My experience and views on discrimination against the mentally ill.

@LFS hello - so sorry to hear you experience so much harm from what should be helpful. It is hard to get help even in the city - I live ina city and have been through the gammutt of really bad experiences here too.

You sound very resilient though - here you are still keeping on keeping on. If it would help, perhaps you could talk about what diagnoses you have. I read here that it is not depression or anxiety, is that right?

What things do you do to help yourself in the abscence of others to help you?

I have seen just how little people understand mental illness. I had been very careful not to disclose my particular set of diagnoses with people - and forced into a difficult situation earlier this year with my elderly frail, failing Mum - I disclosed to several people in my Mum's life (one of them the person who abused me) and the other some Christian friends of hers about me being Bi Polar in the hope it would provide them some insight into how they viewed me, some days where I wasn't travelling so well - in the end it was a mistake to have done that because now they have written me off as "nuts" and do not listen to me in regards my Mum's life and care.

What is it you hope to get from the professionals in the Mental health system that you have not yet gained?

What is it you hope to get if you came to a city for some sessions with a psychiatrist?

Hope you can untangle it all and find a thread that helps you in your days.

Hi @LFS

I just had my own experience of discrimmination and hatefullness against BPD's in the emergency ward!

See the post ED sent me away, I was in the worst state I have EVER been in my entire life and was terrified I would lose control and do something stupid to me or someonelese and reached out for help to the Emergency room (first time ever I had fronted to an ED for mental illness) and found the first doctor roller her eyes at me when I said I just want to die, and then when the mental health nurse came around she told me to go home after lecturing me on DBT skills that I wsnt doin and what would I hope to achieve by coming here!

Now that I'm out of the darkness it horrifies me to think what other people have gone through and not made it.

Goodluck with finding a therapist that suits - the only thing I can recommend is stay in control of your your own medical issues (re: finding information, new medicines and alternatives and take charge), I left it to my GP to manage and it never was, so now taking things into my own hands and getting reassessed and review of meds mainly.

It is very obvious that medical professionals in the field dont even understand us - make its hard to recover!

Hi there @LFS,

Sorry to hear you have had such a hard time in the mentla health industry, being treated badly and discriminated against. On top of that being in the country and a lack of services available plus your family not really being undertsanding of what you are dealing with everyday, sounds frustrating and exhausting.

You definitely sound like a resiliant and strong person going through all of that and still trying to find other services, whether that means moving into the city for better help. You should be proud of yourself for getting this far with very little help, it means you managed on your own.

I completely agree about the focus being on depression and anxiety when it comes to raising awareness, I guess these mental illnesses are easier for people to relate to as they are less severe in some ways, as well making it easier to market, etc. But that doesn't mean it's helpful.

So you are currently working towards seeing a Psychiatrist in the city, are you linked in with a counsellor too? It might also be helpful to look into going to a support group as I am sure many other's like yourself are looking for ways of coping that aren't do with mental health and more on a community level.

It might be worth giving Grow a call and seeing if there is one going near you?

Grow

1800 558 268

http://www.grow.org.au/

Just a thought!

Take care,

Lunar

Hi @Change123. In a way you were lucky in how you were treated.

If I presented to my local hospital and said I was struggling a lot and wanted to die, I'd very likely be detained, because country people have a different mentality to city peope, and are even more naive towards mental health, as I've twice been detained for a lot less. When I was detained, I had to stay at the hospital until the Royal Flying Doctor Service came. when I got onto the bed to be transfered, I was was forced to put my legs and arms into netting, which contrains you!. And this was standard practice for mental health patients to go on the royal flying doctor service, and probably still is in atleast SA. I was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and was confined to a small cubicle and room, with no tv or anythink to keep you entertained, and with sercurity guards watching you making sure you don't go anywhere, which made it just like being locked in a jail cell, and that was for two and a half days!. In around the next two and a bit days things didnt get much better. I then was taking to the Glenside psychiatric hospital, and in only two days I was allowed to leave the hospital grounds every day and go into the public and then return to hospital for the time I was there.

As you can see Ive been through a lot of trauma and there's been no help availiable for the trauma I went through since it happened in early 2010!.

How was the Fountain Inn? .. @LFS

Hi @TAB. I don't know much about the Fountain Inn.

I just did a quick google search and a presuming your talking about the Fountain Inn Hotel?. If so I didn't even know it was their.

Ja. It's just on Glen Osmond rd ie few minutes walk from Glenside. I used to go there a bit briefly in the early 80s, met both staff and and patients fromm there, they weren't always drinking together though @LFS lots nicer places to go these days around there anyway

Hi @Former-Member. There isn't a grow support near where I live. The closest one to drive to, is three hours away!.

I have gone to around 5 or 6 grow support groups though in Adelaide, when Ive been over there visiting my brother, which have been very good.

I've looked at trying to get a grow support group near where I live, but with no success so far.

The GP's , mental health workers, and psychiatrists I've seen, haven't recomended I see a counsellor, bar a very slight mention by my current GP about seeing a psychologist. The GP I've been seeing in nearly 3 years, knows a fair bit about mental health and has a doctorate in psychiatry, which has been good.

Hi @MoonGal.

What I hope to get out of seeing a decent psychistrist, is to be put on the appropriate medication and, or therapy, so I can properly go back to work, which my GP think is acheiviable and is very experienced in mental health and has a doctorate in psychiatry, and won adwards for his work in mental health.

I seen the only psychiatrist that fly's out from Adelaide last week to my closest mental health service.

And was a very unpleasant experirence, and changed my medication a bit, and I can't see what it's going to do.

They've treated me badly in the past as well, so I don't think I'll be seeing them again!.

I do suffer from major depression, but also from somethink else.

In the absent of others, I've got some extra medication I can take, or I just have to tough it out.