Mental as anything

According to the BBC website, there were nearly 400,000 mental health referrals in England during June 2021 – 25% more than in June 2019 – according to NHS England figures. Blimey, I thought. That’s a lot of referrals in just one month and of course it is, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Far from it.

I’m not sure if I contacted my local health centre about my mental health in June 2021, although I have contacted the surgery on numerous occasions this year. I wasn’t referred to anyone or anything, just told of the options which were available to me. These were:

1. Change my meds
2. Er…
3. That’s it

Option one came with a proviso. If I changed my meds, I would first need to ween myself off my existing medication before starting something else. My GPs – I’ll explain the use of the plural in a moment – said that they felt my current meds were probably working, even if it didn’t feel much like it, and there was no guarantee any new ones would work at all. The choice was all mine: Hobson’s choice. In short, as I have not yet died as a result of depression, it would be a bit of a gamble to change horses mid stream or any other stupid comparison you could make. Stick with what you know.

Therapy? A reference to a specialist, a ‘Mr’ at a local hospital, perhaps? Some kind of rehab? “Good grief, what are you thinking about? These things only exist for the monied class. Now pull yourself together, stop feeling sorry for yourself, you’ve a lot better off than some people,” the health centre didn’t say, but they might as well have.

I can’t even get an appointment at my local surgery and I have to make do with the GP who is allocated to me, someone I have almost certainly never met. An email saying something along the lines of “so how can I help you?” doesn’t help much at all when you have to explain over 50 years of being mental. All the GPs who have replied, bless them, have tried to be more than helpful and recently I was given a list of online resources (websites) to check out. But looking at the pages of a website doesn’t cut it for me. If anything, I start finding more things that could be wrong with me. Then, I got back to the surgery and I message another doctor who knows sod all about me. “How can I help you?”

On the basis of my dealings with the NHS this year, no one has actually made a referral on my behalf to anyone because after the local surgery lies nothing. Basic counselling or even methods like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) don’t even scratch the surface. No health service worth its being would regard physical health in such low esteem, but mental health, well that’s different.

400,000 actual referrals, God knows how many non-referrals and people who have come to the conclusion it’s really not worth bothering to do anything. Things are not bad, they’re worse than bad.

If you are struggling with your head, see a professional and see her/him straight away. They may be able to prevent death. But preventing and curing mental illness? That’s a bit more tricky.