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I Just Have Ptsd, The Nhs Is Crazy

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Sandstone

MyPTSD Pro
After an overdose and hospital admission I'm under the most acute part of our local services - Crisis and Acute,. The next step down is Recovery and Community, and then another tier that does short term therapy and first line meds.

The three sections are not ALLOWED to overlap. So while I'm under Crisis, I can't be put onto a waiting list for long term therapy under Recovery, or for Mindfulness classes because that's under the basic level.

My recent crisis was caused in large part because my (private) therapy got so painful. Yesterday I commented to a nurse from Crisis that my T had said "We need to go slowly, because I have nowhere to admit you and keep you safe". I told her I wanted NHS therapy because of this, but she said that the same applies for them - all the therapists from Recovery can do is pass their patients across to Acute, and then they have to stop seeing them until they come back from Acute. She agreed that I wasn't the only person for whom this was a problem.

This is structural insanity.

I'm disregarding the fact that the services are all so short handed that no-one ever does what they commit to.. The system seems to have been set up for revolving-door patients with long term conditions that fluctuate and need intermittent control. But that very system works to ensure that conditions become long term. I still believe that good, trauma focussed treatment three years ago would have been effective enough to let me return to work and to my life instead of becoming isolated and unemployed.

Right now, in order to have hope, it appears I have to lie, and claim to be safer and more stable than I am, just to be allowed to join a waiting list. Yet it's the lack of hope that leads me to despair and desperate acts.
 
I honestly don't think there is a quality mental health system in place anywhere in the world, to be honest. They're all too busy fighting amongst themselves for recognition, status, creating the next buzz word or buzz diagnosis.

Hey... it would be interesting IF they just listened to the patients and started to do things in their best interest, instead of their own self-interest / perceived interest by thinking on behalf of patients.

What you say is exactly why I got myself out of the systems and went it alone, toughed it out and fought to educate and treat myself... because they had some basics right, but really... they sucked overall. Psychiatrists and psychologist all think they're smarter than their patients, and instead of listening to them, they're to busy telling them what is best for them.
 
Although in Germany, I have made the same observations and experiences you and Anthony seem to have made.

I am sorry you don't find the help that would actually help you right now, stenni.
 
My recent crisis was caused in large part because my (private) therapy got so painful.

I'm so sorry, and I feel your pain. I naively thought that once I was emotionally ready to do therapy that I would get the help that I needed. This hasn't happened, and I'm in a far worse state than before I began.

If there is something I can say that would help, please let me know.
 
I'm sorry you're going through this.

It makes my mad when I hear people say, well if they have these issues they should go and get help - it's their responsibility. I would agree, but having taken the most difficult step to try and get treatment, like many people, I found that the treatment wasn't available and I was messed around in a system created by idiots.

I went to my GP, then waited months for a diagnostic interview. He referred me onto a waiting list for a tier 1 therapist. Several months later I started with a tier 1 therapist, who then informed me several weeks into treatment that tier 1 therapy wasn't suitable for me and that she would need to refer me to a tier 2 therapist. BUT, there was currently a waiting list of over 12 months, and she suggested that I may get therapy sooner if I went to a charity therapist that specialised in my trauma type (but not in PTSD).

I gave up on the NHS and waited several more months to see the charity therapist. I was with her for just over 12 months, and it did help. I was able to talk about what I needed to and to get deeper into certain thinking styles etc. But I feel that the therapy was limited.

So now, I'm trying to do it by myself, but a few times, I've been left thinking maybe I should go back to my GP. But I really don't know what they can do. So I think you have to kind of use it for what it is. Let them help you get stable, and when you're ready to spend some time on a waiting list, then let them refer you on. Or, if you can afford private therapy, maybe you could keep that as somewhere to help keep you stable while you are on the waiting list for more trauma focussed therapy.

I wish you well whatever you decide.
 
I know I was incredibly lucky with my NHS therapy. I got it immediately when I needed it and after 4 years is still ongoing.

What this thread is making me wonder is should those of you who are not so lucky, write to your respective health boards with a formal letter of complaint? Is there some way of raising the profile of the need for trauma therapy within the NHS? I guess that is like peeing in the ocean.

Here in Scotland a new (private) clinic for trauma therapy is soon to take inpatients from all over the UK. It sounds like a great facility, but I only wish the NHS would fund it. I am watching to see if the NHS will refer there such as they refer and fund patients for treatment in private eating disorder clinics.
 
@Lucycat I tried that here. I fought all the way to the top but it is a boys club mentality. Each of them looks after the sum of the whole - at least here. So it doesn't matter how many facts you have they put you through hell and they say - thanks for doing all that work and getting yourself riled up but we choose to ignore you.

After a few bad experiences with the 'system' I followed the path that @anthony mentioned above and researched on my own (which I was damned for by the way). I used the word dissociation and was told that I was too busy looking up 'buzzwords' and 'jargon'. Meanwhile the CBT nurse taught me that I dissociated.

In my humble opinion, there are two ways to go these days. Fall prey to the system (and you haven't got a chance) or learn for yourself what is best for you and seek out practitioners that will respect your opinion.

@stenni I am so sorry you are going through this right now. Been there, done that. The best I can do is send you my warmest wishes and hope that you are able to get out of there ASAP.

@Meadowsweet I agree with you. Use them to get stable and go forward from there.

Any of my supporters know from my experiences that under no circumstances am I to be sent to hospital. I have gotten myself a medicalert bracelet with a specific set of instructions and have powers of attorney that are to be directly contacted if I get myself into trouble. I avoid public places without a trusted person with me just in case. It makes my world smaller, but the damage that was done in hospitals and even doctors offices. Wow! Never again.....
 
Yet it's the lack of hope that leads me to despair and desperate acts.

Hi Stenni,
It is hard enough struggling with the emotional 'byproducts' that are here as a result of PTSD, it's doubly worse when having to deal with the systemic barriers and byproducts of those systems that were supposedly designed to help. Those systemic barriers are things you mentioned - they keep people out and exclude them from getting help. But these barriers are even more destructive because they become internalized and become part of the way we see ourselves i.e., despairing, desperate, hopeless, useless... It's ironic to me that the mental health system that contains practitioners that believe 'above all do no harm' end up doing severe harm. This is a perfect example of iatrogenesis; when the supposed 'cure' causes more problems than the 'illness' itself. You are not alone Stenni. I hope you are able to find some help through all this.
 
It breaks my heart whenever I see a member post about their struggles to receive care while under the NHS.

Modern day "let them eat cake". MEH!
 
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