What help for mental illness?

wolfehouse

savvy sue- i think they mean do something like a wrap (wellness action recovery plan)
http://www.scottishrecovery.net/WRAP/wellness-recovery-actions-planning.html
it is completed with guidance and in a group setting usually and can be helpful for lots of people.

op-i would suggest you connect with some of the mental health self help or user led organisations. there are many in my area and if you network with the people there they usually know what extra help is available and what you are entitled to and how to get access to it.

(a good start is the one already posted earlier, but there might be a more general user led 'rights' organisation near you)

Ames

Thanks Wolfehouse, I'll look into what's out there next week when I have more time.

Sue, I can sort of see where she's coming from. I can recognise when I'm starting to get depressed because of the early symptoms, and so I can get help and do what I can to make sure I'm as safe as I can be. I haven't been able to do that with mania, or maybe it's because the feelings are 'good' rather than 'bad', so I ignore them.

The CPN did say that stress can cause mania, at which point my dad jumped in and said that my last episode must have been caused by the death of my mum. But looking at the build up to it and the pattern of the last few years I don't think it is that.

Even if I can tell when it's about to happen though I need to be able to do something about it, which means having access to support and doctors. I'm scared that I wont have that, and based on the last episode I could put myself in a lot of danger.

Errata

Contact the people at Dial House (I posted a link in a previous post). They run a survivor led crisis service, and other forms of support.

As far as recognising the onset of a manic episode goes, I think you've indicated pretty strongly that you can recognise the start of one but choose not to do anything about it because it feels so good. So, it seems to me you have to work on how to make yourself do something to stop the episode becoming full blown - even though you don't want to. That might sound a bit gobbleydegook but if you think about it, it's just what people have to do as part of any physio therapy they're having eg those with osteo arthritis know full well they have to keep the limb moving, even though that's the last thing they want to do because it hurts. It's the famous "no pain, no gain" gig. This is something the people at Dial House will be able to help you with, help that comes from the survivor's point of view not the clinicians.
HTH

Savvy_Sue

OK, I probably jumped in too soon: it just seemed to me a bit premature to say to someone who's worried about being left with no support that it would be OK if they could just work out when they were going to need help before they needed it so that they could then ask for it.

Especially as the information they've had to date is that if they ask for help, they may or may not get it at that point, because they might not be ill enough to need it.

And I really didn't want to suggest that Ames is never going to be mentally fit enough to make recognising and acting on the warning signs a possibility.