Mental Health Today

MENTAL HEALTH TODAY 29.04.2021 in the UK

5,691 individuals lost their life to suicide in 2019 😲💚, figures haven’t yet been published for 2020 🤔💬, but they are expected to have risen even further due to the pandemic! 😲

I’m writing this article because it is a much-needed requirement as I’m sure you can all relate and appreciate in this time of the Global Pandemic 🌍. Whilst many would have been out in recent weeks and catching up with loved ones for the first time in months 😊🥰🌞, for some this simply isn’t possible. 🤔💬 I’m certain that ALL of us can associate with the effects on one’s mental health just from the loss of human contact with others, I know I have. 🤗🥰

For as much as mental health is talked about today 🤔💬 no one truly knows what actually happens when you need them and are in the crux of the system 🤔💬, where you discover just how shockingly and unbelievably diabolically appalling it truly is. 😭😤😡💚

Far too many individuals take their own life on daily basis in the UK alone ❤🌍, and when you become aware of how the system/processes work 🤨, you don’t have to look hard to see why especially if you have physical disabilities 👀🤨.

For those of you thinking that it’ll never happen to you because you have good health and are in a great career 😊🥰, you’d be very much mistaken because poor mental health can affect each and every one of you. ❤💚 My pinkies are crossed as I say this as I would wish this on anyone. 🤞😊🥰

I had a whole life past childhood trauma with a good future ahead of me or so I thought 🤔😊🥰, I never expected nor anticipated what was to come and does so for so many others 🤔💭. I was never one for going sick at the work place 🤢😊, and I was firmly in the ‘bubble of hope’ at the time🤞👍😊. Before I knew it I had had five lower back operations over 18 months 😲, and was aware that I was no longer physically able to the job role I was employed to do 😔, so subsequently in April 2014 I lost my employment and my life as I knew it changed and in no way for the better 🙄.

Having lost my ability to work I was in no doubt this would affect my mental health 🤔💬, but I was nowhere near prepared for the battle and many challenges that lay ahead 🤔💭, especially with my doctor and the Community Mental Health Team but also Pain Management 😭😤😡.

I recall my first encounter with Dr James Boorer in late 2015 when I needed to see him to request a referral to the Pain Management team in Exeter 😊, specifically to Dr Graham Simpson as he had been treating me following the last operation 👍😊🥰. The last surgeon was supposed to have done this following my hospital departure as it was agreed I could be seen as an outpatient 👍😊, but he failed to do this despite my repeated follow up phone calls 📞. My doctor blatantly refused to make the referral explaining that his belief was 💬, I was in as much pain as I am due to my childhood traumatic experiences 🤨. Due to my persistence and shear determination I was referred back to the pain management team in Plymouth who also blatantly refused to help in any way 🤔💬 advising nothing would work depiste the last surgeon recommending a nerve root block stimulator option 👍😊.

Six months or so later I’m living my worst fears 🤔💬, I was in constant excruciating pain with no one even willing to help let alone actually help 😭😡. The one health professional that I’ve ever met that was willing and wanting to help was cut off by my doctor in the first instance 🤔💬, and I was left on almost 30 varying tablets a day 😲. Anyone in this predicament would suffer mentally as a direct result and I was no exception to this 🤔💬, where I reached the depths of despair and ultimately ended up taking an overdose 😭💚. Sadly this would turn out to be the first of many over the course of four and a half years 🤔💬, I would spend 6 months or so fighting tooth and nail to ascertain some help but none would be given. I was offered a 4wk course in Bath in Jan 2016 that I attended 🤔💬, it certainly failed to deliver what it said on the tin for e.g. It was supposed to cover both your physical and mental state in group work to enable you to live a life of chronic pain, however 🤔💬, they got us to list an emotional, mine was rage 😤😡. I then asked how we manage this only to be told it would be covered in another session, it didn’t happen and that is as much as they went into regarding the emotional aspect 🤔💬, which in my view is the most difficult and challenging to say the least. The psychiatrist Dr Nicola Chandler asked for my feedback in the final week 👍😊, where I eagerly, openly and honestly provided this to her which resulted in her writing an extremely damning report about me 😭😡, that is still used today! 🤬 I have testimonials from other group members that contradict that very report as it portrays me very inaccurately and negatively 🤔💬, whereby I’m told that I’m the one that needs to engage, quite laughable really but byeck you have got to have humour! 🤣

