Been called for medical - not happy

mazza111

Poppie68 wrote: »

I should of been clearer, my post was in reply to the one above mine. I understand getting help is'nt easy is there not a counsellour your DD could see in the mean time. Our practice will refer to the counselling service on request, might be worth a try in the meantime.

No hon. She's been going back and forth for about 18 months now. She's got to the top of the list, only for mail to go missing. It's happens quite regularly with her postie. So much so that we have to tell everyone to contact her at my address. Put several complaints in about him, but still it keeps happening. There is no counselling services available at the moment, the MH budget has been stripped to the bone in this area. Which is sad, because maybe if it had been caught with counselling, she wouldn't have got into the state she's in now.

Mumz - I think you might be jumping the gun a bit hon, these things aren't instant. If only they were. I would give it at least a week or two to see if they've heard from GP, I know u desperately want to get started but... I understand it's also part of your illness to think they should have heard by now.

krisskross

When I was advised to have counselling after being diagnosed with PTSD, reactive depression plus acute anxiety/panic attacks I chose to see someone recommended by my GP privately rather than risk the entrenchment of my extremely unpleasant symptoms.

It cost £25 an hour but worth every penny. I certainly would sell everything not nailed down if I or any of my family needed this type of intervention. Certainly got me a life back. I never understand how people stumble on for decades without attempting to help themselves. All I can say is their symptoms could not have been as severe as mine, I simply couldn't function at all and cried non stop.

System

Referals unfortunetly can take some time to come through, after i'd tried to kill myself they put in an emergency referal for the mental health team to assess me and that took about a month to come through, in the meantime the GP had me on weekly appointments and and the crisis team involved to make sure i didn't top myself in the mean time.

Muttleythefrog

krisskross wrote: »

I never understand how people stumble on for decades without attempting to help themselves. All I can say is their symptoms could not have been as severe as mine, I simply couldn't function at all and cried non stop.

This has already been covered. Again it is very simple a concept.. but you have to open your mind to the possibility that not everyone thinks like you do. You sought help... but what for? Well according to you because you needed help and it seems wanted 'your life back'... this means that you felt something was wrong and needed changing which is a position many 'sufferers' won't get to. Can you not grasp the notion that people may not desire help or to change their life. I used to employ an alcoholic.. I watched him go paler and paler.. weaker and weaker... I was never sure whether employing him in a pub was beneficial to him or not (but he ended up with around 20 or 30 people trying to help him day to day)... I used to try to get him to eat food... anything... instead of depending on alcohol to sustain him. I never ever saw him consume anything other than liquids. This was someone who was popular, intelligent, a former trade unionist.. he'd entertained me for hours before I'd ever met him face to face.. he used to call the local late night radio phone in and tell the most outrageous stories. He drifted to death. Why did he not seek help... why did he not accept help... was it because he wasn't that ill.. or was it because he was ill. I think this is a very simple question to answer... the difficult questions to answer are how did he become this ill... how did this begin... how do you help... it seemed that nothing would do it.. when he was hospitalised he ended up meeting a nurse who he started associating with... quite a coup I'd say given her age and looks... but she could do nothing either... she ended up being nothing more than a companion to his alcoholism and briefly a carer.

As the psychiatrist who diagnosed my PDs said... he was surprised to see me present in the NHS... he'd only encountered one other case of covert SPD in his career in clinical setting. Many MH problems are characterised by avoiding others, failing to identify things going wrong, making decisions that are not sensible. Why would someone go decades with MH problems and not seek help... because they can... to be blunt. Comparing symptoms person to person is a pointless exercise unless you understand how they think... it's the latter which is largely going to determine what, if anything, they do about problems they face or even if they recognise they have problems at all. I can only really use myself unfortunately as example... you described extremely unpleasant symptoms... so it isn't a great surprise you wanted to do something about that.. and you did... I largely don't find symptoms of my MH problems unpleasant.. rather they're things I feel are just a part of who I am and quite possibly because they're so entrenched... low mood is the norm... what troubles me more is when I have periods of uplifted mood because it is then that I become unpredictable. As I said to the psychiatrist... I'm not someone who is going to panic and cry about feeling especially down... I'm not someone who is going to pick up the phone and call for help from the crisis team (which she recommended out of procedural requirement probably more than any serious expectation). I would think there are many like me.

krisskross

Muttleythefrog wrote: »

This has already been covered. Again it is very simple a concept.. but you have to open your mind to the possibility that not everyone thinks like you do. You sought help... but what for? Well according to you because you needed help and it seems wanted 'your life back'... this means that you felt something was wrong and needed changing which is a position many 'sufferers' won't get to. Can you not grasp the notion that people may not desire help or to change their life. I used to employ an alcoholic.. I watched him go paler and paler.. weaker and weaker... I was never sure whether employing him in a pub was beneficial to him or not (but he ended up with around 20 or 30 people trying to help him day to day)... I used to try to get him to eat food... anything... instead of depending on alcohol to sustain him. I never ever saw him consume anything other than liquids. This was someone who was popular, intelligent, a former trade unionist.. he'd entertained me for hours before I'd ever met him face to face.. he used to call the local late night radio phone in and tell the most outrageous stories. He drifted to death. Why did he not seek help... why did he not accept help... was it because he wasn't that ill.. or was it because he was ill. I think this is a very simple question to answer... the difficult questions to answer are how did he become this ill... how did this begin... how do you help... it seemed that nothing would do it.. when he was hospitalised he ended up meeting a nurse who he started associating with... quite a coup I'd say given her age and looks... but she could do nothing either... she ended up being nothing more than a companion to his alcoholism and briefly a carer.

