GP sent police to my house - is this normal? **trigger warning added by MNHQ: contains discussion of self-harm**

[CrazyKittenSmile]

On Thursday I went to A&E having self-harmed badly. I received 26 stitches for the cut and then saw the mental health team. I was calm and co-operative the whole time and the mental health team were happy to discharge me. It’s not unusual for me to require medical treatment for self-harming (I’d also been to A&E on Tuesday) and I always get my wounds treated and look after them. I’ve been clear that I’m not suicidal and have no intentions to kill myself when I self-harm. No history of suicide attempts or anything like that on my medical records.

On Friday I went to work as normal. My GP surgery tried to call me during the day at 11am, 2pm and then 5:55pm leaving 2 answerphone messages. I can’t use my phone at work and I didn’t notice these calls until 6pm, I tried to ring the surgery back but it was already closed and I just got the answerphone message signposting me to 111. No option to leave a message so I just forgot about it and figured I’d phone back Monday.

At 22:30 on Friday night I had a single policeman knocking at my door. He asked for me by name and said my GP surgery had sent him round to check on me. He asked to come in but only stayed for about 1 minute, I can’t really remember the interaction as the whole thing was a shock and I was feeling quite scared of what was going to happen. I’ve been having flashbacks from a few years and my last dealings with the police was reporting the assault which I don’t think helped me process what was happening as my mind was all over the place. But I guess he was satisfied I looked okay and happy to leave. I haven’t heard anything since.

Is this normal? I suffer from anxiety and the whole thing left me hugely shaken up when we I remember it. I hate having my private space invaded and I was home alone. I have been to A&E about 20 times over the last year and so my GP surgery had no reason to think I was at risk, I’m always fine afterwards and I had been seen by the mental health team on Thursday and discharged. I hadn’t done a runner from hospitalor anything.

What powers do the police have? Could he have sectioned me? Is this going on my record somewhere? Will it matter that my house was a mess and that I probably was acting nervously? I’m scared now that I’m known to the police that this might happen again. I’m also scared I will go into work on Monday and find out the police have been in or something. I don’t want to stop getting my wounds treated as they’re usually very deep (sometimes needing internal as well as external stitches) but I don’t want to risk having the police involved again. Is it likely to happen again? I don’t know if I should change surgeries or if it’s just as likely to happen with a different GP? If i go to A&E under a false name and name a fake GP surgery is this fraud?

If this continues could you get sectioned, yes, you could, becayse this isn't just something you should be ok with, it's huge, 26 stitches, sometimes internal stitches.

In reality this is very unlikely for the simple reason that there are no MH beds available. Even people that are actively suicidal struggle to get in patient care.

CrazyKittenSmile, what you're doing isn't healthy but I do understand. You've asked for help and you've been turned away, so for you self harm is a coping mechanism (albeit a completely flawed one). I hope you find some peace and things get better for you soon.

@CrazyKittenSmile does your school pay into any kind of mental welfare scheme? Some schools do, have separate insurance for staff to access therapy as and when needed and sometimes there are separate (local)agencies that deal with things like teacher stress. Might not be the depth of therapy you need, but worth looking into it if it's an option.

talkwellbeing.co.uk something like this but for your area.
Or can you afford to go private?

My school can offer 6 free sessions of counselling to bridge the gap if you’re on an nhs waiting list. I’m not sure if it could offer me anything as I’m not on a waiting list and I’m also worried 6 sessions isn’t really long enough and might make things worse to stop after that point. I can’t afford to go private.

I have been signposted to my local women’s centre who offer counselling/ psychotherapy but I have tried to call them and my anxiety becomes overwhelming and causes me to hang up. I coped with therapy which talked about my childhood and my present but I don’t feel able to talk about this particular issue or access help for it. I have tried to email but unfortunately they can’t arrange an appointment unless I phone up and speak to them.

