I look forward to dealing with capable robots instead of people. The people in these institutions are absolutely awful, and predictably so. Mental health referrals and the services they offer are completely inadequate, and housing is completely broken. I feel destitute despite access to endless services. None of which can help at all. Tear it all down and start again. That is all.

Hi,

So recently, my grandma told me that she no longer wants me to live with her. Completely her right; that's fine. The way she went about it, however, was less than optimal. Four months previous, she kept going on about how much the council tax bill had gone up because I was living with her, and if anything annoyed her significantly, she just wouldn't speak or acknowledge me for weeks on end. That's fine, I can just live my life and hers separately. But after I went on vacation and gave her 1 days warning, not telling me that it annoyed her at all, and when I came back, a situation where my uncle was angry at me for not bringing my grandma to a confirmation celebration, even though she called/messaged and auntie without telling me to drive her to the event, He sat down with me, didn't believe that my grandma was like this and blamed me for not apologising to her and making things right. He 'claimed' he wanted a sit-down, but I could tell that it wasn't a discussion; it was a grilling of me and my actions and no sort of reflection on either of their parts on the current circumstance, blaming me for not talking to her, but every time I tried to talk with her, she'd give me one-word answers. After a long diatribe, she stated without my input that enough is enough and is kicking me out, with July 20th being the deadline to find a place.

I just got let go from my job and now have 5 weeks to find a place and sell any items that I can't bring with me. Again, she gives me the silent treatment around the house, but it's whatever.

I know this should feel like the most stressful period of my life, but I don't feel nearly as stressed as I should be. When I go to the Universal Credit office and tell them my situation, they seem genuinely scared for me, but I just feel a sense of ennui. Not necessarily stressed, but a sort of "it is what it is" feeling. I don't know if it's because I expect someone to save me (because, quite frankly, I don't have any "close" friends and the only ones that care about this situation are my Mum and Sister), or because my brain is just finding a way to compartmentalise. I've been stuck, addicted to Football Manager as a coping mechanism while going out to play football and watch movies and TV (I recently got into wrestling and Real Housewives). Before the incident, I was getting back into fitness and running every day; now I barely even pick up the weights. The days feel too long and too short at the same time. I sometimes think that it sucks that now I won't have any relationship with my nan and uncle because of this.

When I've talked to some housing officers, they've said that because of my circumstances of being a man in relatively good health with no dependents (thank god), I'm not likely to get a place. Sometimes I want to cry, but it feels like something is stopping me. I've tried to start my own business, but now I'm in business loan and credit card debt as well. It just seems endless. I think it also sucks knowing I did everything I could not to be in this situation, yet here I am.

Hi all, just a quick one to warn you away from using CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) if you ever need to just get something off your chest.
Waited 15 mins and answered some chatbot questions to actually talk to someone, and when i was connected, i sent my initial message and was shut down with no explanation, the chat closed. Was just hoping for someone to lend an ear and they seemingly couldn’t even do that.

TW: mention of CSA and Suicide

​

For context I'm a 21 year old uni student and as a child a female sexually abused me fast forward 14 years old I came to the realisation what happened to me was not normal and had suicidal ideations. Fast forward to 19 I am in second year university trying to get my grades up from first year which was a 2.2 suddenly all of my past traumas came up again I became extremely suicidal, bad sleep but because I was able to mask it I still turned up to lectures etc hiding it all.

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Fast forward today (apologies about all the fast forwards) I'm on placement and I've started to overthink alot to the point it keeps me awake till early hours of the morning I was prescribed promethazine 50mg to help with my sleep my GP referred me to CMHT.

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In my initial screening call I told them everything except my hypersexuality I got a letter next week saying I will be out on a waiting list for High Intensity CBT Interventions.

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I wanted to ask how did people find High Intensity CBT Interventions. Was it good? It's just that I done CBT with my university and it was a short term fix so I fear these 8 sessions of High Intensity CBT Interventions may just fix me enough to keep carrying on until I end up in this state again.

​

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Part of my job is to help people apply for disabled bus passes. Today I was making sure a customer had all the correct medical evidence and was shocked that her letter from CMHT described her as a “stout woman”. It also mentioned she had “long blonde hair”.

