Unable to live in a normal house - treatment options?!

[guiding_star87]

I have very recently (monday) been discharged from a year long psychiatric admission to a Therapeutic Community to help me manage my mental health issues including self defeating behaviours. The unit does deal with PTSD - and I have made big progress whilst I have been there (my trauma is around fire). However specific EMDR therapy did not start until a couple of weeks before the end of my admission and was cut short by my discharge. One of my issues is an inability to open or close a door if I am in (or about to be in) a building or room by myself - i.e. I can't cope if someone else shuts me in and I can't physically shut the door to shut myself in. This caused an immediate problem on discharge because I couldn't be in the house alone - this rendered me pretty useless if I was in the house alone and meant i couldn't enter into an empty house. After a few days my housemate told me I needed to find somewhere else because she couldn't cope with the anxiety. For 5 days I was sofa surfing until now i have a 7 day crisis house admission.

I have tried to make this work but i just can't - EMDR moved things along so much but not far enough but my CMHT said they wouldn't give me specific trauma therapy or intense exposure work until 6 months of stability in the community - but I can't even live in the community so I don't see how this can actually happen - 6 months sofa surfing is not going to help what i spent a year trying to improve!

Does anyone know of any options for treatment - I feel that this does need to be addressed now, whilst I'm stable before I become destabilised by it but as the trauma directly related to risk I don't think I can do this whilst sofa surfing but I can't live in a normal house and we don't have appropriate supported accommodation. Are there any specific PTSD therapy programmes (like short-medium term ones) that anyone knows of that I can suggest to my CMHT in the hope of getting funding? I'm so worried all my handwork at stabilising myself is going to unravel!

 

[digger]

What country are you in? This is an international forum and treatment options tend to vary quite widely depending on where you live. It will probably help you get more relevant responses if you are able to share that.

 

[guiding_star87]

I didn't realise that until after I posted! I'm in the UK

 

[kilted]

What's out there depends on your location in the UK. Mental health provision in England is fragmented as each area does it's own thing. In Scotland it's a bit more together, but the Central Belt has considerably more provision. My experience has been that most trauma treatment is done either by charities or by the private sector. I suspect you're coming up against what I found..... CMHT tend to only consider NHS facilities and government/local authority funded facilities.

I would prioritise stabilising your accommodation..... to that end I would be contacting intentional communities. Some of these are specifically set up to help people with mental health issues (eg Lothlorien and a couple of the Camphill Communities). Other's aren't mental health focussed but do provide a place to stay that is accepting of difference. Even though they tend to be in rural areas, the more longstanding of these communities, such as Findhorn, often have more therapist types living in the vicinity so access to a range of therapies can be easier than many towns and cities. I'd start with the communities that are set up for mental health issues, the others are very hit or miss.... I've seen some people gain immensely, but some have their issues exacerbated... it all depends on the mix of people in the community at the time.