Jump to content

My NHS Experience


Guest Espy

Recommended Posts

It's only now that I've been making huge steps towards recovery that I have been reflecting on my experience with the NHS. And it hasn't been very good.

For a start, as soon as I went to my GP, if he had correctly diagnosed and explained OCD to me (I approached him with a textbook case), I reckon I could have been fully recovered in a fortnight. It took about six weeks of deterioration for him to refer me to the community. At which point they correctly diagnosed obsessive-compulsive tendencies, but said it wasn't bad enough to be labelled a disorder (to be fair, at that point it might not have been), and sent me away with a small NHS booklet. At first I thought that was a good result, but with no follow-up treatment it was only a fortnight later that the intrusive thoughts had intensified incredibly and I was back in the doctor's surgery and off to the crisis team. That conversation started with "Why are you here? Because we don't know." For someone who had just had the biggest meltdown in his life, that wasn't really the most reassuring thing to hear. They went on to explain, quite bluntly, that I was being risk-assessed, to determine if I was a risk to myself or others. Given that I had been tormented by intrusive thoughts for the past two weeks, that wasn't what I wanted to hear. I felt like a person in a police interrogation room, and there was no reassurance or even explaination given. It was horrible. I was then given an appointment with a psychiatric doctor in a few days time. He asked me lots of questions, but didn't even tell me what his opinion of things was (I was so stressed at the time I didn't even notice that until I'd missed my chance). So I was referred to psychology, and put on the waiting list. So commences the worst three months of my life.

During that time on the waiting list, I had no idea what was wrong with me, or if I was a dangerous person. It was really demoralising, and horrible - my perception of things shifted so badly that I seriously felt like I was living in another world. I'm glad to be out of it, looking back. And I can't believe I went through that. Now that I finally have access to psychology, I am making huge improvements, but looking back I can't help but think that the NHS turned my case from a very mild one (being bothered by scary thoughts for two or three weeks) to a quite severe one (bedridden, I even collapsed in the shower at one point). They terrified me - my GP was constantly talking about psychosis, and the mental health team only reinforced the question that I might be dangerous. I recently found out that the CMH unit I was referred to has had a tonne of complaints, and someone I know who has been dealing with depression for years told me that the source of her depression was intrusive thoughts, something which the same CMH unit had been dismissing for years, despite her constantly telling them it was the cause of her problems. I've told her to get on the psychology waiting list as soon as possible.

Basically, if the NHS has treated me properly, I would still have my life the way it was. I wouldn't have had to drop out of uni, and I would be quite happy right now. Thankfully the psychology department has been very helpful, and happiness has been creeping back into my life. But thanks to a clueless GP, and a horrible CMH unit that treated me like dirt, I was put here in the first place. It really shows how low OCD awareness is.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Annabel

Hi Epsy,

It does sounds like the CMHT didn't know what they were doing! are you seeing a psychologist now? I think your case could have been dealt with better and that there is still a huge lack of awareness of the range of OCD symptoms and their severity in some parts of the NHS. I do think that the NHS mental health services will only get worse though unfortunately :(

My experience of NHS care has been mixed.

Hope you're having an okay day today xx

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...