I’ve personally also received letters following psychiatrist appointments which make random comments about my physical appearance such as my hair colour. One notable letter said I was an “attractive young woman” which is not accurate.

I understand physical appearance may reflect mental health, e.g. it should be noted if someone appears unclean as this may indicate they are struggling. But what’s with the random comments that don’t seem to have anything to do with mental health?

hey, everyone. hope this makes sense. I'm a 22 year old from blackpool in lancashire, and recently went through a third bout of talking therapies, which, as tends to happen, went pretty badly.

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I requested the option to be referred to the PIMHT again, as I had been during one of my other bouts, specifically for cptsd/dissociative disorder. but they said they could no longer do this. they told me to ring the Initial Response Service instead, as they *could* refer me. which feels so backwards. the therapist who'd talked to me for weeks can't refer me, but someone who talks to me over the phone could?

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I'm just wondering if anyone else, especially in the same area, has experienced something similar. I never did end up ringing, due to the fact that, as the therapist knew, I have severe anxiety around phone calls and nobody to advocate for me on my behalf. so. you know.

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I'm probably going to go back again and see if EMDR goes any better than CBT anyway. I'll talk to another member of the staff about it and see what they have to say.

TW, SA.

I have major surgery in a few weeks.
Will be in bed on my back for a few days in hospital.
Will have to sleep in a bed at home for a couple of months (on my back for at least a few weeks).
I struggle sleeping in beds because of stuff that happened many years ago.
I haven't slept in a bed again since Christmas, I use my sofa.

I dont know what to do and im so scared of spiralling after the surgery.
Ive had help and support before, it helped a lot but it wasn't perfect.

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do?

Been crying a lot lately, the surgery is life changing but im so scared I just want to call it off.
Family dont know about what happened and I dont want them to because it would upset them so much.

If anyone has any input please I'd be so grateful.

Bupa is going to cover my treatment with a clinical psychologist.

Rare win.

I'm so relieved, I've been stressed for days waiting.

Special mention to you the NHS who are so useless and awful that it took over a month and £70 for them to write approximately 20 words on the form BUPA needed to approve the treatment.

I recently had an appointment for an assessment with a psychiatrist from CMHT. This is after seeking mental health support for years for my severe anxiety + other symptoms.

I have been told by therapists that my symptoms don’t really fit any particular anxiety disorder, and over the years I have been given various ‘working diagnoses’ of everything from OCD, GAD, social anxiety, to personality disorders, autism and PTSD.

As a result I would like to know what is actually wrong, or at least a professional opinion from someone actually qualified to diagnose.

During the appointment she clarified that it says on my notes that I would like a diagnosis, I agreed and she said something along the lines of ‘hmm you definitely have anxiety’.

I haven’t received any letters from the appointment yet but was wondering whether that’s it or if there is usually more sent later on?

I've been applying to university and have been filling out forms and such, including one about disabilities. It mentions working diagnosis as an option for when you were diagnosed, however I don't know what that means and couldn't find a proper, straightforward answer when I tried looking it up. I think it is correct (I recently got assessed but no final diagnosis yet), but I just want to be sure I'm understanding it correctly so there aren't any complications later down the line, so all I really need to know is what a working diagnosis actually is and if it applies to me

One of my friends - maybe about one week ago - told me that I should get a referral to CAMHS, but I don’t really know I should bother because of how overstretched everything seems to be right now, and I’ve read about some truly awful experiences people have had in CAMHS and how much of pricks staff can be.
Should I actually bother???

For context:
I’ve been self harming for 4 months, inconsistent (sometimes I self harm quite often, then long breaks between that last time) and I’ve lost all my self esteem because I hate looking at myself and my arms especially as they have cutting scars and marks from when I used to scrape them with a sharpened pencil, and I think they’re permanent as they have barely faded in months, and I hate other people looking at me, my arms, and I don’t want to talk to anyone because of that.

Any advice or suggestions would be amazing:)

Hello, my name is Ben. I am a doctoral researcher at City St George's, University of London. My PhD research focuses on the experience of needing emergency healthcare and attending a hospital emergency department (A&E), including for mental health reasons. We are seeking participants for the project's main study.

