I am hitting a personal achievement. As of tomorrow I will be finishing the assessments for both Talking therapy and an alcohol service.

I have tried many times with different charities and was turned away but this time I feel like I am making steps in the right direction.

I might find they have other things to offer but taking the leap feels good.

A weird thought/worry is wondering who I will become once I've gotten over my difficulties. What hobbies I'll find. It's a worry because it's unknown what I can/will do.

It's going to be a struggle going through it because it may mean that I have to admit things I don't want to, but it's time to change, for the better.

The mind runs with thoughts but I have to remind myself it's a marathon not a race. To take it slowly and not get ahead of myself.

Just wanted to share a small achievement of getting the ball rolling, and pushing myself beyond my comfort instead of struggling on.

Hi,

I've been put on daily prescriptions and wonder how this works when my pharmacy is closed on a Sunday and Bank Holidays, obviously next month has two bank Holidays.

Thanks in advance

so ive been out of work since july last year, my mental health has been all over the place, i woulsd like some support in looking for a new job but i dont know where to start, ive been cutting hair for 7 years and its all i know and decide i want to get out of that industry. i struggle to work in office based enviroments, i dont know if theres any nieche jobs, ideally id like to work with in the world of fashion but ive been loooking for jobs into that sort of infustry and its been difficult. i know you cant always dp what you love i understand that. but im prertty sure ive got adhd, the amount of clients ive met over the years have always asked me if do but i dont have an offical diagnosis, and find it difficult to stay still and focus on one task for a long period of time. in an ideal world id like start from the ground up back to an apprenticeship, id like something i could do for a while.

ive been looking at places like indeed for jobs, but so far no luck. and just generally feeling lost with no direction. o if people could help with where to apply, if theres any type of job reccomendations. that be really helpful

My friend (18M) has been struggling with his mental health for the past year after going through a very nasty breakup. He was really depressed for ages and was using alcohol to cope, regularly messaging me while he was drunk ranting about how much he misses his ex, begging me to contact her, and threatening to end his life which was absolutely terrifying. I tried so many times to try and get him to seek help but he’s never taken on my advice and told me he’s ‘too good for therapy’.

He told me he’s doing better, hasn’t mentioned his ex for months and managed to get himself an unconditional uni offer so I haven’t been worried about him for a while but he’s been acting strange for weeks and today he messaged me claiming that a guy in a senior government role thought he was so great he forced the ceo of a uni to give him an unconditional offer. He seems absolutely convinced that’s how he got that offer and won’t listen to the fact that that’s not how it works. His explanation of how he found out about this makes absolutely no sense.

I want to give him the benefit of the doubt but I’m really really worried about what he’s claiming and I’m scared he might be experiencing psychosis. Is there anything I can do for him because I’m really worried?

My brother (23) is really struggling and I'm a bit at a loss on what to do. He is hearing voices and has visual hallucinations, usually people just calling his name, or what sounds like someone in the next room verbalising everything he is doing. They're really scary for him.

He has recently moved in with me, after living in HMO & these hallucinations getting really bad. They were breaking into his room, tapping on the windows and trying his door handle. He only moved in a couple of days ago but last night things got pretty bad again and he saw someone in his bathroom, heard people climbing up the house and talking about him in the next room.

While he works people pop up in front of him and call his name out, with the job he's doing it's quite dangerous.

I've managed to get him to call the crisis team a few weeks back and they've been coming out once or twice per week to see him. It's not really helping him, they send a different two people every time and he is really struggling to open up to them.

Ive got a telephone appointment with someone from the team that see him tomorrow and I'll be explaining that he hasn't been fully honest about what's happening with the people that come out because he cannot connect with them and is very closed off when talking about his experiences.

They keep mentioning medication to him but then nothing comes of that and hes getting to the point where he cannot see what help they're providing - he told them today that he was self harming again and they told him he needs to get out more.

