James Middleton

[KatherineParr8]

Just been reading James Middleton talking about how severely depressed he became. It''s great he is talking about it and raising awareness, but his route to recovery was through a year of therapy. My thoughts are that it's great if a person can afford this, but many can't, particularly if they aren't able to work because of depression.
I get really fed up with reading about the need to 'seek help' from a GP. A family member has severe depression and despite repeated trips to the doctor, is only given antidepressants which don't work. The doctor will give the same one even though it hasn't worked in the past because they don't read the notes first.
The individual concerned has had a course of CBT which didn't help either, so they are left to struggle on. This person hasn't worked full time in their adult life and can't afford therapy. Waiting lists are very long where there are referrals.
Despite my relative having been severely suicidal , and the Crisis team were called after yet another trip to the GP, no help has been offered.
It's a nonsense to talk about seeking help when there is none.

Perhaps I should have posted in AIBU.

YANBU!

A lot of the 'talk' about how effective talking therapies can be for mental illness isn't 'walked' by the government anymore, funding-wise. As recently as the 90s (and perhaps the early 00s) you could sometimes get almost open-ended psychotherapy on the NHS. There's a book by Marion (can't remember her second name) called My Therapy and she mentions being an outpatient in psychotherapy for years. As public awareness has increased, demand has risen and funding has been drastically withdrawn. From my point of view, the truth is our society/economy makes many people unwell while at the same time cruelly raising expectations of what we ought to demand of ourselves mentally and emotionally in order to survive/thrive. These are toxic times and only some people (like James Middleton) can afford to defend themselves against the mental impact. I used DLA to pay for private psychotherapy for years, but since PIP I can't afford to do that any longer. So I'm more fortunate than many in that I've had a lot of therapy and even though I still struggle without a therapist at times, the work I did helps me to work further on myself at home. If I hadn't had the 'grounding' my therapy gave me, I'd be up Shit Creek now because it's very hard for many people to work on themselves therapeutically without an experienced and effective practitioner, for a time at least.

You're clearly cross at the injustice of current inadequacies in mental health funding and provision. I completely agree that there's a lot of nonsense talked. Mental health has in certain respects become an industry, and the Tories at any rate have no intention of doing any more than paying it loud lip service while effectively looking the other way.

Yes absolutely. It’s all very well for Prince Harry and James Middleton to talk about seeking help through the NHS but they will never have to do that will they? They know nothing about what things are like for those at the coal face.

I have had talking therapy through the NHS. I was very fortunate to be in a borough that offered it and it was very quickly arranged. (I also take Sertraline)
Everyone knows talking helps, but the funding isn’t sufficient, so for lots of GPs, all they can offer is antidepressants.
There are local charities that may offer services, but again these are not available all over UK.
Wishing you all the best

Yanbu.
Waiting months for 6 weeks of CBT is a sticking plaster over a huge wound.
Wealthy people can buy therapy, and they're right it is possible to get better. But us mere mortals don't have £50 a week spare for counselling for several months.