I know I’m probably not helping myself but right now it feels like things are okay and I don’t want to risk making things worse by opening up things that I’ve managed to forget about. I feel like my job is the only thing keeping me together and I can’t risk getting to a point where I can’t cope with that.

It makes sense in a really fucked up way. I'm really sorry you are going through this and that more suitable help isn't available.

Is it possible to pay privately to see someone. You may then access the correct NHS team. I know people treated at the Priory on the NHS. Help should be available to you but it obviously isn’t being offered to you. How about the mental health charities, like MIND.

Would getting signed off work for a few weeks help?

I could afford a handful of private sessions but not long-term. The thing is I don’t think short term therapy is going to work; I received 20 sessions of psychotherapy between April and October and I managed to stop self harming for almost 5 months in that time. I was making progress talking to my therapist but still hadn’t managed to talk about my main ‘trauma.’ I find it incredibly hard to open up and talk and still didn’t feel completely comfortable with my therapist, although undoubtedly the therapy was helping me. Once the therapy ended I feel like everything started falling apart again and that things are worse now than before I accessed therapy. I know it’s unreasonable to expect free long-term weekly therapy but I feel like that’s what I need and so I am reluctant to access more of the time-restricted therapy available in case it makes things worse again when it ends. It feels too hard to spend months working on building a relationship with a therapist and to work towards talking about difficult things only to have that relationship end - I think I can be quite lonely and dependent and that I came to rely on the therapist and now that therapy’s over I have nobody I can talk to, which was fine before when I’d never tried to uncover what was in my head but is hard now that things I had previously buried deep feel nearer the surface than I want them to be.

Its totally normal.

Our go surgery failed to do a welfare check on my poorly uncle when he failed to go to a gp visit that morning. ( never tried to contact any of the family either)
He lay in his house all night until we found him the next morning and he sadly passed.

The surgery where given a reprimand and a written apology to us- not that it fixed it- for falling to follow protacall.
Hope you feel better with time OP

Good evening, all. We're moving this thread over to the Mental Health topic now, which will hopefully help the OP get as much support as possible.

If you do have BPD, you should be under the CMHT. Personality disorder is beyond primary care. THE treatment for BPD is DBT. Have a look at the Nice guidelines on BPD.

Unfortunately, there is considerable prejudice in the NHS against BPD, even though it could often be considered to be PTSD. However, if you have been to A & E 20 times in a year, that cost would have been better spent on treatment for you! It's not a case they have other more deserving patients - one year's DBT could help you to cope (and it's only teaching strategies; it's not a magic cure); and save the NHS money in the long run.

I would look at getting sessions focused on coping skills (or DBT) - talking about any trauma probably won't be helpful right now when you're just trying to survive

As for what powers do the police have - if you were suicidal in a public place say, they can put you under a S 136, whereby they summon an ambulance, which will either take you to A & E or a S 136 suite to see mental health professionals. If you are at home, they cannot put you under a S 136. It’s two mental health professionals such as a psychiatrist and AMHP (iirc), who section people in as admit them as involuntary patients. Afaik, they are not keen on admitting patients with BPD, as it’s not supposed to help, unless they really are a danger to themselves - and mental health professionals seem to see suicidal behaviour as being “manipulative” rather than genuine in BPD.

Has anybody suggested to you snapping an elastic band on your wrist as a painful, but harmless way of self harming? Ice cubes is another form?

BPD is not a diagnosis to go looking for (because of the way it’s regarded), but if you already have that diagnosis; if I were you, I’d ask for a referral to the CMHT and then ask for DBT.