Is there anything else that I can do to help him? I reassure him, sit with him a lot of the night, he takes the dog to bed with him - the dog would bark if someone unfamiliar was in the house.

I don't know what to say that can make him feel safer or better without feeling as though I'm invalidating what he's going through.

I’d just like to thank the mods/admins of these group and the people that post. It’s helped me no end with my mental health. And as I navigate and struggle quite badly some times,I know I always have somewhere to go to feel safe and feel heard.

So I referred myself to nhs taking therapy a while ago for my OCD and I'm currently on a waiting list but I also really need help regarding my chronic pain. But am I allowed to refer myself again even when I already have for something else

I need help if anyone can! I'm 33 and my little sister is 14 and she has stopped eating due to something she has seen on youtube. Our mum doesn't understand tech so it falls to me. My little sister has admitted that she has stopped eating food because she's worried about gaining weight, all because something she has seen on YouTube. She has kept things very private and changed her phone code to hide it. I was just wondering if anyone here has had the same experience so I can find the source and not just report it but also see what she has been seeing so I have some understanding so maybe we can help. Waiting lists are a joke and she is detiriating before our eyes! So please, if anyone has had the same with there kids and knows the source, please get in touch. Thanks x

Hey all I've got adhd and mutiple adverse childhood experiences that I'm still struggling with I'm 31. I've been to the gp, crisis mental health team and the local mental health team and theres no support. Adhd medication and anti depressants don't work. Cbt does not work the psychiatrist told me that because I'm self aware she dosent think the talking therapy the local mental health team can offer will work.

I've struggled my entire life I have a good job (currently signed of sick) which they wont let me back to which is really negatively affecting my mental health. Good friends and support network (no contact with family) my own place but I live with this unsecure attachment style forever. Ive worked through the tramua as much as I can myself but also struggle with being treated like im less and told im to loud cause of my adhd even when im really competent.

I don't no where else to turn ive started using drugs and alchohol to cope again and i know It doesn't help ive signed myself up for support with this.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hi all, I started on citalopram (20mg) 3 days ago, I feel like a throat tightness / lump in throat feeling - almost like something was stuck. This sensation seemed to subside a bit during the day but I can still feel it there. I have been very anxious about taking the meds. Could this be anxiety, or a side effect of the meds? Any one else experience this?

If a person was self harming upon admission and then it slowly stopped and they weren’t self harming when discharged? Or would they still say hospital didn’t help?

Hi everyone, hoping for some advice or guidance please.

A couple of weeks ago I was put on 80mg propranolol per day for anxiety. I’ve not been in a good way and haven’t really been keeping up with life admin and I’ve just realised that I’ll run out of medication on Monday.

I believe that the GP said I have this medication on repeat now. If I call the surgery on Monday, will it be ready to collect on Monday? I feel so stupid for leaving this so late :(

I can’t access the NHS app because I recently moved postcode and so it won’t let me login.

Thanks :)

Has anyone had severe headaches, fatigue and sleepiness on 20 mg of vortioxetine? Did it pass and after how long?

I was told by my gp after I asked that yes I probably have ptsd, but it's pointless getting diagnosed with it because I will not receive any additional support that my panic disorder/anxiety diagnosis would give me. Hell, she said it might even make me get less help. Is worth trying to get a diagnosis? Could I get more constant help or does it limit my options.

I have not received alot of support from this gp other than medication and being pointed towards charity help.

I have already had a 2 rounds of 8 week therapy with the nhs with a self referral scheme. (Plus 4, 6 weeks therapy sessions with my uni) I feel like with the these 6/8 week sessions we just start to make progress and the session are over. I'm tired of restarting with a different person each time.

