professionals advise against having counselling...

Hi @Former-Member,

thanks for sharing this with us. You have been through some very heavy experiences.... and still you seem to have a kind of 'instinct' that counselling would help you and you were able to advocate this for yourself.

I am really just wondering how your mental health team could prevent you form seeking counselling? Are they in constant contact with you and do they know your where-abouts at all times? I'm sorry that I don't know how the system works. I hope I am not being intrusive.

It was a bit different for me. I saw a psychiatrist privately and once I was out of her office, it was totally up to me what I did and didn't do. She may have even given me advice that I chose to ignor- I can't even remember now! I could have gone and had a faith healer do a re-birthing process in a tee-pee with insence burning and people chanting "Omm", for all she knew!! I felt entirely free to follow my own course.

I would also see G.P's to get repeats on scripts that she had written and so I would have plenty of extra meds, without her knowledge. I didn't even think this was a bad thing to do at the time... I had no idea what I was doing. I used to pop pills like they were candy and no-one really told me not to.... ! Once again, I just did whatever I wanted to .... I guess I kind of have a natural disrespect for authority, even though I did quite like my psychiatrist.

@Former-Member, I am so sorry to hear about your OD. I hope you do not think I am making light of MI. It's great you are able to see your old therapist... maybe after a few months you will not feel so much like you are back at the beginning but will feel progress has been made.

www.the guardian.com/society/2014/may/26/misjudged-counselling-psychological-therapy-harmful-study-reveals

Interesting article.

@Sahara This is a very important conversation. You made me laugh about the teepee .. but my surviving sister did actually seek respite & inner peace in sweat lodges in mexico as she lived there for many years. I have not had the luxury of a natural disregard for authority and I am sure many others fit into that category ... various inputs into the discussion is essential ... as human beings are not clones.

1) Personally, therapy and counselling has helped keep me alive... but that was also as there were no good elders available for me .. who would discuss life circumstances. I agree with @Former-Member's point. In a way we have outsourced "being real" and general wisdom to "eggsperts & professionals". Possibly because of an over emphasis on education in our culture ... book learning does not solve all.

2) After my sister's suicide I spoke to her psychiatrist and he believed that if she had stayed in the private system she would have survived.... I had learned from her and took his advice for me ... and sought therapy in the private system .. but not always able to afford it.

3) Over 30 years of therapy but rarely anything close to weekly often just 1-3 pa.

4) Quality of TALK THERAPY differs hugely ... Some has been destructive for me ... I am only recently feeling the capacity to judge whether or not I am benefitted and make changes or challenges as appropriate.

5) From a taxpayer's perspective and a client's perspective, with the amount of public money being channelled into counselling ... we need CHECK & BALANCES. Transparency about what is going on behind all those closed doors ... which are not rorting the system or betraying the trust of patients and their families.

6) I have had various professionals put other professional fields done as inadequate .. hmmmm ... and there are recent studies about the difficulties of doctors being totally objective ... I go further and believe all humans have a subjectivity and we need to take that into account ... as a society ... and take responsibility for ourselves .. reach out with partial trust to experts ... but look for 2nd opinions etc.. to enable us to come to our own fair & reasonable position .. nothing is certain though.

7) Re genetics and MI ... I have raised this issue before ... it is unlikely that it is caused simply by "bad" genes ... except for rare syndromes .. it appears that it is at the epigenetic level that MI manifests ... it is physiological ... ie not ALL in the mind ... see Robert Saploski's lectures from Stanford ... it is due to interactions between environment and individual. Doctors who think that it is simply genetic .. may be a bit oldschool ??? not keeping up with recent findings.

@Former-Member I am sorry about your OD too. Was there anything about the counsellor or counselling that triggered you? I believe it might prevent further triggers if you can figure that out ( for yourself .. you dont need to tell us.)

The system needs to be accountable when people are so obviously distressed that they mhworkers dont realise it or underestimate it and that their client's OD or die after recent sessions.

That doesnt mean that they should cut you off from authentic support ... that seems ludicrous.... YOU are the one to best determnie if support is authentic or not.

yes @HellonWheels the medico ... non medico .. divide seems to be taught at undergrad med sckool.... according to docs I know ... it is weird as I having done science and some contact with other girls from skool who went through top uni in a range of disciplines ...

maybe .. the professional boards investigations should be at a few levels ... not just disbarring for malpractice .. but also ... more about seeking best practice .. it is not so simple working with complex organisms as human beans.

@Former-Member look after yourself ... the boys are doing well ... and its hard dealing with a few going through the teen thing ... just one step and one day after another ...

but the world needs to help teach these future generations to pick their own things up from the floor.. it is not just about parenting ... its about expectations ..

Hi @Sahara. You're totally right - I could get a GP referral or use my private health to take myself off to a psychologist. I actually had quite a good one many years back and I think he's still practising, so that would make sense. When the psychiatrist recommended against it, she seemed to think that I had such a long history of cumulative traumatic experiences that it might not be good for me to open the can of worms until I get the meds right. I asked her a couple of months back for longer appointments, so now I see her for an hour instead of a half hour. That's definitely better, but it still doesn't feel like a very active or goal oriented process and there aren't really any "take home messages".

Your psychiatrist sounds similar to most of the ones I've seen. I guess I like the one I'm seeing now because, for once, I do feel she's my supporter and advocate. But as I'm writing this, I realise that in that capacity she would most likely be open to my raising the psychologist idea again. Maybe she's even waiting for me to do so? Another thought I just had is that she might write a referral letter with any advice to the psychologist she thought would be in my best interests regarding approaches etc.

Thanks heaps Sahara. There does need to be a balance between taking professional advice and having an agency in the treatment we receive. I'll let you know how it goes. And shout you a virtual chai latte! Lol

@Sahara, @Appleblossom

I think my situation was a bit different in that I was dependent on the public system or free or very minimal cost for counselling. I had also been told I would need extensive counselling but that they didn't think I should have that until i was stable, of course ironically no help made me more unstable. I have since found out they never knew what to do with me. Apparently there is no capacity in the public mental health system for the ongoing counselling that they now acknowledge I need as budgets have been slashed. My GP has been told not to prescribe me anything and all prescriptions have to come from the psychiatrist from the mental health team. Anyway long story short they made some quite monumental mistakes with my care and through taking away counselling and any practical help made it so much harder. The mental health team have put so much control on my care so that it is hard for me to sneeze without them knowing. They had opened the can of worms but then ran away from finding ways to help me fix it, I have been so incredibly lucky that my old counsellor has taken me back on as her charity case otherwise I may not be here to write this. I want to acknowledge too that mine is not a story of an horrific past, but a dysfunctional life that came completely undone 5 years ago.

Hi @Former-Member,

I am so sorry to hear about the 'failed drug experiment'. You must have felt like a guinea pig. I guess I think this could be Ok as long as it was explained to you that there was no guarantee of the drug working? In which case you might not have agreed to do it? But I feel it's like your psychiatrist had a vested interest in giving you a new, experimental drug so as he/she could get results for a study? Oh dear.

And spending $1200 on another psychiatrist? That does not sound right to me either! Wouldn't Medicare have to cover most of the cost? I remember with my psychiatrist, her sessions were $160 an hour, but Medicare covered the cost to the tune of $130, so I was not out of pocket by a lot.

Yes, I am with you- I would not see a psychiatrist unless I wanted to get medication... and even then I would do some research and tell the psychiatrist what I was willing to take and what I did not want to take. I would absolutely not take their word as gospel and I would seek out a second opinion on my meds if I were unsure.