How many of you have been let down by mental health services?

[SamK]

I just wanted to gather how many are in the same boat.
Which country are you in, and have you been let down by the mental health system?

I'm no conspiracy theorist but clearly there's something majorly wrong in many parts of the U.K at least, with mental health services. I keep asking myself why is it that those who are genuinely suicidal not receiving the help, meanwhile those who make a gesture attempt seem to be having ongoing support for years. I dont mean that they dont need help and support clearly they do. But do you notice that mental health seem to give up on some people...
Even if that person has been engaging and willing to

I'm just reflecting a lot because, I specifically asked for help, I wrote a letter to a psychiatrist about 4 months ago begging them to try and help me out because all this was brewing. the MH team took me on. But now, despite me turning up to every appointment since and phoning the nurse like twice a week in floods of tears, and despite going into the psych ward recently for an attempt, being locked up by the police for hanging in the woods and now having all I need to CO poison myself in a tent in the next week.. i got a letter today saying i'm not engaging.

i'm really shocked for other's sake. How is the system so messed up; I don't care about my own impending death... but I am shocked for people who are mentally ill, who maybe don't have capacity to decide much at all let alone their suicide with clarity ... They are left. And then we all say ''aww poor person'' when we read about these high suicide rates in the papers.
Conclusion they really don't care, the majority of them.

vent over!

 

[Wantingpeace]

Let down?? Damaged by going for help that I never needed.

Their is so much that I want to say to this..will come back. The things I've heard seen I'm so disgusted by.

 

[SamK]

Let down?? Damaged by going for help that I never needed.

Their is so much that I want to say to this..will come back. The things I've heard seen I'm so disgusted by.

Look forward to reading your reply Wantingpeace. Me too. i'm so disgusted!! Seen too much, heard too much. I don't know how they get away with it.

 

[SamK]

Also you are right. The title should be how many of you have been damaged by mental health services

 

[Wantingpeace]

Sam..I Sent you pm..

 

[Wantingpeace]

And then berated and left to die.

 

[psyche]

I used to volunteer for the local MH service and it was not what I expected. They don't care. When someone succeeds, all they do is try to cover their own backs so there isn't any trouble for them. The majority are not bothered if you genuinely want help.

 

[SamK]

I used to volunteer for the local MH service and it was not what I expected. They don't care. When someone succeeds, all they do is try to cover their own backs so there isn't any trouble for them. The majority are not bothered if you genuinely want help.

I can believe that!
Thanks so much for replying, as more of an insider. If you have worked with them I guess you've seen behind the scenes for yourself as well.
It's shocking isn't it. I can see them now covering up in preperation. Starting with lies. They are oh so good at lying, aren't they....

 

[psyche]

I can believe that!
Thanks so much for replying, as more of an insider. If you have worked with them I guess you've seen behind the scenes for yourself as well.
It's shocking isn't it. I can see them now covering up in preperation. Starting with lies. They are oh so good at lying, aren't they....

Definitely shocking! And my experience there is what stops me from getting help.
Your experience sounds horrible - a lot of people used to miss appointments and not bother, these people were then prioritised for some reason. It sucks.

 

[JustLosingMyself]

Let down?? Damaged by going for help that I never needed.

Their is so much that I want to say to this..will come back. The things I've heard seen I'm so disgusted by.

I went for therapy (DBT), lost trust in the primary therapist and got completely destabilised. When I asked for a change of primary I got dismissed from the therapy and ended up on the psych ward...
I now refuse to accept therapy or help... can't do much worse on my own

 

[blueming]

I'm also from the UK and I absolutely hate how the mental health services operate here. When I was 13/14, I actually wanted help. So I told my psychiatrist that I was extremely suicidal but afterwards he told my mother that I was just seeking attention.

Recently I was sectioned in the adolescent mental health unit. I was there for two months, I got out in July. Really, it was horrible. The nurses were kind but they had no power, only doctors could make decisions and they were assholes. A boy with schizophrenia was having a really bad episode and needed immediate medical attention/meds. But the doctors just left him in a room by himself with the excuse that they were understaffed. They rarely let us go outside and the therapy sessions would frequently get cancelled, but then the patients got blamed for not attending. Not that therapy helped anyway. The truth is that they don't really care about their patients, it's just their job.