Hey All,

I finally took the plunge and found a therapist after almost a year of free therapy with the nhs and different charities. The issue is after the first session I didn’t feel like i gelled with them. I feel really quite bad as it’s such a shallow thing to make a judgement call on so early on but I found myself clock watching, zoning out and just generally wanting the session to be over. I’m also not sure the type of therapy is really what I’m after, I was told by a recent charity I was attending that I should look into EMDR and this is that, but it’s around 4 sessions. I’ve honestly had almost a lifetime of mental health issues and I’m not sure that’s all going to be resolved in 4 sessions. Something more long term is what I was hoping for.

Appreciate any input. Thank you

im only on day 2 of sertraline and already i cant finish. it’s horrible i feel everything till i don’t. its constant edging. the moment i think im gonna finish i just feel nothing and i try again and the same think happens. i haven’t finished since January bc i used to take fluoxetine till now and it’s so frustrating

The title says it all really! I am taking Sertraline for the second time. It works absolute wonders for my anxiety but as soon as I do any kind of exercise (even just a ten minute walk), I am absolutely drenched in sweat. For anyone with the same issue, was there another SSRI that didn’t cause this issue? Or a medication you took on top that helped?

I know that everyone reacts differently to medications but I’d be interested to hear what works for everyone. I took Citalopram around 15 years ago and don’t remember sweating but I was so depressed at the time I was barely moving anyway!

in 2017 i found my fathers body after he took his own life, i was 19 years old and had to perform cpr- it was too late. since then i have been begging and begging the nhs for support due to PTSD, apparently according to the doctors a 19 year old discovering their fathers body after committing suicide isn’t that traumatic, they just don’t care. i don’t understand how much trauma one person goes through before they can access therapy. i am a shell of a human, i don’t know how much more trauma i need to go through before i am taken seriously.

ive been talking to the NHS talking therapy for about 2 months now and ive been told to start mbt. ive expressed how i want to be diagnosed, as im sure i have bpd, and now they are putting me in a specialised therapy for people with bpd?? how can i do that if im not diagnosed?? this makes no sense to me and im so upset that i relapsed on 4 months clean. please can someone tell me how i get the help i need?

edit: spelling

Has anyone been on mirtazapine olanzapine venlafaxine if so what’s your experience

I'm currently under a really underfunded and strained mental health service in Bradford where a lot of stuff is brushed aside as having a complicated past, or ACE(Adverse Childhood Experience) as they call it or just depression with ACE. I had therapy with a counselling psychologist for 40 weeks and the psychologist seemed inexperienced and confused, I know this might seem arrogant but the way they spoke seemed like they didn't know what to say and we'd often end up with awkward silences leading me to believe the secondary mental health service I'm with thought my issues weren't that bad or complicated so gave me someone who didn't usually deal with complex stuff yet here I am paying for a private clinical psychologist with my PIP money.

I don't know if that psych couldn't keep up. I've felt misunderstood throughout my life because I don't understand myself, nothing I say to them is right and they often brush me aside and say that I 'speak so well', I'm not trying to be up my own arse, I speak this way as a coping mechanism but I pay heavy attention to what I say, even texts have to be perfectly formulated but this sabotages me from properly explaining my issues, downplaying or exaggerating or not knowing whether I'm doing either.

It's got me feeling bitter about international healthcare staff because I'm been told some messed up stuff like 'men don't cry' or 'You blame everyone but yourself'. I despise myself and am open to them about that a lot, I blame myself plenty. To get the right help in such a system, I'd essentially have to be a social worker and advocate for myself, I won't delve heavily into my past but every I've met who's trauma informed tell me that it's extremely bad because it was long and chaotic, nurses genuinely change the tune completely when they hear it and that annoys me because for the way this secondary mental health service is setup is pretty much my kryptonite, suppress and over intellectualise, even literally forgetting my problems and thinking it's alright once I get to NHS psychiatrist assessment in that 60 min window. Just got further depressed though I was as compliant and model of a patient. Genuinely scared that I might really end myself in the future if I don't start taking action, so I sucked it up and paid for a private assessment from clinical psychologist, something the NHS would only offer me in extreme circumstances.

