I was very lucky, again, to get CBT in about 2 months after I first said I needed help. I basically rang nhs 24 and said I wanted to end my life, next minute, an ambulance outside my door, taken to a&e where I wanted to just go home, walking down the street with them running after me and holding me back. Got taken after that to the psychiatric hospital where I had to sleep off the ridiculous amount of alcohol I had drunk that night, and had to see a psychiatrist that day.
A couple of weeks later, it took a nose dive and that's when the crisis team were involved. In fairness though, I think it was the medication they had originally given me that made everything a lot worse. Ended up in hospital a couple of times after that, until my meds were changed.
I know that sounds very extreme, but I've never been that bad before, and I don't think I'll be that bad again.
So that's the general jist of why I'm having CBT as well as the self harming, but I haven't done that it a good couple of months either. I actually stopped for about 8 years before that.