Struggling with the Mental Health System: I Feel Failed
Hey!
Sorry that it's been a hot second. Things have a bit a lot lately and I've been find it really tough. Part of this has been my struggle with the mental health system. My mental health has suffered lately, bringing my depression to the centre of my health struggles as my biggest challenge. It's been hard and perhaps the hardest part has been feeling unable to access the support I need.
Don't get me wrong, I am INCREDIBLY grateful for the NHS and to live in a country where there are a lot of free options for medical help, but that doesn't mean that the system is perfect. Trusts are uncommunicative, waiting lists are exceedingly long, choices of types of mental health support can be limited. It can often feel like you need to be on the brink before you can access help, as though treatment is retrospective rather than preventative. The government can say that they are increasing funding in the mental health sector and that they are doing all they can to fight stigma and isolation, but when that funding is proportionate to the lack of money going into the NHS as a whole that isn't saying a whole lot. Everyone can see the necessity for dentists and surgeons and opticians, but it feels as though not everybody appropriately values nationalised mental health support. At the end of the day most of us will encounter mental health problems in some way during our lives at sometime, and it isn't until you're in the system that you realise just how scared and lonely its failings can leave you feeling.
I feel failed by the mental health system. I have been trying to find support for four months now and all I have so far is anti-depressants and a list of websites and phone numbers. I'm not ungrateful for these things, but rather angered that when I go back saying I need more, that I need human support, there's nothing they can do. It doesn't matter whether it's waiting lists or the inability for my at home GP to refer me to London services, it hurts. I think that what is too often ignored when we discuss the failings of the mental health systems is that it's not just what you don't get from lack of support, but also what you lose. I have lost so months of my life and opportunities and time with friends and support networks to being sick. I'm not saying that it's the systems fault that I'm mentally ill, but I can't help but imagine what I could have kept if I had gotten help four months ago. It doesn't feel fair that all this time I have been begging for help, yet I am the one losing so much.
I am not the only one. I know so many other young adults who have hurt and left behind by the failings of the mental health system, young adults who can't afford private care and who are learning to cope on their own, just like myself. I'm not the only one who has felt like they can't get help until their problems are severe, and even then feel forgotten. I'm not the only one whose condition has probably been worsened by this sense of abandonment. I'm not the only one who feels overwhelmed trying to navigate this system alone as a young adult or teenager. I'm not the only one being failed.
The government can say that they care about mental health but it's time they put their money where their mouth is.
Look after yourself.
See you later Alligator!
Freya
PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/05/hundreds-of-mental-health-patients-dying-after-nhs-care-failures
Sorry that it's been a hot second. Things have a bit a lot lately and I've been find it really tough. Part of this has been my struggle with the mental health system. My mental health has suffered lately, bringing my depression to the centre of my health struggles as my biggest challenge. It's been hard and perhaps the hardest part has been feeling unable to access the support I need.
Don't get me wrong, I am INCREDIBLY grateful for the NHS and to live in a country where there are a lot of free options for medical help, but that doesn't mean that the system is perfect. Trusts are uncommunicative, waiting lists are exceedingly long, choices of types of mental health support can be limited. It can often feel like you need to be on the brink before you can access help, as though treatment is retrospective rather than preventative. The government can say that they are increasing funding in the mental health sector and that they are doing all they can to fight stigma and isolation, but when that funding is proportionate to the lack of money going into the NHS as a whole that isn't saying a whole lot. Everyone can see the necessity for dentists and surgeons and opticians, but it feels as though not everybody appropriately values nationalised mental health support. At the end of the day most of us will encounter mental health problems in some way during our lives at sometime, and it isn't until you're in the system that you realise just how scared and lonely its failings can leave you feeling.
I feel failed by the mental health system. I have been trying to find support for four months now and all I have so far is anti-depressants and a list of websites and phone numbers. I'm not ungrateful for these things, but rather angered that when I go back saying I need more, that I need human support, there's nothing they can do. It doesn't matter whether it's waiting lists or the inability for my at home GP to refer me to London services, it hurts. I think that what is too often ignored when we discuss the failings of the mental health systems is that it's not just what you don't get from lack of support, but also what you lose. I have lost so months of my life and opportunities and time with friends and support networks to being sick. I'm not saying that it's the systems fault that I'm mentally ill, but I can't help but imagine what I could have kept if I had gotten help four months ago. It doesn't feel fair that all this time I have been begging for help, yet I am the one losing so much.
I am not the only one. I know so many other young adults who have hurt and left behind by the failings of the mental health system, young adults who can't afford private care and who are learning to cope on their own, just like myself. I'm not the only one who has felt like they can't get help until their problems are severe, and even then feel forgotten. I'm not the only one whose condition has probably been worsened by this sense of abandonment. I'm not the only one who feels overwhelmed trying to navigate this system alone as a young adult or teenager. I'm not the only one being failed.
The government can say that they care about mental health but it's time they put their money where their mouth is.
Look after yourself.
See you later Alligator!
Freya
PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/05/hundreds-of-mental-health-patients-dying-after-nhs-care-failures
Trans healthcare is just the same, I’ve been on waiting lists for 3/4 years (still not been seen or so little as emailed), I’ve given up and had to save up for private services, which is “affordable” for some parts but bottom surgery is in excess of £50,000 which is not reasonably achievable. Never mind the fact once you’re finally being seen by NHS services, they have no mental health support in place for trans people, you pretty much have to go private or face waiting lists to probably end up with counsellors that have never met a trans person before and could even possibly be transphobic. If you have mental health issues outside of being trans they can quite often prevent you from getting any care at all.
ReplyDeleteReally hope they get some improvements in place for all mental health issues, while them encouraging people to go get their mental health checked is a good thing, but they should have a system that can cope with the influx of people they’ve encouraged to seek help.
Hope you get the help you need soon