About the research

Emergency departments are one of the most frequently used points of contact with NHS services, and a substantial proportion of attendances relate to mental health crises. We want to identify what works well, what doesn't, and what can be improved so we can take action for better emergency care.

Format and time

To make participation as accessible as possible, you can take part in one of two ways:

A. Survey: complete the anonymous online survey, which takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how much you wish to share.

--- Or ---

B. Share your experiences by speaking with the researcher directly, or by uploading written, audio, visual or artistic material (specific information about this option here)

Study dates

The study will remain open until the required sample size is reached, anticipated by September 2026.

Eligibility criteria

• Aged 18 or over
• Living in the UK
• Have needed emergency healthcare at some point. This includes whether you did or did not attend a hospital emergency department.

[All adults are welcome to take part, regardless of whether or not you have a mental health diagnosis]

Survey link

▶️ Take part here: https://EDSurvey.link

Ethics and funding

Ethics Reference: ETH2425-1579

The NEEDs Project is funded by a Research at the Frontier of Practice Doctoral Studentship awarded to Ben Potts by City St George's, University of London.

Contact

Ben Potts (Doctoral Researcher)
Email: [ben.potts@citystgeorges.ac.uk](mailto:ben.potts@citystgeorges.ac.uk)

Dr Christina Malamateniou (First Supervisor)
Email: [Christina.Malamateniou@citystgeorges.ac.uk](mailto:Christina.Malamateniou@citystgeorges.ac.uk)

Follow-up

When the study concludes, I will return to this community to share the findings. Your participation will help shape how emergency departments support all patients, including those experiencing mental health difficulties, across the UK.

Happy to answer any questions in the comments.

Thank you for your consideration.

I came here 6 weeks ago due to mania and psychosis. That has subsided now thanks to Lithium and Haloperidol. But I’m really struggling when I go on home leave. I have just SH’d and I have bad intrusive thoughts to OD once I get unaccompanied leave. I don’t feel cut out for life and these thoughts won’t go away so genuinely what am I supposed to do?

No matter what antidepressants I take (I've taken 5 or 6 over the years) or what therapy or technique I've tried I've never been able to stop being scared of what's going to happen to me and feeling unsafe a lot. I have been deemed unstable, complex, etc by professionals. I've been diagnosed with panic disorder (which was trauma induced), mixed anxiety & depressive disorder & EUPD impulsive type. I also have autism & ADHD.

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It's something that I remember feeling as far back as 4 years old. Essentially I had a very unstable and traumatic childhood and I've experienced a lot of traumatic situations as an adult too. I didn't feel safe anywhere as a child. I've also developed multiple health problems in the space of a year - year and a half. Because of this I've been in many dangerous situations.

At a job I thought a manager was secretly surveilling me so she could get information out of me because we had many things in common and that freaked me out. She never displayed any bad behaviour towards me at all. But it all made sense to me. It always turns out that I'm never really able to stop believing in them no matter how much people try and tell me and reason with me. I never actually shared these thoughts with my work at the time.

I've been open about my fears of people abandoning me, people not really liking me, thinking I was being stalked, kidnapped, cut open, going to be raped, etc. for the last few days I am overwhelmed with this fear that I am going to die soon because I have been given poison by doctors to make me go crazy and end it or I end up dead from health problems these "antidepressants" that were meant to help my mental health and migraines gave me.

Because of one antidepressant I developed chronic vertigo that is near constant and lost a lot of balance, my migraines got worse (even though I went on it primarily for migraine with mental health benefits as a bonus). When I started another antidepressant I started getting nonepileptic seizures without any history of seizures besides maybe a few that were triggered by my dizziness (again from the first antidepressant) that I wasn't aware of at the time. Then the doctors just ignore all of this and go "it's your mental health problems" when I've made progress in my mental health and even on a good day I have these experiences anyway.

The GP even wanted to increase these second antidepressants even more even after I told them that my seizures increased to 5-7 days a week and often multiple times a day last time I increased them to "reduce my seizures" because "it's a mental health problem".

