Chat for people with 3+ mental health issues

Hello @Fingerlime, I have several mental health issues. Some are BPD, CPTSD, depression and anxiety, I have undiagnosed ASD and ADHD, I also have Harm OCD and other forms of OCD and SI. It's alot to live with and some days are harder than others.

I hope you are doing well, always happy to chat 😊

Hi @MissGremlin , thanks for the quick reply!

Yep, I mean, almost everything overlaps in mental health conditions, don't they.

Do you have any examples you're willing to share where your conditions play against each other to create different symptoms? And any recommended coping mechanisms?

Like I found DBT skills really hard to do because of my sensory overwhelm which meant I can't really self-soothe using smells, music etc.

@Fingerlime yes alot of things do overlap.

I have many symptoms sometimes that when I talk to people they are like well that's a new one and it leaves them baffled 😂.

As far as coping mechanisms go, my biggest thing is distractions. I find i have to keep myself busy doing something in order to keep racing thoughts at bay. I do alot of crafts of various types, I don't have a very long attention span so I have multiple things going at any given time and I bounce from activity to activity. I also have routine and if that gets messed up it really throws everything out of whack and sends me into a panic.

I'm very much the same when it comes to sensory. The grounding technique that uses the senses I struggle with touch, smell and taste cos it's just more triggering for me. I listen to music alot and also watch TV shows and movies but I can only watch things I've grown up with as I don't cope with change.

@Fingerlime hi Fingerlime and @MissGremlin i have schizoaffective disorder and ptsd but my middle son has autism, schizophrenia, epilepsy and a mild intellectual disability. can i write as a mother for him? i have always felt alone regarding him even though i have a great family which is so supportive. sometimes the depression gets so great it is hard to deal with tbh.

@Bunniekins managing children with mental health issues and disabilities is hard for anyone and even more so when we have our own diagnoses. You are doing a great job ❤️.

@MissGremlin oh Dreamy it has been a battle particularly when he was 16 -21. it was awful tbh. he was very ill. his schizophrenia is only partially controlled but that is a long way better than what it was. there seems to be a real link between asd and other disorders isnt there. i love my son but some times i wanted to jump of the presipess.

@Bunniekins those years are hard for kids normally let alone when other things are added into the mix. I'm glad it's at least better than what it was, it's hard to manage so many different diagnoses. There definitely seems to be a link. Of course you love your son but at times it can really push us to our limits. But somehow we find a strength within us that we didn't know we had until we really needed it.

@MissGremlin it's true what you say. those years are hard for anyone let alone someone with dual diagnosis particularly with asd being one of them. he is a big guy too so he really stands out .... Dreamy how did you cope? how do you cope? with a neurotypical world.

@Bunniekins to be honest with you, I don't really cope. The world most of the time is too much for me. The simplest of tasks can cause me to become so overwhelmed and send me into a panic. I'm still learning about myself and how to manage the list of diagnoses that I have, I'm not on medications which means I have to find other ways to cope with things. I've been let down by professionals throughout my life and the only support i have is my GP.

@MissGremlin im really sorry to hear that you have been let down by so many. so many experts can be so arrogent. let me tell you a story about my son. he had hallucinations when he was about 5ish and i was sure he had early childhood schizophrenia anyway i went all the way to another city to get a diagnosis by someone a so called expert ......who described his hallucinations as "weird and wonderfuls". i was crest fallen. all these years later i would lovve to see him and say look at my son now you sob.