I truly believed I needed psychiatric help. My ex even went so far to say until he saw a Doctors assessment our relationship would always be how it was and we couldn't progress forward.
I now do not know how to translate to people that I personally feel my mental health is robust and I'm still in possession of my faculties.
I do believe I need to confront the emotional impact of all that I've been through, but I'm not yet ready to do that as I am not ready to relive that trauma.
I suppose what I'm trying to ask is how do I get across that I'm actually fine and I don't want people making assumptions about my mental health anymore.