I live in the UK and have found the mental health system so dreadful that I gave up on it. I had a few brief run ins with my GP and the local first access mental health team. I was mis-diagnosed, and when I went back with my correct self diagnosis, I was basically treated like a joke (I did not tell them that I had already had my self diagnosis confirmed privately by a genuine specialist who spotted within twenty minutes of me entering her room that I was highly dissociative and absolutely agreed that I was a case of delayed childhood PTSD from complex traumatisation).
The psychiatrists were incredibly narcissistic and could not even keep proper or accurate notes, let alone asses me correctly. They started thinking I had a personality disorder. In short they offered increasing mis-diagnosis and drugs, yet told me I couldn't work with them if I continued to use cannabis. (For me cannabis is the only drug I have ever used that assists in dulling my flash forwards and other symptoms).Yet they offered me no treatment plan and I may have been lucky if I had to wait two years for a psychologist, yet no offer of a specialist. It was both pointless and dangerous, my symptoms worsened greatly when I dealt with these persons.
Quite simply I managed to get my therapist to take me on at half price (many therapists will take on a few clients at reduced cost) due to me having little chance of earning much money for years to come. I managed to fund therapy every week for the last seven years, because I would not have been able to carry on without it. I am now working part time and the only help I get is an increased working tax credit (a UK benefit for low paid persons) and my rent paid. I now have a GP who understands me because I complained to the manager about my previous GP writing in my notes, actually joking about my "definite dissociation", by chance a new GP had just started who had a specialist knowledge on both dissociation and complex traumatisation. Suddenly after challenging them, I was taken seriously.
My current GP admits that there is virtually no help available on the NHS for persons suffering from complex traumatisation. I do not take psychiatric drugs for my PTSD, but my GP has been of support when I was tripping my head off and needed someone to talk to, whilst my therapist was away for weeks. The irony of all this is that my specialist trauma therapist who has been excellent all the way through the last seven years, works in the NHS specialising in cases of medical trauma and medical PTSD. My therapist has several private clients per week to ensure that her therapeutic experience is not limited to medical trauma and has worked with cases of dissociative identity disorder and other severe dissociative cases.
In short, there are specialists in the NHS, but getting access to them is normally near impossible. It was less stress to go private, with an NHS specialist. If I would have been offered help, it would have been very time limited, which was dangerous. Once I opened up, I needed commitment. If I had more money I would have seen other therapists, but the other specialists I found were either hundreds of miles away or very, very expensive. I had to sell off possessions in order to assist in funding my therapy, but it was worth every penny as it has saved me from a life of psycho pharmacy, being locked up in mental institutions and continual mis-diagnosis and mis-treatment. My part time work is creating great hope and stability - I now look forward to a future and I am learning to live in the here and now.
Thank you for asking this question and good luck to those still seeking for the correct specialist assistance. My advice is that if you can't get regular help from the state system where you live, seek out private specialist therapists who offer reduced rates.