As the psychiatrist who diagnosed my PDs said... he was surprised to see me present in the NHS... he'd only encountered one other case of covert SPD in his career in clinical setting. Many MH problems are characterised by avoiding others, failing to identify things going wrong, making decisions that are not sensible. Why would someone go decades with MH problems and not seek help... because they can... to be blunt. Comparing symptoms person to person is a pointless exercise unless you understand how they think... it's the latter which is largely going to determine what, if anything, they do about problems they face or even if they recognise they have problems at all. I can only really use myself unfortunately as example... you described extremely unpleasant symptoms... so it isn't a great surprise you wanted to do something about that.. and you did... I largely don't find symptoms of my MH problems unpleasant.. rather they're things I feel are just a part of who I am and quite possibly because they're so entrenched... low mood is the norm... what troubles me more is when I have periods of uplifted mood because it is then that I become unpredictable. As I said to the psychiatrist... I'm not someone who is going to panic and cry about feeling especially down... I'm not someone who is going to pick up the phone and call for help from the crisis team (which she recommended out of procedural requirement probably more than any serious expectation). I would think there are many like me.

Would you then agree that perhaps our benefits system is simply enabling people to remain " Ill"?

If people have no impetus or wish to seek treatment in order to try to get well should they be allowed to remain on sickness benefit for their whole lives?

Muttleythefrog

krisskross wrote: »

Would you then agree that perhaps our benefits system is simply enabling people to remain " Ill"?

If people have no impetus or wish to get well should they be allowed to remain on sickness benefit for their whole lives?

Absolutely. (In some cases the benefit will facilitate the status quo or further decline.. in some cases it may even actively contribute to decline and illness).

..and..

Absolutely. (There's no point punishing people for suffering the symptoms of illnesses that they're otherwise being supported because of).

PippaGirl_2

Muttley you have the patience of a Saint

Muttleythefrog

PippaGirl wrote: »

Muttley you have the patience of a Saint

And the arrogance of Hitler so said some..lol

~Chameleon~

Tottyshouse wrote: »

I am more than aware of how debilitating mental health problems can be. I have met many many people suffering with mental health issues when I was hospitalised, and when I was attending my psychiatric out patient sessions at my local mental health unit. However there is no getting away from the fact as there is very often no physical sign of it - it is incredibly easy to fake. It is without a doubt used by many people as an excuse not to get on with life. Many of these people do not seek intervention from mental health providers because there really is no need -the over stretched GP signs their sick note and they are perfectly happy with this level of "support". Where the issue comes is when they are called in for a medical, and suddenly it's all hands on deck to get referred to mental health providers - which will no doubt help their case. This does nothing to dispel the idea that there are countless people sitting on disability benefits who actually have no or at the very least very mild depression which absolutely would not prevent them from working. Unfortunately it is too easy for people to climb back under their duvet today. Do not make the mistake of thinking because I was able to work my depression must have been "less" than anyone's who gives up and climbs back under their duvet. Every night I gave myself the option of hanging myself the next day and for weeks I lived with the cord of my dressing gown by my bed so it was close at hand if I could not get up. I lived a lie throughout the whole period. I forced myself to wash because my last shred of dignity wouldn't allow myself to be dirty in front of others - but at home I didn't eat, I didn't sleep. I ended up at just over 5 stone. I would most definitely have been signed off work had I requested it. But then I would have had another 9-10 hours a day to sit at home, feeling exactly the same. In all honesty I probably wouldn't be here if I hadn't kept a grip on life by going to work. There is absolutely not enough targeted, active and productive support for people with severe mental health issues. Many are given medication and left to cope with no plan to get back into society -which ultimately has to be everyone's goal - otherwise what is the point in being here? What doesn't help is the label of "mental health" being used by many people to justify sitting bakc and letting the state take care of them for a lifetime. If you can muster the strength to complain about Atos, surely you can muster the strength to complain about a lack of mental health support over years??

Completely agree with everything you write in this post but feel it necessary to point out that it all depends on the type of work you do as to whether it's possible to continue working in such a distressed state.

In my case, I was responsible for other lives and when my mental health caused unnecessary death and suffering I knew it was time to quit. Had I had an office desk job with little to no real responsibility I might just have managed to blag it day in day out.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

mumz. your going off on a tangent about ESA and Atos, and everything that has happened to you is normal. all be it youve had an appointment cancelled, Atos deliberately overbook themselfs as a certain percentage on a day DO NOT TURN UP when the more than average a day walks through the doors, someone has to be cancelled unfortunately it was you.

requesting a recorded session would set you back maybe months in terms of having an appointment as the nov will be cancelled to accomodate you request.

just record it yourself with your phone on record or borrow buy a dictaphone say nothing about it have the mic sensitivity on full and just roll it from the moment you get in there.

in admissable as evidence most people would say but there are cases where if its detrimental to a case then it can be heared its down to a judge ultimately were not deling with the CPS were dealing with the tribunal services, where they hear recorded (secretly) evidence all the time from a prospective employement tribunal to a DWP tribunal.

i fear mumz that you have picked up on negative and bad press of atos 99.9% of your claim has from what i gather run smoothly.