As a side note: Often these bureaucratic policies actually make me feel like doing it more because only then do they take you seriously, I heard something like 60-80% of the budget goes on acute care in English mental health? When I'm genuinely in a crisis, I'm locked in, I can't call them. When I feel like I'm going to go into a crisis, they made me feel like doing it more by telling me I'm blaming others, and many more unempathetic things. I started fantasising about blowing my brains out right in front of him.

The problem is that I try to be too reasonable, I don't want to get anyone in trouble and I don't want to trouble people much but it seems that sensitivity isn't doing me any favours. Really hope this private clinical psych assessment works out, might get some real answers and help. My counselling psychologist(who's quite new) downplayed my problems in the final letter, I suspect as an attempt to either end things on a positive note and when I read it it just showed how little they understood my issues. That or I'm just unhelpable because I don't know how to help myself or what I want, maybe the problem is with me but if it is just a character thing, I don't think I could live with that.

They want to discharge me, I can feel it, my PIP will probably stop and I'll just get worse without anything, support is getting more difficult as I get older and I'm a NEET so there's that. Feel kinda doomed. I know I'm prone to catastrophising so I'll try and have some hope that the clinical psychologist I see will be able to help out, if only a bit. They seem pretty cool at the moment so fingers crossed.

So, hopefully this is an okay place to post this. I recently got diagnosed with depression, which isn't a totally unknown state for me, but this time it's severe enough that I've agreed to the antidepressants that were offered.

Thing is, my GP has suggested amitriptyline to start off with, and after a bit of looking online (including the NHS's own website), it seems like this is quite a strong one to start off with, and they usually offer up different newer ones these days before offering up amitriptyline.

Is this normal? I am waiting on a callback from my GP to discuss it, but just wanted to check I wasn't overreacting to it. I'm just nervous to be on something that's too strong to start with.

I feel so unsettled at the moment and I’m not sure what to do about it or if there’s anything I really can do. I’m not in crisis or anything just really unsettled. I can’t really post the situation without totally giving away who I am because I am pretty sure someone is keeping tabs here but it all basically comes down to this idea of self sacrifice and a fixation on dying (no plan, no immediate danger or risk). I don’t feel depressed, if anything I feel kind of wired

idk what to do. I’m with a CMHT but this isn’t anything they can help with, the only thing I can think that I need is to talk it all out with someone and get it all out of my head and figure it out because the more I think on it the more desperate I feel. but helplines/Phone lines and web chats/messages aren’t secure and I can’t share this with anyone I know irl. CMHT focuses on medication which I neither need nor want. I can’t just try to medicate away the knowledge I can save lives. even if there was someone there I could talk to to sort through all this I just don’t trust the service enough to risk it

the only option I can think of is some kind of private therapist but not only can I not afford it I just don’t see how word wouldn’t spread anyway. it’s a similar risk

it’s not crisis or mental illness but it is mental health i guess bc the stress of it is twisting me up, and it’s all been building. I can barely function or focus on anything.

it’s a difficult situation and I’m not really expecting any advice, I suppose this is more a vent where advice or support would be welcome

I (21f) was considering asking my psychiatrist to come off my medication. I've been on an ssri for about 4 weeks and I don't think its working. Started off really lethargic, levelled out, then went the other way for a bit in the sense my brain wouldn't shut up even if my body was tired. I've been relieved by my period thankfully, but scared it'll spring up again when it ends.

I also have adhd, and don't know if that's going haywire or something. Is coming off these meds worth considering?

I’m in hospital on my second section 3 and I have been in and out of hospital for 2 years now. I had a diagnosis b it it got removed as it was incorrect then they said I had psychosis but they said it’s not true psychosis so I have no diagnosis and CMHT keep rejecting me so I have no support in the community and the dr here isn’t changing my meds and is just trying to get support in the community but they keep rejecting it. I feel hopeless and like there is no light at the end of the tunnel anymore. Hospital is not good for me but they won’t discharge me until I have the right support.