Since I got a dog, things have been much, much better. Being forced to go out and walk the dog no matter how I'm feeling has done wonders for my mental health.
They do say that pets can significantly improve mental health. Well, they can in some ways. I don't think I could own a dog personally, it's too much responsibility.
Got me a GP appointment today after screaming at 111 all day yesterday, still telephone only.
Try not screaming at us. In most cases the only thing that will happen is you'll get a red flag on your record which says "risk to self and/or others".
I realized they misdiagnose everything 'mental health' based as depression just for whatever fun of it, and I already had a past opinion of sleep apnoea which I dont have because my breathing and sleep are fine.
Sleep apnea is not something you can diagnose yourself, as far as I am aware. Really you need to have someone watch how you sleep over a period. It's not about how well you sleep, but about how you sleep. You would necessarily not know yourself: in fact, to you, everything may seem fine, whereas someone watching you may be very concerned that you're hardly breathing at all.
Mainly the issue being that all I'm ever given regarding mental health are the stupid 'mood quiz', and even if you get maximum points nothing still happens as a result.
As far as I've personally found, effective treatment is about how well, how often, and in what detail and with how much honesty you engage with your GP/therapy services. One only gets out what one puts in. I personally take my own therapy very seriously and regularly engage with my therapist in person, on the phone or in email, and draw up spreadsheets of my moods, experiences, thoughts and feelings. As a result I've had very good support.
It really does matter
who you get though, and there is a big gap between counselling, therapy and psychiatry. The first will deal with
WHAT the issue is, the second will address
HOW you deal with it, and the third will attempt to understand
WHY you respond the way you do.
The way the mental health services in the NHS work is risk-based. Really the main concern is how much of a risk the patient is to themselves or other people. That will determine the level of assistance one gets from step 1 [GP referral] to step 5 [sectioning].