 

[couldntthinkofaname]

because psychatrist/psychologist charge a ton of money

 

[Miss clefable]

I'm also from the UK and I absolutely hate how the mental health services operate here. When I was 13/14, I actually wanted help. So I told my psychiatrist that I was extremely suicidal but afterwards he told my mother that I was just seeking attention.

Recently I was sectioned in the adolescent mental health unit. I was there for two months, I got out in July. Really, it was horrible. The nurses were kind but they had no power, only doctors could make decisions and they were assholes. A boy with schizophrenia was having a really bad episode and needed immediate medical attention/meds. But the doctors just left him in a room by himself with the excuse that they were understaffed. They rarely let us go outside and the therapy sessions would frequently get cancelled, but then the patients got blamed for not attending. Not that therapy helped anyway. The truth is that they don't really care about their patients, it's just their job.

Wtf

 

[Taylored]

Really let down I go to this person and I'm forced to talk to them with Parent's present and watching so I can't tell the truth then I get drugged and sent on my way. Being failed by Mental Health Services is the nicest way I can put it.

 

[jethacan]

Completely let down - it seems to be very bad here in the UK. I was on the waiting list for CBT for 6 months before my first attempt. I have been actively seeking help from doctors for years, which is hard when you're suffering, but I have always had to be the one pressing them to not just turn me away. I have tried the medications they half-heartedly suggest without success. I've had a psychiatrist tell me directly 'there's nothing wrong with you but I'll give you a follow up appointment anyway', to cover his own back, just in case I killed myself which I said I was thinking of doing.

I have still not had a CBT session or any other talking treatment (except counselling which is laughable), despite the fact that I have attempted and was sectioned for 5 weeks. I now have a psychiatrist appointment as well as CBT in 1 months time, but it just feels like too little too late by this point. I cannot fucking fathom the disparity between not providing help but not letting you kill yourself.

 

[Fucking loving it]

I have over and over been fucked for many years. I actually met a psych team that uses illicit drugs in a study for treatment resistant patients with severe depression , PTSD, and mania. So I feel as though a world has opened up for me. If I can control myself and use at therapeutic dosages... who knows.....

 

[Steve]

Let down!? The reason I'm here is due to these Mental Health Services.

I was mindlessly instructed by my school's "mental health" counseling office to go to the doctor. He arranged for the doctor to issue me benzos. No I never asked for it. I just complained I was stressed and wanted off from a module, it was great talking about it.

So I ended up with some benzo (didn't know they were dangerous at the point) that the doctor said was useful for sleep. Boomz, I ended up with withdrawals that lasted 6 months.

Went to many doctors, warded many times in psych wards only for doctors to deny that benzos were the cause and that I had an "anxiety disorder", "psychosis", "schizophrenia", "delusional"... I initially gave up arguing with them as my symptoms were unbearable, and got poisoned further by other "medicines" that were treating something that was not there.

Now I'm left impotent and with ringing tinnitus that never ends. I'm 25 and I can't deal with the rest of my lifetime as a monk and hearing the awful background screech.

 

[jethacan]

Let down!? The reason I'm here is due to these Mental Health Services.

I was mindlessly instructed by my school's "mental health" counseling office to go to the doctor. He arranged for the doctor to issue me benzos. No I never asked for it. I just complained I was stressed and wanted off from a module, it was great talking about it.

So I ended up with some benzo (didn't know they were dangerous at the point) that the doctor said was useful for sleep. Boomz, I ended up with withdrawals that lasted 6 months.

Went to many doctors, warded many times in psych wards only for doctors to deny that benzos were the cause and that I had an "anxiety disorder", "psychosis", "schizophrenia", "delusional"... I initially gave up arguing with them as my symptoms were unbearable, and got poisoned further by other "medicines" that were treating something that was not there.

Now I'm left impotent and with ringing tinnitus that never ends. I'm 25 and I can't deal with the rest of my lifetime as a monk and hearing the awful background screech.