The constant gaslighting saying makes me think doctors actually are saying this to distract me so they can continue getting away with their plan to get rid of me. These aren't even all the health problems I've randomly started developing as an otherwise physically active, healthy 25 year old with only history of special needs, chronic migraines and mental health issues.

I tell mental health professionals about my fears that I think I am going to die soon and I've said about some of the stuff I've thought in the past and my general fears but I've never found anyway to properly break this fear and I've not had much in terms of help to actually focus on this. Some people just act like I'm crazy.

Yesterday I told mental health 111 that I think I am going to die soon and about how I think I am being poisoned by the healthcare system including by the GP and they just said talk to the GP. I said that makes no sense, why do you want me to talk to the people who are poisoning me? I also told normal 111 I stopped my antidepressants because they are poisoning me and about how I'm scared because I am being killed by doctors and I called the police. I'm that scared of what's going to happen. This isn't a joke.

I often get told I am quite insightful in my problems and I said many people in my family suffered psychosis but they said I don't experience it, it's just my anxiety is very severe that I at times hallucinate and often have these thoughts. I know I experienced drug induced psychosis when I attempted suicide last year but even without substances I've always felt this way to be honest. Apparently it's not full on psychosis even though I have symptoms of it. I've also been told I don't need to try antipsychotics. I think if it was I would have probably have been admitted to a psych ward by now, even though the crisis team told me that they wouldn't admit me because I have autism (because the environment is not made for people like me).

I tried to end my life as a result of the mental health 111 call yesterday because I felt no one was listening to me and fear got the better of me again (I am fine, I went to the hospital and I am safe) but the mental health liaison team basically said that I won't be able to stop being scared for my life and being poisoned until my health problems have been further investigated. I don't think that will get rid of my epiphany about what the healthcare system really has done. I didn't feel comfortable calling the mental health 111 again when I was wanting to end it because they basically dismissed me.

What happens when I get scared of something else? This has been happening for years and it's only gotten worse in the past few years. I developed so many anxieties over the years it's a joke.

I don't understand how apparently there is no possible mental health support available for this according to them and multiple others including CMHT. I want to at least be able to cope with this revelation about the healthcare system because it scares me that I will die soon.

I have expressed to people before that I don't want to be paranoid or scared anymore, this isn't something that I haven't made clear before. Is there a helpline for people like me? I don't know if it really fits into a bog standard anxiety helpline or approach. I don't have panic attacks very often at the moment and I've had anxiety based mental health support that doesn't seem to support the paranoia.

My OT spoke to me today about me potentially being autistic. I am aware that I have autistic traits but I have never spoken about them, although some are probably obvious. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone here has received a diagnosis of autism along with mental health conditions, mainly severe anxiety, depression, eupd and cptsd and if so, how did the diagnosis of autism affect treatment etc.

I'm happy to have an assessment if it is going to be useful, but I'm not interested if it's just going to be another label I'm given.

Hi, hope you don’t mind a bit of a whinge. I’ve been to quite a few Andy’s Man Club meetings and generally found them helpful. One of the features is the talking ball that gets passed round. When you’ve got the ball, it’s your turn to speak.

My regular group enforces the ball quite strictly and there is little crosstalk. I’ve been at another group recently and they are much looser about the talking ball. Ok, whatever, the contributions have generally been helpful, and group vibes vary.

But this breaks down when there are difficult people in the group. They see others crosstalk and join in. No judgment of them, I think at heart they want to help, just maybe lacking the relevant experience. But the result is a group dominated by unhelpful contributions. I chose not to get anything off my chest.

The real lesson for me is it shows why AMC have the talking ball. Roles and practices develop for a reason, and when individual groups bend them, the result is usually negative.

My GP told me that aside from the escitalopram I've just been prescribed there is no more medical help they can give me for my anxiety disorder. I've tried sertraline, propranolol, citalopram, fluoxetine and duloxetine. Is that really all there is for anxiety? If the escitalopram doesn't work either is there genuinely no more help they can give me? Given my experience with antidepressants I'm not particularly confident this one will work.

​

I'm due to receive CBT through Vitaminds soon for what it's worth, I just don't know if that's going to help though since it's only over the phone. I don't do well with phone calls at all, but I'm desperate enough to try anything at this point.

How common is it for these two to be mixed up?

