Some years back I was seriously sexually assaulted.
As a result I suffered PTSD. I was under the care of the crisis team for some time.
Aside from crisis care I have never received help for my MH going forward.
I have done my best to manage my own recovery using many different approaches but I'm not entirely recovered even now.
Fast forward to now.
Life is much better, I still often have PTSD flashbacks when life becomes stressful as it invariably does and I find it difficult to control my panic/worry.
In addition I have a physical problem that is proving difficult to diagnose. It is thought to be one thing but the symptoms don't entirely fit.
I'm being bounced between different tests which add another piece of the jigsaw puzzle.
I have been admitted to hospital twice as a result of the physical symptoms.
My concern is that I feel that I'm not being taken seriously by the NHS.
I worry that my medical notes say MAD in big letters.
Usually I communicate well but very often HCPs aren't listening to me.
A clear example of this would be a hospital admission last month where the nurse was trying to cannulate me. I'm one of those people who doesn't have good veins. Made worse because when my physical symptoms increase I can go into shock, my temperature drops and my veins 'hide'.
I clearly, calmly, without criticism told the nurse the cannula had blown.
He ignored this. My hand was bleeding but nothing could be drawn from or put into the site. Saline in the cannula didn't go in but made the back of my hand bulge with fluid.
I asked him, again nicely, to please remove that cannula and try again. He ignored me and walked off.
Throughout I was calm and reasonable.
Another example is the difference when I take DH with me. He is white, middle aged, middle class and the difference in HCPs listening to concerns when DH is there is remarkable.
Some HCPs have tried to dismiss my physical symptoms as psychosomatic. This is fair enough but for the fact that there are clear test indications that there is something wrong.
Yet another example there are many is the HCP who said a CT scan would be a waste of money because in his opinion my symptoms are psychosomatic.
At a later date a different HCP referred me for a CT scan which did show a cause of my physical pain.
In the interim I had been left in months of significant physical pain.
If it was someone else I could advocate for them but I can't seem to assert myself when it's me in the surgery or hospital bed.
If I object again, clearly and kindly I'm told that my symptoms are psychosomatic or discharged or sent away.
Today I'm waiting for further test results, my GP surgery have them but they won't share them with me until tomorrow because my own GP isn't in until then I've never met my own GP. And no-one else in the large practice can give me the results.
How can I get HCPs to disregard my previous history of MH problems and take me seriously?
Thank you for reading 
Apologies that this is so long.