Friday 28 July 2017

After CMHT Discharge

On 26th June, I was discharged from the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT). I was told I'd be sent my care plan in the post, so I'd know what to do depending on how well/ill I feel. At the time, I was having a fairly ok day and, although I felt anxious about being discharged, I accepted it and thought that maybe this was a good time for me to try coping just with self help and my support network of friends and family.

It was about 4 weeks before I eventually received my care plan, and in that time I was feeling more unwell, and really needed to be reminded of what to do. I rang the mental health team, to ask for my care plan, and also with the hope of being able to talk about how I'd been feeling. The line was bad unfortunately, and there was a lot of background noise. I had to repeat myself a lot, and couldn't face talking through how I felt in the end.

When my care plan arrived, I had a look through it and saw that there'd been some errors. On the front page was the Summary/Formulation of Need. It said:

Amy has been seen in primary care, however did not complete her therapy. There has been a history of bullying in school and emotional distress after a traumatic life decision. Amy feels that she has a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder after comparing her symptoms to others and would like an OPA with a consultant psychiatrist in order to obtain a formal diagnosis. She is currently not working due to chronic pain caused by ME and hypermobility. She has agreed to have a short piece of work in regards to self compassion and anxiety management prior to her discharge from services.

26/6/17: Discharged from CMHT to continue her recovery independently in the community

As you may know, I have been formally diagnosed with Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (also known as Borderline Personality Disorder), but this was not confirmed in the Summary/Formulation of Need. When talking about my chronic pain conditions, it's written that I have ME and hypermobility. I actually have Fibromyalgia and Joint Hypermobility Syndrome.

The next page gives information on how I will be cared for in the community. In this, it mentions my GP is to provide future care and support. It also mentions my mental health medication (Aripriprazole 10mg and Sertraline 200mg) and that I can self refer to primary care if I need more support with anxiety.

The last few pages advise on what I would notice and what I should do when feeling relatively well (this is coded as GREEN), when I'm feeling that things are building up (AMBER) and when I am at crisis point (RED).

For GREEN, I would notice that I'm feeling more loved, less anxious, more motivated and impulsive etc. While I feel like this, I should continue with distraction techniques, self refer to Primary care if I feel able to tackle anxiety issues, and remind myself of positive comments I've received.

For AMBER, I would notice that I'm feeling low, that there's no point to anything, I'm being more argumentative, panicking, and having urges to self harm. While I feel like this, I should contact CMHT or out of hours and try to use coping strategies.

For RED, I would notice that I am having suicidal thoughts, dissociating a lot, becoming paranoid and isolating myself. While I feel like this I should contact CMHT and I may be reallocated to CPN and/or have an emergency OPA or medication review.

Although this care plan sounds pretty comprehensive, I've been finding it hard to concentrate on it and follow the advice. I've been feeling that I am between the Amber and Red stages, so should really contact CMHT but I'm put off by my experience when calling to ask for my care plan. I'm wondering about whether there's any point to asking for help from them. My mental health conditions are ongoing and what I need is ongoing care from mental health services. I remember my CPN saying that, due to funding cuts, they were only able to offer short term help. Should I call anyway? Will I be able to talk to someone or will there be lots of background noise again? I may need to talk about some difficult/private things and I worry others will hear me.

What I really want/need is ongoing contact with a CPN (preferably the one I was with before). It takes me a while to really open up and let go. I can sound positive if I don't know the person I'm talking to. I find it hard to really say how bad things are, so I may seem ok. Unfortunately, it looks as if I wouldn't be able to get a CPN on more than a short term basis.

I've been trying to use my support network as well; most of them being online. Thanks to social media algorithms, however, the status' etc that I post aren't always seen. I had a time very recently when I was feeling particularly low/paranoid/panicky and posted a status basically asking for friends to check in on me and notice when I'm spiralling. The first time I posted it, no one commented. I posted it again, and one person commented. Although I was of course grateful for one person noticing, I felt upset and angry that no one else had. I felt that surely out of 80ish friends, more would notice. I thought I was being ignored, or that I'd been muted/unfollowed by people I thought cared about me. I felt so awful and I guess I was getting to the RED stage of my care plan. I was too engulfed in my own horrible thoughts/feelings though, so could not motivate myself to read it and follow it.

The next day, I decided to take a break to see if anyone would notice I wasn't online. That only lasted a couple of days because I was so desperate to talk to friends, so no one noticed.

A few days after, I posted another status and was surprised to get a fair amount of comments of support. It definitely made me feel a bit better, although I knew that I still wasn't feeling well. Since then, I've had times where I'm numb, times when I'm emotional, and times where I have self harmed and felt suicidal. These feelings have been changing so rapidly though, I haven't been sure of what I should do. What if I feel really ill and decide to ring CMHT, but then I sound ok when I get through to them? What if they decide I should just rely on myself and then I'm left feeling awful again? Having rapidly changing moods is so hard when it comes to accessing help. Just because I may seem ok at one point (and may be feeling ok/numb as well) doesn't mean I'll feel like that for the rest of the day even!

The self compassion work did help me a bit, and I started to feel less paranoid if a friend didn't reply to me. I could consider that maybe they were just busy or not feeling well enough to talk. A support worker helped me with self compassion. Having that support from her did help me feel a bit better, but now it's not there, I've been feeling awful, alone, and paranoid about friends again.

The distraction techniques help as long as I'm not too unwell. I find it hard to catch myself before I get too ill though. My motivation to use the distraction techniques tends to be quite low as well.

I feel useless when it comes to looking after myself!

Tuesday 4 July 2017

What Dissociation Feels Like to Me

This is something I vlogged about a couple of days ago (see below). I've been wondering what to blog/vlog about recently, and a friend suggested I write/speak about Dissociation and how I would describe my experience of it.


According to the Merriam-Webster website, dissociation is "the separation of whole segments of the personality (as in multiple personality disorder) or of discrete mental processes (as in the schizophrenias (sic)) from the mainstream of consciousness or of behaviour"¹

You do not have to have schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder to experience dissociation, as it is "one way the mind copes with too much stress, such as during a traumatic event"². Anyone can have short experiences of dissociation, but it is when it becomes long term that a dissociative disorder may be considered. 

The kinds of things you can experience when you dissociate may include:

  • " having gaps in your life where you can't remember anything that happened
  • feeling as though the world around you is unreal
  • feeling as though you are watching yourself in a film or looking at yourself from the outside
  • feeling as if you are just observing your emotions
  • your identity shifting and changing" ³
There are many other things you can experience, as part of dissociation, so no two people will experience this in exactly the same way. As shown on the Mind website, there are clinical terms for each type of dissociative symptom (for example, derealisation) also. 


For me, dissociation is a symptom of the disorder I have; Borderline Personality Disorder . The kinds of things I experience include feeling as if I'm not real, or the world around me isn't real. I can also feel as if I'm watching myself speaking or moving, and I do not feel completely in control. I may feel disconnected from my emotions, or I may start panicking (usually because of not feeling in control). Sometimes, I will look in the mirror and not recognise the person looking back at me. 

I dissociate quite often, and it can be very hard to "ground" myself. Grounding  is "a technique that helps keep someone in the present. They help reorient a person to the here-and-now and in reality". There are various techniques for grounding yourself, and they usually involve focusing on stimulating your five senses. One particular example  asks you to try the following: 

"Look around you. Identify and name:

5 things you see
4 things you feel
3 things you hear
2 things you smell
1 thing you taste "

Of course different techniques will work for different people.Have you found any techniques particularly helpful, if you experience dissociation? Please comment below. 


Resources





⁶ https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/38632509284472245/