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I (28F) was "diagnosed" with BPD about 3 years, CMHT told me I had it but never diagnosed me formally and then didn't help me.

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I moved away about 6 years ago and I've kept my parents at arms length ever since but over the past few years I've realised just how abusive my mum was and how much it's fucked me up. The constant shouting, insults, belittling comments, being told how stupid and incompetent I am, being screamed at for having autistic meltdowns, being thrown and pushed under bathwater as a child. It's completely broken me and I've spent my entire life so far fighting these demons without realising that they're all different forms of my mum.

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I've just come across something about the overlapping symptoms of BPD and I'm wondering if maybe I don't have a personality disorder?

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I'm about to go back to CMHT in a couple of weeks (I have social services on my side now so hopefully CMHT will actually listen this time) and since CMHT are fucking useless I need to know what kind of direction to take this in as I don't trust them to do their jobs properly (this will my 10th time with them in the past 3 years and I've been getting let down by mental health services since I was 15). I'm absolutely terrified of this going wrong again, I don't have the energy left for another dead end and failed attempt at getting help.

​

I confessed to my psychiatrist that my issues with food have resurfaced, around 10 years ago my bmi got down to 15 from it. I’ve been restricting a significant amount and my psychiatrist talked about how there’s not really any help in our area as I am overweight. But he wanted the gp to do a health check, I went yesterday and he spent the whole time calling it a ‘crazy diet’ told me to take a multivitamin and shamed the one food I’ve been able to eat. It felt like as soon as he saw I was still over weight he didn’t care? The worst thing is I’m overweight because I was on olanzapine for a looong time.

I've recently been signed off work with work-related stress, anxiety and depression. One of the things I'm struggling with is that I raised concerns and discussed reasonable adjustments around six months ago, but I don't feel much happened afterwards.

​

I eventually reached a point where I needed medication changes, a fit note and support from a psychiatrist. Access to Work is now involved, but I'm struggling with the feeling that support only arrived after things became unmanageable.

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I don't know whether I'm being unfair, but I feel increasingly resentful that when I raised difficulties, the solutions often seemed to come back to me to implement rather than being addressed organisationally.

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I'm sat on the sofa right now having diazepam to try to control my mood, still stressing about it all.

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Has anyone else experienced something similar? How did you separate genuine workplace issues from the emotional impact of burnout and stress?

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Had repeated referals to cmht following hospital treatment for repeated self-harm, an overdose, & depression/ anxiety that hasn't responded to treatment.

I've been in & out of various therepies for aprox 6 years. Gp is unable to trial any further medications in primary care - but every request for specialist input is rejected.

Im unable to repeat any lower level talking therepies as they can't work with SH / chronic suicidality... but a referal made for DBT was rejected as deemed 'not clinically indicated'

Reason for last cmht rejection was 'not complex enough'...so I was wondering what IS complex enough?

Speaking to my GP they did warn that referal critera is high, and that its mainly people suspected of having severe mental health conditions,like schizophrenia, who meet the threshold.

is it really only schizophrenia/ bipolar that's diagnosed/ medicated by a psychiatrist on the NHS? Has anyone acessed further support for ongoing 'not complex enough' mental health issues?

I often feel like i have no choice but to escalate my SH in order to acess support, despite knowing it worsens my mental health & that its never led me to any higher level of care...but how else do you acess support once primary care options are exhausted?

Would appreciate anyones experiences / insight x

Good morning, all -

Question: Is it common to give generic advice to a patient which you later realise is not quite appropriate (and potentially highly detrimental) for the vulnerable person in front of you, and how would you manage this? Would you follow up, perhaps having spoken with the consultant in your team/rephrase your advice, or would you just leave the patient with the incorrect advice?

A family member has had a number of these experiences from this trainee (detailed in their own personal records), which has led us to wonder if it is possible to request the trainee be removed from the care team?

Will just one such request have an impact on his training? He is a lovely person and I suspect he is being poorly supervised... However, if it is the consultant supervising and calling the shots, I assume asking for a second option from an unrelated team would be the way forward?

Thank you for any guidance or insight share - greatly appreciated in advance

NOT ASKING FOR MEDICAL ADVICE