I'm so sorry. Absolutely ridiculous. It seems mental health services do not like taking any responsibility for their mistakes, and use their vulnerable patients as scapegoats. Your story is so aggravating because you were in school, and placed your trust in people you should have been able to trust, yet you were not just let down, you were tortured.

 

[Wannadie]

I completely agree with the "damaged by the mental health system". I've been inpatient against my will for months, locked in an isolation cell, had other people take off my clothes so I was all naked before putting me in "safe clothes" eventhough they are aware of my traumas regarding sexual assault. Had medication injected in my butt against my will, been thrown to the floor thousands of times, wasn't allowed to go outside for weeks, wasn't allowed to shower or go to the toilet without someone standing there next to me and have witnessed 4 suicides, from whom 2 where really close friends of mine that I miss dearly. They have never made me less suicidal, just more sure of the fact that humans are really fucked up

 

[Ella Disenchanted]

When mental health people say we're not engaging with the service, what they really mean is that we're not doing what we're told, when we're told, and thanking them for it.

 

[lv-gras]

yes,

and have heard many bad stories from the uk in particular, not that anywhere else is not, but you may be onto something

 

[Nem]

I'm so sorry. Absolutely ridiculous. It seems mental health services do not like taking any responsibility for their mistakes, and use their vulnerable patients as scapegoats. Your story is so aggravating because you were in school, and placed your trust in people you should have been able to trust, yet you were not just let down, you were tortured.

Absolutely!!! The people that work in this industry are pretty much the "bad auto mechanics" of the health industry. They don't help anyone for the most part and when a problem arises...they cover it up quickly. I have seen Dr's, pharmacists and hospitals lie to cover things up after I nearly died from taking bullshit meds. It was an eye opening experience to say the least...

 

[Sayo]

Australia, another benzo-damaged person here. I think it sabotaged any hope I had of recovery. The only positives that ever came out of the mental health system other than therapy, which has ceased working for me even as stress relief, were things I begged for and the only way I got them was by manipulating my doctors to think it was their idea after realising you cannot be level and honest with them when you have certain conditions and expect to be taken seriously.

I have wonderful doctors - I've had excellent neurologists, a neurosurgeon whom I almost idolise, etc. I've been able to have good working relationships with them where they treat me as an equal and my medical self-advocacy is respected. Most psychiatrists I have met have seemed blatantly unqualified to be dealing with severe mental health issues despite coming greatly recommended, or else like they genuinely do not understand what I am talking about. I grew up in a rural area so I went through a carousel of psychiatrists whose names I never even memorised, so that's part of it, but going to the city has just meant slightly more polished, extremely more expensive failures. A$600 for an initial consult to be told 'I can't help you [other than by slightly adjusting your antipsychotics back to a dose you've shown you can't tolerate]' after 30 mins of gormless staring and basic comprehension issues - that would've paid for most of an order of N.

I considered the problem is just me, but the the truth is that I have only had this issue so consistently in the mental health industry, which discredits its patients far more deeply and with impunity. I have met tons of stupid doctors in every field, but I continued looking and found competent ones. In psych hospitals I've had bugs crawl all over me while the doctors tell me my problem is school stress instead of being raped, been interrogated as to whether I'm going to harm kids because I was having auditory hallucinations, and been forced to take diazepam just because I started crying.

I've had psychologists do and say awful things too, but I've met ones that were competent. The problem is it's always too little / too late and while I'm no longer a dissociative wreck any more, I'm still not able to cope with anything and new torments arise all the time. Everyone says 'seek help' but even if you're lucky enough to be able to access it like I kind of have been, there are seemingly some things that can't be helped. I'm tired of fighting.

I was gonna get group DBT once and I think that might have had the chance to make life bearable, but I had to move 5km out of the health catchment area due to the rent prices.

 

[Nem]

Australia, another benzo-damaged person here. I think it sabotaged any hope I had of recovery. The only positives that ever came out of the mental health system other than therapy, which has ceased working for me even as stress relief, were things I begged for and the only way I got them was by manipulating my doctors to think it was their idea after realising you cannot be level and honest with them when you have certain conditions and expect to be taken seriously.

