uk doctors...

sorry felt like a rant, the uk doctors are realy doing my head in...
they just say there is nothing we can do and that you just have to find a way to deal with your condition...
its getting worse aswell and i just wish that somone would be able to tell me how to go about things to improve the situation...

but all i get told is to ring the samaritans when i feel weerd...

sorry rant over

I always try to reply to you Albert'

mate I am far from any expert but from one weeeerdo to another weeeerdo.....
(I've met lots of doctors and they can be even weerder!)
just keep on 'ranting'.....don't be sorry ok...you hardly rant much and your rants are very much fine

so get into it...rant to the doctors...to people here...to people everywhere....pets...family...
if somethins' bothering you ...rant, if somethins' still bothering you...rant, cos it's OK yep

get used to ranting....you deserve credit for what you go through!

Australia doctos are much the same way

"PD are not curable so why bother treating them" or "they dont want help" or "they are attention seeking"

jessicaborthwick wrote:Australia doctos are much the same way

"PD are not curable so why bother treating them" or "they dont want help" or "they are attention seeking"

Australian doctors are a bit hit and miss- some are great others are absolutely useless and terrible listeners. The first psychiatrist I saw was a child and adolescent psychiatrist and he was really good.

The last one I went (a few months ago) wanted to trivialise my cutting- told me that I mustn't have cut very deep because she couldn't see any scars on my arms from across the table. Hello! I haven't cut my arms for the last 7 and a half years, (something I was quite proud of, except that I have recently started on my legs instead ) I just told you that and do you think you are going to be able to see them from behind your table??? And secondly I wrote out my whole "history" specifically for the purpose of me not having to recite the whole damn thing again, drag everything up, and she refuses to read it, telling me she would prefer it if I told her my history. Get stuffed- I'll give you the shortened less painful version I tell when I'm really upset with people like you should I? And lastly she wanted to put me straight back on the last medication I tried (which had worked in the past) but which last time around had some pretty severe side effects starting to appear when I decided to stop it.

Not going back to her again. I'm beginning to think a trip to the city might be my only option here...

Albert... you're allowed to have a good rant if you want to. Helps get things out of your system. I've just put my two cents worth in

As a fellow Brit (well, Scot, but I won't split hairs!) I would say you need to speak to your mental health team and ask to be transferred to a different team if at all possible. There was a time when I didn't trust my consultant and felt that unless he got his act together, I would ask to be moved to someone who WOULD listen to me. This guy would literally see inpatients for an average of 3 and a half minutes (I timed him). I felt totally invalidated which is obviously a bad thing when you have BPD. I spoke up (not to him, but to the nursing staff) and they helped me put things in perspective and he's been OK since then. I still think he's a bit of a twit though.

HOWEVER, the rest of my team are absolutely brilliant. My CPN in particular is fantastic. She remembers every single one of her clients, all their diagnoses, medications, when they last saw the consultant....everything. And my psychologist is fantastic as well. If it weren't for them, the consultant would still have me languishing in hospital trying to kill myself all the time because I felt so worthless and hopeless.

It's crazy how things are so inconsistent across the NHS, but I would say that you need a new doctor. One who understands the condition and believes it can be treated and recovery is possible. My consultant prefers 'proper' medical conditions where he can prescribe pills to manage the symptoms. PDs get on his nerves I think because there is little he can do as a psychiatric consultant, to fix things. It is the psychologists and CPNS who need to do the work. If nobody sees you outside of once every 3 to 6 months then no, you're not going to get better. But there MUST be some kind of therapy groups going on that you can attend, or they should be able to refer you to an area where there ARE such groups. I am lucky in that my team runs a DBT-style course and people who live even 10 miles west of me don't get it offered in their team. But I have a sneaky suspicion that if someone in another local team really needed DBT, they would get to come along. I wasn't supposed to attend as an inpatient but they let me because they KNEW it was the only thing they could do to help me get better.

So - start writing letters asking for the better service you deserve. If you ask for information on services in your area and the surrounding areas, they have to give it to you. My consultant actually printed off a whole booklet listing all the therapeutic communities in the whole of the UK. I don't know exactly where you are but if there are any within about 20 miles then they're definitely worth a look into. They are pretty much solid DBT. I thought about attending one near me but I started getting better with the DBT from my local team. Also - do you see a psychologist on a regular basis? With BPD you NEED one, and to see them at least once a fortnight to start with and definitely once a month.

I hope that's helped and not made things worse. I know we're lucky to have treatment available on the NHS but I just wish psychiatrists had a bit more know-how about BPD and other PDs and have faith in non-medical solutions!

lilyfairy wrote:

jessicaborthwick wrote:Australia doctos are much the same way

"PD are not curable so why bother treating them" or "they dont want help" or "they are attention seeking"

Australian doctors are a bit hit and miss- some are great others are absolutely useless and terrible listeners. The first psychiatrist I saw was a child and adolescent psychiatrist and he was really good.

The last one I went (a few months ago) wanted to trivialise my cutting- told me that I mustn't have cut very deep because she couldn't see any scars on my arms from across the table. Hello! I haven't cut my arms for the last 7 and a half years, (something I was quite proud of, except that I have recently started on my legs instead ) I just told you that and do you think you are going to be able to see them from behind your table??? And secondly I wrote out my whole "history" specifically for the purpose of me not having to recite the whole damn thing again, drag everything up, and she refuses to read it, telling me she would prefer it if I told her my history. Get stuffed- I'll give you the shortened less painful version I tell when I'm really upset with people like you should I? And lastly she wanted to put me straight back on the last medication I tried (which had worked in the past) but which last time around had some pretty severe side effects starting to appear when I decided to stop it.

Not going back to her again. I'm beginning to think a trip to the city might be my only option here...

Albert... you're allowed to have a good rant if you want to. Helps get things out of your system. I've just put my two cents worth in

they are VERY good at wanting to go over the past i now say to them YOU HAVE MY FILES SO READ THEM hello its your job
i have had some psychiatrists that left you wondering who the patient IS

I definitely like the rant.....I support the rant...I endorse the rant.....in favour of the 'rant

but I have to admit there have been times when even if I knew how to rant, I simply didn't know what to rant about! I felt I had exhausted my resources and I was too messed up to look beyond the current situation.

sometimes there is a passive approach to.

isoko49 wrote:As a fellow Brit (well, Scot, but I won't split hairs!) I would say you need to speak to your mental health team and ask to be transferred to a different team if at all possible. There was a time when I didn't trust my consultant and felt that unless he got his act together, I would ask to be moved to someone who WOULD listen to me. If you ask for information on services in your area and the surrounding areas, they have to give it to you. My consultant actually printed off a whole booklet listing all the therapeutic communities in the whole of the UK. I don't know exactly where you are but if there are any within about 20 miles then they're definitely worth a look into. !

I was a lost boy....but as isoko49 encourages you above,....... I somehow located the 'mental health team' (and they usually are a team) nearest to me and made myself know to them.

I really didn't know what to do and I was basically in a state of 'catatonia' from my troubles at that stage. What I did was wander up to the clinic almost every day and just sit in the waiting room...quietly, with my eyes closed....people would come and go, I would sit there for hours and they would say that no-one could see me that day and I would reply "thats ok I just need somewhere to go". I did this many times and it did in-fact relax me as it felt safe from all the crap goin' on outside, then I would get up and leave.

After a while they realised I really needed some help and wasn't messing around and they set me up with an excellent therapist and I got some help. it got me through that tough time.

good luck Albert