PTSD and depression how are you treated

Hey I suffer with the same depression and have currentry just changed my tablets to venlafaxine they don't make me tired just very sick xxx

My diagnosis is also PTSD & Depression, I have two friends each with PTSD diagnosis.

One I have missed by yards and hours in the past. It is amazing our paths haven't crossed before, we were both involved in a lot of the same **** for many years at the same time. He much more than I. The other is a younger man who has a diagnosis of Complex PTSD.

My PTSD I would partly describe as a breakdown of the mental walls, which I used to screen off the memories. The advice from the local consultant psychologist is to build mental walls to keep those experiences behind. I kid you not. He is advising me to do the very thing that is failing me!

Meanwhile he is telling the older of my friends (Lets call him Peter, not his real name, but there are good reasons for not giving it) that he can not have more than one incident contribute to cause his PTSD. After his sessions with the psychologist, he is so wound up he comes to me to calm down in a safe place. Some months ago Peter showed me the new Army guide to PTSD. If it wasn't so serious I would be laughing. They seem to think that you can fix a mind like you could an engine. Never have I seen a less human approach to mental health.

My younger friend became so frustrated by the lack of help from the psychologist that he asked, in fact demanded, a second opinion. With only one psychologist covering the area this means he has a 120 mile round trip to see a psychologist. This was how he arrived with a diagnosis of Complex PTSD. That is a series of PTSD causing events from which he was unable to escape.

With so little effective help we concentrate of peer support amongst ourselves. It is about the best we can do.

If nothing else we can assure you that you are not alone in getting little help.

Cheers,

A.

Hi Jessie R (and Crakaig),

I'm sorry you have people around you who are not very supportive. Who is telling you that it is in your head? Doctors or non-medical people? That's what 'Mental Health' means by the way - it is not a broken leg, it is in your head! It's shocking how that psychologist treated you and your friends Crakaig, it's so bad when health professionals are useless or make things worse! I'm glad you have peer support to help.

There's a terrible level of ignorance, misunderstanding and stigma in society that lead to dismissive and hurtful attitudes towards MH. I know how hard it can be when others cannot understand or accept who you are or what you are feeling. Hopefully connecting with others who suffer from it as well can help you, that's why I'm on here too! Jessie R, if it's a friend, maybe you could send them information from some of the websites/organisations about MH? Maybe they just need to understand a better way to support you?

Some in my family also suffer with MH issues, but their coping mechanism is denial and they feel shame and fear about the trauma and because of the stigma. This means that they cannot accept my illness at all, because it is triggering for them and freaks them out. I'm carefully limiting my interactions with them until I am in a stronger place. 

Oh, I have complex PTSD, depression, and have thoughts of SH and S when I have a setback/bad phase. I tried medication a couple of times but it didn't help so I stopped. Also tried various therapists over the years, which either didn't help or made it worse. 

Have you tried therapy at all? Thankfully I've been seeing an awesome therapist for a year now (I had some money saved so it was private. Run out of money now though so I'm not sure how long I can continue with her.) The techniques that are helping are a creative re-working of EMDR, and CATT (http://lunachildren.org.uk/about-us/   - They use the second one for adults too!). But it took a year of building up the relationship, figuring out exactly what was going on (I'm constantly dissociating, the triggers etc) and 'resourcing' me to get to the point where I could do it. Reading up on the conditions really helped me too, e.g. Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Levine, was SO reassuring and gave me a lot of hope.

I recently joined Elefriends, do you know it? It's a supportive social forum for people with MH issues. And just now found carenity (yay!), so I'm going to continue looking for support and services that help :)

Jessie R, I hope this message wasn't too long, that you're doing ok today, and that you'll find more supportive folk soon. Drop me a line if you'd like to stay in touch or need a chat sometime.

Hugs! 

I suffer from PTSD as well and have been told in the past to just get over it and it's all in my head by family.

I've found getting help is a joke with the NHS so I tried PSTD help sights and got a message from someone that they have PTSD and didn't want to hear about what I had to say as it was upsetting them.