How do you get health professionals to take you seriously?

[Daffodilsonthewindowsill]

I really am getting quite desperate.
I’ve suffered with poor mental health since I was a small child.
I have limped along life with overwhelming anxiety, ocd’s and ritual behaviours, disordered eating, panic disorder, illness anxiety, IBS and depression (most of these have continued from childhood).
I must mask well because I feel that I have never been taken seriously even though this has had a very detrimental affect on my life and I often ponder how different my life would have been without the burden of poorly functioning mental health.
I have only ever been offered CBT and antidpressants. The antidepressants have always made me feel worse (especially with the gut issues) and although I have had many, many sessions of CBT and worked very hard at it, that too has had a minimal positive affect.
And I do so much to be proactive and help myself because I am desperate not to feel this way.
I try to eat well despite having ARFID and a functional gut disorder (from which I have daily symptoms). I walk for at least an hour each day (even though it’s like walking through concrete at times and I would rather sit and stare at a wall all day), I only drink water, no alcohol or stimulants, I have never smoked or taken drugs, I try to get to bed at a decent time etc (can’t say my quality of sleep is great though but I try).
I treat my body well, so much better than my friends treat theirs yet it thanks me by giving me these physical and mental health issues, every bloody day since….forever!
I am so disheartened and feel so unheard. Every time I go to my GP surgery I just get offered CBT (now typed CBT so that’s like communicating with a robot) or antidepressants (even though they know neither have helped me in the past and aggravate my gut problems).
How on earth do people get referred for psychiatric help on the NHS is almost 50 years of suffering not long enough according to the NICE guidelines?!
I am 50 now and it’s getting worse and certainly no better no matter how much exercise, mindfulness, CBT and hypnotherapy I do every day. I feel that most of my life has been blighted by my poorly functioning mind and yet no one takes me or has ever taken seriously.
I am so sad that the first 50 years of my life has been overshadowed by this and if I don’t get help then when my days are over it would have been all for nothing, that this insidious thing has won and controlled my life.
How do you get anyone to listen? I even opened up to a gp last year and told her I was having dark thoughts of walking in front of a lorry (this is absolutely true and terrifies me) she told me to ring 111!
I read lots of stories of people getting better and freeing themselves but it’s usually with the help of a mental health professional.
If you have had success and are in a better place after years of poor mental health, how did you do it?

I'm guessing your childhood was traumatic? The key to dealing with your issues is going back to the roots and looking at them through adult eyes. You mention hypnotherapy (I'm guessing listening to prerecorded tapes?) - have you actually had any sessions with a practitioner? Remedial hypnosis has a very good record of success with this type of problem.

You’d think so wouldn’t you but know, I always look back and say I had a lovely childhood, I’m close to my parents and always have been, they are still together and no issues there. I don’t know why I started off in life with such issues with my mental health.
I have had lots of hypnotherapy over the years but this last bout has been face to face. I’ve also had EMDT with little improvement in my issues.

EMDR! Sorry my phone has a mind of it’s own

Have you ever been assessed for autism?

Arewehumanorarewecupboards I haven’t but am starting to look back at things I did during my childhood and am wondering if they were neurodiverse traits?

How on earth do people get referred for psychiatric help on the NHS

If you have had episodes of CBT and/or counselling in primary care talking therapy services and it hasn't worked then eventually you may be referred to secondary care. But I think you need to keep engaging with what's offered to make that happen. I would accept the offer of a referral for CBT even if you don't want it. And than at the assessment tell them all the times it has already been tried and how it didn't work. Tell them you need something different.
Please don't expect a miracle though. If you get to see a psychiatrist they might want to recommend medication, which it seems you don't get on with. If therapy is offered it is unlikely to be a silver bullet and the waiting list will be long. For issues like anxiety, OCD and panic disorder, CBT is largely what is offered anyway, whether you are in primary care or secondary.
The NHS doesn't offer a lot of long term therapy so consider how you can fund it yourself if you can. There are some low cost options around.

MajesticWhine I did take up the last offer of CBT but when I explained at the assessment how many times I’ve tried this type of therapy and that it hasn’t had much impact they said it was all they could offer, so discharged me. I had tried typed cbt before and it actually made me worse as it felt so robotic and faceless.
I have looked into counselling with local charities etc but haven’t struck lucky as they are all overwhelmed right now and as I am on carers allowance atm I can not self fund so looks like I’m stumped.

I'm not sure what your expectations of MH services are but CBT, counselling and EMDR are all you would probably get anyway. I'd look at private therapy options but given your history, current practices and previous therapy, I'm not optimistic that anything will work for you. I had poor mental health for a couple of years, so nowhere as long as you, but I made a decision that I was going to be well and well I became. It was a mindset thing for me and I changed my thinking over time.

rumpsteak I don’t really have huge expectations of the NHS mental health services tbh but don’t know where else to turn to as I have no funds for private therapy and have spent years trying to get help. I would love to say changing my mindset worked for me and that’s not for want of trying, I am desperate to feel mentally well, no one would willingly want to stay feeling this way, I have tried most of my adult life to be free from this. I wish it were as simple as changing the way I think, believe me, I have tried and continue to do so every single day. I put into practice all what I have discovered through CBT, mindfulness and hypnotherapy, every day but something overrules that. I’m not sure what else I can do.

I do think that you should try antidepressants again, this time with a ppi first such as omeprazole or lansoprazole.

I would love to say changing my mindset worked for me and that’s not for want of trying, I am desperate to feel mentally well

The problem with trying to change your mindset is you're working with your conscious mind, whereas all your emotions and core beliefs reside in your subconscious mind which develops waaay before the rational mind kicks in at about 8-10 years of age.

A quote from my AMA on hypnosis;

Imagine your subconscious is a nightclub, full of beliefs, thoughts and actions and with a bouncer on the door. He decides if conscious thoughts are suitable to be allowed in, i.e. that they fit with what is aligned to the core beliefs you developed as a child and which are stored in your subconscious. If they are not, they are rejected (which is why we struggle with concepts which we know, as adults, are rational but as a child we believed something different. Spiders are a classic example).

In traditional hypnosis, the bouncer is distracted by the trance and the hypnotist can go into the nightclub to try and find the part of the subconscious which is causing trouble or is unhappy. This can be a bit hit and miss and, of course, the client is not able give immediate feedback.

With non-trance hypnosis, the practitioner connects directly with the relevant part(s) of the subconscious, via the imagination, and brings them out of the nightclub to find out what the issue is and then changing the problematic thinking or behaviour. Because the client is awake and alert throughout, they can feel the changes happening and answer any questions that pop up during the consultation.

What is your lifestyle like?
Do you work? Do you have a family?
You could look into paying privately for help (not that you should have to) but there may be more options. I got referred for CBT and was shocked when she said it's online or over the phone, what happened to anything face to face !

I am desperate to feel mentally well

What does feeling mentally well look like for you? What are your current barriers?

Based on your summary I second an autism assessment and tbh I am suprised GP has not suggested it before. It would also explain why CBT was not helpful

Autism wouldn't just explain the CBT being unhelpful, it is considered to be actively damaging if the practitioner is not trained in how to give CBT to autistic individuals, it would also explain the antidepressants not helping. Antidepressants have not been tested on autistic brains so it can take a long time to find one that works.

yy

Autism

Because of symptoms
Because of therapy not working

But autism has no cure and no real therapy. You just kind of get to accept that you’re different. Taking shame out of the equation can be powerful.