"Reaching out for help"

Absolutely shocked at how I have been treated over the period in which I tried to gain help 

I reached out to the doctors in September re my mental health and was referred straight to the primary care team 

They reached out to set up a face to face meeting - I went down and expressed my whole life, how I felt that my mood was always low and that I put on a front so that people don’t recognise which is exhausting, I told them how my only way of feeling better was my children, working and being able to drive to somewhere quiet. A few days later I was rang and told I was no long able to do any of this. During this meeting I was told could I not just try to be happy. 

After that they put me on medication which had horrible side effects which left me in a worse place than when I started laying on the ground cuddled on the floor in complete anxiety attacks 1 after another, was told to wait it out and they upped the dose ..finally after about 2 months I seen a consultant who took me straight off the medication cold turkey. 

They rang a month later to put me on a new medication after another month I rang and said there was no change, my mood was still a 4/10, they said well up the dose and ring you in two weeks. December came around and I rang in the middle of a panic attack asking to be seen, I was told no one was free but I would get a phone call the next morning (still waiting on this phone call ).  

Rang my own GP and asked to speak to the mental health nurse who said they could do very little as I was still a patient in the primary care team - reminder the only time they spoke to me was when I rang them. The GP sent an email and put in a complaint and my medication was changed through them.

I then got a letter for a meeting which I could not attend and rang them giving the days I could attend, I got another letter with on of the days I said I could not do, I rang again and gave the the days I could not do (no other appointment was giving).

I reached out in February as the medication still wasn’t working and was told the consultant wasn’t there but would ring me back on the Monday (never received this phone call again ). Finally in March I got a letter saying I had been discharged from this service and could finally get the mental health nurse to change my medication.

For someone to reach out for help and to be ignored and ignored time and time again I feel personally is a huge huge kick in the teeth for someone who it’s took them years to gather up the courage to do so. It’s an absolute same for another with mental health problems to be left in the state I was in. I was just lucky that I had a good support network around me family wise, I never ever will put my trust in these kind of services. Mental health should be a priority to sort out not a laughing matter which is how this team made me feel.