Maybe pay privately to see a psychiatrist as you can’t seem to get to see one via the NHS which, frankly, is appalling. I can’t believe you are self harming to the extent you are and no one is helping you. It’s outrageous. Can you take medication or are you on any at the moment. Because you are capable and working you are slipping through the net. Have you got anyone who could advocate for you. I’m so sorry

The problem is I don’t believe I do have BPD. I believe the psychiatrist saw me presenting with self harm and then asked me a series of leading questions which allowed her to tick the boxes and make the diagnosis because she could then sign me off. For example, she spent a long time questioning me on mood swings and anger. Neither of these are problems for me but she asked me so many leading questions about them

I had never heard of it before my appointment so I was glad of the diagnosis, but I since went home and read the symptoms and realised that they don’t sound like me at all. Outside of the self-harm I don’t engage in any risky/ impulsive behaviours, I don’t have problems with forming unstable or intense relationships, I never get angry at people (I avoid confrontation), I don’t have extreme mood swings or paranoia/ delusions etc. The only symptom I currently meet is self harm - as a teenager I did meet some of the other symptoms (eg: anger, paranoia) and I feel like the psychiatrist focused on this stage of my life in her questioning, every time I said no to something she dug and dug further back until I could think of a time in my teens it was yes, but I’m in my 30s now! I shared the diagnosis with two of my close friends and they both strongly questioned the diagnosis as well. I feel like I was just given the diagnosis so that nobody had to support me and like now I’ve been written off.

We’re so sorry to hear that you’re feeling like this, OP. We wanted to share Mind's information with you - it has practical tips on what you can do when you feel like this and where to get urgent help. Maybe take a look and see if there’s anything which might be helpful at the moment.

20 visits to A&E for self harm in the last year is shocking on so very, very many levels.

A&E have a lot of people to look after and their resources are very limited.

I feel like I was just given the diagnosis so that nobody had to support me and like now I’ve been written off

Use your diagnosis to get help; and it should serve two purposes - you'll get seen faster; and once you've seen a psychiatrist for a while, they'll be in a good place to remove the diagnosis if it's not true (which seems likely; from what you've said).

Ask your GP to send you an urgent referral to CHMT. It usually takes a few months to get a standard referral appt (about nine at the moment here!) but call them and say you'll accept cancellations once the referral is in and you usually only have to wait a week or so. I hate phone calls too but this is a worthwhile one and they're usually okay.

From there; talk about what you need to stop self harming. With a BPD diagnosis; you should be able to get some regular sessions set up - then like I said; you can get the help you'll need and the psychiatrist will likely agree with you at the end that you don't have BPD, if you really don't. Don't go in and say that you disagree though, incase they either classify it as not engaging with the support; or agree and take you off the CHMT; as then you'll have no support again.

All the best

I don’t think you are being given any help to access the system. There must be help available for someone in your predicament. Maybe you need to be admitted as a patient to get proper help.

*20 visits to A&E for self harm in the last year is shocking on so very, very many levels.

A&E have a lot of people to look after and their resources are very limited.*

I’m aware of that and I do feel very guilty but obviously it’s not at the front of my mind when I’m feeling in crisis and I’m hesitant not to get treatment afterwards as the wounds are fairly extensive. Unfortunately I don’t have a local walk-in or out of hours GP service available to me. If there was an alternative I would be using it.

Don’t apologise, you should be getting help and treatment.

Crazykittensmile. I'm sorry you're going through this and not getting the support you need.
You are self harming as a result of mental illness, it is not something you really want to do but is acting as some kind of release. I think that comment is very unhelpful 're A&E resources being limited. If you had access to the correct care no doubt you wouldn't be there. You are not chosing this. I hope you get some more support soon

kitten please DO NOT on any count whatsoever feel “guilty” about using A&E resources. You have as much right to care as anyone with any illness whether physical or mental health related. You have tried accessing the system in other ways and unfortunately you’ve not received as much help as you need. I really hope that things get better for you and you get the treatment you need, but please, don’t feel guilty (and I’m saying this as a HCP).

Thanks. I’ve made a GP appointment for Wednesday. Am in A&E again tonight but the mental health team were more helpful than usual and the lady I saw said she’s going to request my GP refers me to a psychiatrist again. Hoping there will be some way forward as I can’t live my life like this.