I’ve spoken to many nurses and doctors following overdoses that completely understand my predicament 🤔💬, I’m far from bashful in coming forward and am able to communicate the/my root cause 🤭😁, but they would only treat the issue I was in there for and nothing else 😕, even the psychiatric unit/departments recommendations are ignored and this applies to all ages as I’ve seen how they deal with young people who overdose 🤔💬, and all I’ve seen and heard as made me fully aware of 3xactly what’s missing coupled with the volume of internal stigma 🤔💬, it is truly shockingly unbelievable and unbelievably shocking! 😭😡💚

In early 2019 I removed myself from the battle field not that anyone noticed as they were all quite satisfied in me taking 30 plus pills a day so long as they don’t have to see or deal with me 🤔💬, this is how the system makes you feel and i truly don’t think I’d being typing this today if i hadn’t 👍🥰. I sought an advocate at one point to so all the health professionals that were involved in my care were present 👍🤔💬, to formulate a plan moving forward only this meeting transpired into a 10 minute meeting at best 🤔💬, where only one person spoke out of 7 health professionals and the only one I’d never met prior to 🤔💬, truly shambolic as everyone was present yet they spent over 45 minutes talking amongst themselves and no doubt about me 🤔💬, no one could make this stuff up lol! 😂 #gottalaugh

Six weeks ago I reached crisis point again as I’m on too much pain to accept that this is okay as it truly isn’t and I’m all out of merely existing 🤔💬, when I know I have potential to be doing so much more 😊🥰. I was told I needed to wait and how I would have to engage 🤔💬, I also received a hand delivered note from a different doctor at Pathfields Practice 😲, adding they would like to reduce my main pain relief, my anti depression and my sleeping pills but they would see me face to face first 😲. This was all within a few days and I’ve heard nothing in the 6 weeks since. Words really couldn’t express how I feel about that 💬🤔 other than WTF! 😲

“Those who experience physical and psychologically conditions should have access to the appropriate help and support and it’s definitely what the average normal day person would expect. You assume that there is support for those in a time of crisis, when I know that most have time restrictions and no notes are stored so you have to constantly repeat yourself when calling support numbers back. You think that a well-oiled machine such as the NHS has the ability to communicate between departments, but I’m yet to experience this. I’ve witnessed how young people are dealt with following an overdose or self harm, where health professionals willingly accept ‘I don’t know’ as an answer as to why, they completely fail to establish the root cause, and if this isn’t established you’ll never be able to address the issue, though in my experience where I’m willingly explaining the root cause, and they then do nothing about that. From my own perspective and having been through the system for e.g. they diagnosed me with BPD and I was on the waiting list for DBT therapy, only when it came to the assessment they declined me because my pain levels are too high, and the therapy sessions I was having at the time with psychologist Dr Leila Grey came to an abrupt end despite having further sessions booked. My last appointment with pain management was when I argued my point in that since my operation no one has even tried anything, yet still she refused to help. I’ve had no support at all following my complete life transformation and I truly have no idea how people ascertain appropriate help and support. I’m also aware that there are many others like myself, simply left in constant chronic pain and on multiple varying medications and left. Tis no wonder the Pharmaceutical Companies are booming!”

I now want to be the voice of many 😲🥰, for each and every one of you who have shared similar experiences or who will 🤞, but most of all I’d like to bring about real change and not just for myself and others alike but young individuals also 😊🥰. The imbedded stigma needs removing, people should have the appropriate support in time of crisis, effective communication is desperately needed between departments and health professionals, funding needs to be utilised in a proper manner and more time should be spent more effectively. 🤞😊🥰

This is where I need your help please? 👍😊🥰🤞 Please share this so that it reaches someone that reaches me, because I’m ready to shout it from every roof top if needed, metaphorically speaking lol! 😂 Change must start somewhere right? 👍😊🥰 I’m doing all I can and am aware that I cannot achieve this by myself, and the way many people are treated will continue down the generations. Please help me make the desperately needed changes that are required, mahoosive thanks in advance 👍😊🥰🤞. I also salute to all who have read this fully and shared, please like or comment so I know you’ve shared. 😊🥰👏

#projectheidi2021 #thisisme #fightingback #speaker #raiseawareness #failingsystems #suicideprevention #hope #change #liveyourbestlife