I have wonderful doctors - I've had excellent neurologists, a neurosurgeon whom I almost idolise, etc. I've been able to have good working relationships with them where they treat me as an equal and my medical self-advocacy is respected. Most psychiatrists I have met have seemed blatantly unqualified to be dealing with severe mental health issues despite coming greatly recommended, or else like they genuinely do not understand what I am talking about. I grew up in a rural area so I went through a carousel of psychiatrists whose names I never even memorised, so that's part of it, but going to the city has just meant slightly more polished, extremely more expensive failures. A$600 for an initial consult to be told 'I can't help you [other than by slightly adjusting your antipsychotics back to a dose you've shown you can't tolerate]' after 30 mins of gormless staring and basic comprehension issues - that would've paid for most of an order of N.

I considered the problem is just me, but the the truth is that I have only had this issue so consistently in the mental health industry, which discredits its patients far more deeply and with impunity. I have met tons of stupid doctors in every field, but I continued looking and found competent ones. In psych hospitals I've had bugs crawl all over me while the doctors tell me my problem is school stress instead of being raped, been interrogated as to whether I'm going to harm kids because I was having auditory hallucinations, and been forced to take diazepam just because I started crying.

I've had psychologists do and say awful things too, but I've met ones that were competent. The problem is it's always too little / too late and while I'm no longer a dissociative wreck any more, I'm still not able to cope with anything and new torments arise all the time. Everyone says 'seek help' but even if you're lucky enough to be able to access it like I kind of have been, there are seemingly some things that can't be helped. I'm tired of fighting.

I was gonna get group DBT once and I think that might have had the chance to make life bearable, but I had to move 5km out of the health catchment area due to the rent prices.

That's a pretty good description of the health care system here as well. Psychiatry in general is a dangerous field, the whole pharmaceutical side of things are just garbage yet most Dr's believe that crap. If Dr's actually tried these meds, esp benzos, they wouldn't prescribe them as often. Sorry to hear about the benzos, I was screwed over by them as well

 

[jizz676]

me...psychiatry of north Italy...I could say the place...I dont like it...prefer to stay home and its what im doing

 

[Thanassis]

Brazil. Mental health is absolute shit here and I have only been ignored or otherwise mistreated. These meds never worked either (SSRIs and Tricyclic).

 

[Nem]

Sorry to hear, I think mental health is bullshit everywhere. SSRI or anything is complete bs, I am a complete fucking retard for taking this shit again a few years ago. I shouldve drank my n within a week of getting it and I wouldn't be here now. Holy fuck was that ever stupid, now I have to do a less reliable, less painless method but I gotta get it fucking done though...

 

[Thanassis]

Sorry to hear, I think mental health is bullshit everywhere. SSRI or anything is complete bs, I am a complete fucking retard for taking this shit again a few years ago. I shouldve drank my n within a week of getting it and I wouldn't be here now. Holy fuck was that ever stupid, now I have to do a less reliable, less painless method but I gotta get it fucking done though...

Antidepressants are indeed bullshit. They only work for the lucky ones, and most of the times the symptoms don't go away completely so what's the point? Also, these chemicals won't solve my problems.
Last time I tried them I felt worse than without. They had given me fluoxetine again, liquid.
How do they expect us to get past the 2-month testing period if you already feel like shit within 3 days of trying the medication out.
I've also been asked to try escitalopram. It was new to me, and I literally went crazy on that. I probably overdosed on that but I don't want to use it anymore regardless.

Good luck to you. It must have been devastating to lose your N. I hear nowadays it's harder to acquire it.
All I have is the hanging method. I thought about cocaine overdose but that's a fucked up way to die. If only heroin was widely available here...

 

[Nem]

You know, I believe if the placebo effect is removed from the picture...antidepressants are barely better than a placebo. When they say the meds take a month to work, think about it, what pharmaceutical doesn't work immediately? Pretty much only antidepressants, I am very sorry I took these garbage pills. They only made me worse not better, sorry Thanassis and every one else that had the same experience.

 

[Thanassis]

I agree with you. It's no different than taking a plant extract and saying that it works. Hell, plant extracts would probably be better. I'd rather "self-medicate" with drugs and die of an overdose.