Comments on Qld Mental Health System cont....
Management of Symptoms
The symptoms of mental illness can be terrifying - from the aural and visual hallucinations of schizophrenia, to the suicidal impulses of major depression, to the disorientation and amnesia of dissociation. Patients generally seek help when these symptoms become overwhelming, in the hope that experts will be able to help them to regain control of their lives.
In my experience, very little help has been forthcoming. While I cannot question the validity of most theraputic techniques used, I have often wished that my therapist would take a little more interest in my present struggles.
As an example: how do I explain my illness to my family and friends? People are scared of me; they don’t know why I’m so depressed. They want to help, but they’re worried I might freak out if they come too close. What should I tell them to allay their fears? Are there books they can read that will help them to understand? What can I reasonably expect of them in terms of support, and how can I avoid distressing them? Are there support groups that they, or I, could attend?
These questions are not too difficult to answer. In fact, if the illness was adequately explained to the patient, it may not be necessary to ask them. Yet they have been left unanswered by every doctor I have seen.
Another example is that of controlling the distressing symptom of self injury. I have been assured by more than one doctor that as my condition improves, this symptom will alleviate - I will no longer feel the need to self harm. Yet, in the meantime, the scars on my arms and legs are accumulating at a frightening rate.
I accept that one day I may not feel the need to hurt myself. What I want to know is how I can not self harm when I do feel the need. My fear is that I will never reach that far off day, when every old memory and old pain I uncover in therapy provokes some part of me to turn on myself in physical attack.
Patients in the mental health system have already survived the past. They have been wounded and weakened by it, but one way or another they have survived. However, they now have to wrestle not only with tending their unhealed wounds, but also with surviving the present, and seeking some glimmer of hope in the future. Mental health professionals do very well at tending the wounds, but they fall short too regularly in helping patients manage the symptoms and challenges of living from day to day.
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