Topic Tuesday Focus Group // Treatment and support for people experiencing personality disorders // Tuesday 13 March, 7pm AEDT

Thanks to everyone who's joined so far!

My next question is a sneaky two-parter: When did the person you care for first experience symptoms of their personality disorder? What support did you provide, or did they access, at this time?

@EliseSunflower

My wife was first diagnosed (or at least I was first aware of the diagnosis) about 5 years ago. She was initially diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder shortly after we were married 18 years ago.

She was diagnosed with post natal depression after our first child was born (13 years ago today), midwives were quite concerned over what for me was normal behaviour, which progresssed to major depression. Things progressively deteriorated over time after that until the BPD diagnosis and further since that time.

Shortly after we were married I did some dr google resarch and wondered about Bipolar but when I mentioned it for investigation people thought I was making things up and they couldnt posaibly be that bad so nothing ever happened. I didnt press it as I was also trying to protect my darling from stigma.

@Determined

Unfortunately it can take a long time to reach the right diagnosis - which can be frustrating and confusing. Dr Google can definitely be helpful at times!

Did she access much treatment or support before she received the diagnosis?

Support from me at the time was creating an enviornment where she did not have to work. One part time job she did have I arranged and was able to work along side her and support her when it was too much. Support over time increased as her coping ability decreased.

Medically innearly years she was treated with mild antidepressant. Began seeing a psychologist after S1 was born and eventually within 12 months of that a psychiatrist.

In the last 12 months there have been numerous hospital admissions to a private mental health unit.

I am unsure if it was the psychiatrist or psychologist who finally gave the BPD diagnosis as I was kept on a need to know basis, it was actually one ofmmy wifes friends who told me after attending an appointmentwith her. Darling clearly did not understand or didnt think it was important enough to tell me.

@Determined Your response is feeding a little into my next question, which I'll post in a minute for anyone else who may be interested in participating .

What sort of part-time job did the two of you work in at the time? That's great that you were able to work alongside her.

What have her experiences been like accessing the private mental health unit?

For anyone reading along - next I'd like to talk about treatment and support, in general.

There is a large variety in the types of support available - for example, some people access financial and housing support, mental health services, or support groups. What sorts of treatment and support services has the person you care for accessed, and what have their experiences been like?

Also - have you sought treatment or support yourself relating to your role as a carer? What have you found helpful? This may include formal treatment/support groups, but I'm also interested in things like sleep/eating, hobbies, apps, friends and family - whatever you wish to talk about!

Part time work was as a cleaner in the offices where I worked. Kind of a right place right time thing.

Mixed experience with private access to mental health services but significantly more positive than when we tried to access hospital in public system.

Previous psychiatrist I felt resented my input and even suggested I was the main problem, current psychiatrist is happy to listen to me.

Darling was happy with all bar the last hospital, admission in the private ward. She spent ~4 months in hospital last year. Last admission may have been harder for as I had her admitted and didn't visit as often as I was too fatigued to make the trip daily as I had previously.

@Former-Member Thanks for your reply!

That sounds very frustrating and I can imagine it was very confusing. It sounds like you were left to do a lot of your own research and piece things together.

That's interesting that different diagnoses were given by the same public health treating team, too - even though it can be difficult to reach a diagnosis sometimes, it's unfortunate that you were given conflicting information.

How do the two of you feel about his diagnosis these days?