Crucial Guide

 When I first set up this blog I tried to write lots of general posts about entering the mental health system and what life is like it since then, recently I haven’t been writing so many of them as it takes so much time to do all the research so I thought I would make an anthology of it all. At the time they generated much interest and many a Google search has led readers to them so I thought I would bring my key pieces together to create ”Coloured Mind’s Crucial Guide To Being Mental”. 

If you want to become mental and have read the Daily Mail who have linked Emo’s to Self Harm to Mental Illness to Suicide I am not much help. I have tried to understand the debate in “The Sinister Cult of Emo” and “Blame It On The Emo-Goth Take Two” but still am pretty clueless so you may want to leave this site as I will not tell you how to become mental as its not fun. If you are slightly mental, or merely just a bit fucked you may be experiencing a few sleeping problems, you know when you realise that you have only spent four out of the last seventy two hours out of bed or you might be at the other end of the spectrum and be unable to sleep. I have offered many unhelpful and a few helpful hints about how to help your sleep patterns in “Sleep; Ways To Avoid Or Get More Of It”. Once you realise you are mental enough to think you might need help, many people make the decision (or are forced by caring friends or worried GPs) to enter the system. Full of its dysfunctional systems people generally want to help you but you have to be patient as waiting lists are long, or you need to kick off such a fuss or do something so risky that you are moved forwards in the list. To read about the CAMHS referral system go to “In The Limelight- Referrals”. While you are waiting patiently you may want to try and dispel any worry that people may have about you, to do this you need to create a fake life full of rabbits and rainbows or you could read “Tears Dry On Their Own”. Or you could continue in your ways and be truthful and clasp at straws for help, but you might want to read what it is like for those who care about you in “The Small One Speaks”.

By the time things are looking up or you are so ill that you see no way of ever getting better you will probably get to the top of the waiting list and will be into the grasps of CAMHS/CMHT this may help you or it may make you very annoyed and force you to become non-compliant, when you get there “CAMHS, All Things To All People” tells you what it is like. So I imagine you will have a psychiatric review and/or a few sessions of talking therapy but this varies depending on your age and postcode if your young you will probably get family therapy or CBT like talking sessions, if your an adult your more likely to get pills. Some people will get as far as trying to fill their prescriptions if they are yet to become disillusioned with the system so they may wish to read “Trials Of Collecting A Prescription”. Once you are starting to get used to the pills you may notice your trousers being a bit tight, a quick trip to the scales will confirm your suspicions that medication has increased you appetite and that you are now heavier than you used to be, chubby, fat or obese depending on how long it took you to realise that you have put on weight, “Apple Or Pear Shape?” talks about how to deal with the weight and eventually loose it. At some point along this journey I am pretty sure that you will have entertained suicidal thoughts and all the joy that goes along with that, many people are very rude about suicide this is usually because they are not very well informed or don’t know what to say, “Suicide And Such” wonders around the topic and  peoples views on it. While your mood has dropped you food intake may have plummeted with it. This could be useful if you have allowed yourself to put on a lot of weight or could make you ill, easy depression food is Jelly and how to make it is covered in “Cheats Guide To Jelly”. If you are brave enough to tell someone about the suicidal thoughts and dip in mood you may want some out of hours help, “In The Limelight- Out Of Hours Support” covers how little help there is for those who are young. If you are lucky, or unlucky enough to receive the support of a crisis team or home treatment team do not expect much as they generally come ask how you are and watch you take some pills, if you are lucky they may stay for a cup of tea. Expect to meet lots of different people as they generally don’t believe in continuity of care.

Eventually if you are young you will have experienced all that CAMHS has to offer and reach the old age that is eighteen you will be moved to CMHT in some areas that happens at sixteen and in others whenever you finish school, “Circus Tricks” mentions how it is meant to work while “Moaning Myrtle” will give you the truth. Hopefully some seconds/ minutes/ days/ months/ years later you will then be discharged and again be mentally healthy.