What thing would help people's mental health

[PassingStranger]

Just wondered, when people say, they didn't get the help they need, or needed for their mental health.
What does this actually mean?

Does it mean, there's a lack of affordable professional help available.
People have to wait too long for help, there's no help???
I'm interested in this, what would help people?
What missing?
What do people need.
I've heard the expression didn't get the help they needed, so what is that?

I think with talking therapies when you finally get help its to short and probably not with the right person. They seem to do a one size fits all and its not realistic.
Then with cmht Iv been asking for trauma therapy for years but the cmht say im to unstable then when I get stable they discharge me and say I need a period of consolidation but by the time im back in the system im to unwell again so again classed as to unstable for trauma therapy and its like a never ending cycle.

I actually think mental health services would be better suited to people who are well so they have the skills for when they become unwell

When I had a breakdown, I wish the doctors could have given me more information on why and what was happening to me. For too many years I spent festering on the edges of psychosis, being terrified, because I didn’t know, and couldn’t articulate, what was happening to me.

I could have then armed myself with research and helped in my own recovery. Luckily, after about 9 years, I learned everything I could about my illness, and 20 years later, I’m equipped to help myself when I have a blip.

I couldn’t have done that without medication though, and I’ll be on it for the rest of my life, which I’m fine with.

That’s because being depressed makes it hard to engage and do the things needed to use the help.

an analogy might be that if you had a broken leg, but the fracture clinic was up 4 flights of stairs.

Exactly.

Also, that first appointment can be incredibly hard. It can be so daunting to have to basically open up to a stranger. So much goes through your head... will you be taken seriously? Can they offer anything useful? Will I be locked up?

A lot of mental health conditions really need informed and intensive long term treatment and it's just not possible or feasible for most people to access this, so a lot of care ends up being not that helpful or effective

Stop blaming others, own your decisions and stop turning other people's lives into your own soap opera, conspiracies are not everywhere, and you think everyone is judging you then you are just as bad yourself

It depends entirely on what is causing the mental health issue.

Back in 2009, when my MH was poor, I had a psychiatrist and a team of support workers. Today, I don’t think I’d have had that. Although I found out the problem and also the solution so I’m a different person now.

Who exactly are you talking to?

I am hoping they posted on the wrong thread.

It’s one of the problems with 6/12 sessions - you don’t have time to feel your way in. There’s no other place you’d be expected to tell a complete stranger your most painful stuff and be deemed “not engaging” if you choose not to do so.

When I was ill I remember asking professionals ‘will I ever get better’ and I was told ‘some people do and some don’t’

I am lucky in that sertraline alone keeps me well. I’m autistic but was diagnosed with bipolar and BPD (wrongly). I think that some people’s issues are more complex.

i also think we now have a lot of people in their 20s who were in overcrowded schools which has meant that they weren’t given the right support and have become unwell.

I agree with this. I wfh and am currently searching/applying for jobs. I just can’t take it anymore. I’m sad, lonely and totally fed up of these 4 walls.

Shame really as I have the most wonderful employer and I love my job but 3 years of it has had a very negative effect. No issues with MH at all before then but now I just don’t feel good.

Perhaps because poor mental health impacts on ability to attend / engage?

@Bimblebombles @ZoggyStirdust It’s a tough question.

Here in the US (and presumably if you go private in the UK), you get charged for missing an appointment. If you miss a couple, they boot you off their list.

I don’t know what the answer is.

I agree. But what people say they want and what seems to promote good mental health are at odds with one another

i also think we now have a lot of people in their 20s who were in overcrowded schools which has meant that they weren’t given the right support and have become unwell.

@IShouldNotCoco Yes and teaching is a difficult, stressful profession so who’s going to be eager to enter it?

Yep, when Covid hit, my BIL was forced to WFH and he ended up really isolated and low.
My DP works from home, and he tends to go out and work in cafes etc so he is still around people. He gets to know the staff so has a chat too.

Someone up the thread said ask a person with good MH

I support an audhd child but I have good mh myself (generally)

I attribute it to the following

-No childhood trauma
-A partner who earns enough to enable me to work part time so I have time to support child properly

• time to exercise

- time and money for hobbies

• friends who listen and have common ground
• money to spend on decent therapy for child
• a home we are happy in
• animals in the home
• giving back time and love to friends and a small amount of charity work
• a part time job I enjoy

So in a nutshell it really comes down to time and money to enable me to not burn out trying to do to much and a good support network.

I realise I am very very fortunate and I really get it when it's so hard when someone close has poor MH. It's really really hard.

often the issue is solved by moving to a job or workplace that's not shit!

In which case this is not a fucking health problem!

True stress/depression is not a normal response to shit circumstances. Its an abnormal response to normal circumstances.

100% this

I have good mh, I'd attribute it to:

• supportive family (parents & siblings)
• happy, trauma free childhood
• upbringing which emphasised the value of hard work & work as a positive thing
• upbringing which emphasised resilience and a sense of personal responsibility to persevere through difficult tasks /overcome challenges.
• childhood hobbies that provided opportunity for low stakes failure where you could learn how to get over it & move on (music exams, sports matches etc).
• cultural background that discouraged a focus on self/individual and instead focussed on group/family/community needs

having faced a few difficult situations in life and having to come through them showed me my own strength.

I don't dwell overmuch on socia media or give a shit what other people have or how they choose to live.

Prolonged stress from being in a toxic work environment can cause MH problems though. That does not mean they are not genuine or "true".
Burnout is a thing. People can and do then develop unhealthy ways to cope such as alcohol or even self harm.

Interesting because I also had all that but my MH is shot to pieces. I really struggle with professionals as they are constantly trying to find a childhood trauma when there simply never was one!

I feel 1-2 years of counselling would have done me the world of good....except I can't access that on the NHS. Both my GP and the NHS psychiatrist told me I'd have to pay for that privately. All I've been offered is CBT (6 sessions, one course I had in person, the other online-neither really worked as it was one sized fits all and didn't account for ND differences), and the last time I again tried for it was told I was "too complex" but not complex enough to be taken back to MH team.

I must have had about 20,,,+ referalls from GP to CMHT and everytime they declined, until the last time where they assessed me, told me to come off my anti depressants to go onto another then discharged me back to my GP without my knowledge and without telling me they'd undiagnosed me with bipolar and left me with no medication 🤦🏼‍♀️

I fall between too complex for IAPt but not complex enough for CMHT. I feel there needs to be a middle ground.

I do have access to counselling via my work EAP but I've used up my allocated sessions and I now can't afford private therapy after they helpfully stopped the PIP that was paying for it...

Wanting answers, in the same way a person doesn’t accept ‘generalised cancer’ the whys, the hows, the prevents!

A few people have said how I should put what happened without answers behind me, but seriously how can I. Would they if truth known?

Off to plastics I go I donate skin which may or may not work after the freak stories. It could be painful and more time consuming for something they don’t have answers to, today.
In a couple of years time, the next upcoming surgeon who does not wish to either entertain causes like in 2025, does away with my limb, with no answers I can share then I likely cannot get back that wasted precious donated skin back can I?

But it is ok in 2025 you don’t have to provide answers as a medic and that’s ok. No cause for depression here what so ever.