Surrender

[H011yHawkJ311yBean]

phoebe22, you make me sad and yet you make me laugh at the same time...

So you say you don't really feel your psychiatrist does actual therapy, just gets you to try different meds and that sort of thing.... ? So is there something stopping you from either group therapy, or meeting with a psychologist and trying out an acronym? Like CBT, IBI, ACT, EBS, etc.... As they say (whoever they are), meds alone isn't as good a success rate with problems, but some kind of re-learning or therapy accompanied with the meds usually does help.

Any way that you can upgrade and get everything you need, instead of only half?

 

[phoebe22]

phoebe22, you make me sad and yet you make me laugh at the same time...

So you say you don't really feel your psychiatrist does actual therapy, just gets you to try different meds and that sort of thing.... ? So is there something stopping you from either group therapy, or meeting with a psychologist and trying out an acronym? Like CBT, IBI, ACT, EBS, etc.... As they say (whoever they are), meds alone isn't as good a success rate with problems, but some kind of re-learning or therapy accompanied with the meds usually does help.

Any way that you can upgrade and get everything you need, instead of only half?

I seem to have that effect on people ... til they get tired of hearing me sing the same d***d song over and over :redface:

Re the psych ... his job is bare-bones basic: He flies in every 2-3 months, spends the day assessing new "consumers" and reviewing older cases if he has time left over or if there's been a significant change. Any therapy has to come from a private psych or, if within their training framework, the clinicians. Usually patients have already been dx'd - e.g. while on ward; sometimes he will re-dx or add his own, and if medications aren't doing as well as they could will recommend (to the person's GP) alternatives. That's about all he does/can do. Even in the larger centre, the psychs don't do much else, though one can see them more often for updated assessment or discussion regarding meds. There simply are no therapists within at least 800km that don't charge at least $150/hour. The gov't of BC isn't really interested in wasting money on "loonies" who are "nothing but a drag on the economy" ... ergo: no affordable therapists for those who most need one.

I'd have to look up some of those acronyms ... some look familiar, but I'm not recalling specifics, except with CBT, which I'd unknowingly started practicing as a young child and still do. When I tell the people this, they either don't believe me or shrug and say in that case, there's nothing they can do for me, end of.

To be fair, there's a lot of people with a lot of problems in this area (many of them so severe they'd been in psyc hospital til that got shut down). Ironically, I used to work for Mental Health, and I saw just how overloaded the system was (and still is), and staff are spread thin. It was a shock to get punted, but now that I've had time to think about it, I do understand why they're thinning the herd and cutting back on services with many non-"critical" people. But instead of just putting me - and many others like me - in a holding pattern, they've decided to get rid of us entirely. I've talked with several people about this who say they think it's a bit extreme, but the person who makes the decisions has made up her mind and that's the end of that. She' a brick wall, new to the area with no idea of what's NOT available and NOT possible, and you can't confuse her with facts. Over the years, especially during my time with Mental Health, I got good at hearing what people weren't saying, and I get the impression from a lot of the staff that they're VERY not happy with this new person, but of course there's nothing they can do any more than there's anything I can do.

And when you're stuck in a corner like this, with few if any alternatives, life gets "interesting". I recently told someone I didn't think I'd do very well as a "bag lady", and the response was "well let's hope it doesn't come to that". Indeed, let's hope! but it's terrifying to think that everyone knows it happens, even in this small town which long ago used always to take care of its own.

Some days I really think I've outlived my years. This isn't my world, this isn't the town I grew up in ... it's hard and cold and, perhaps worst of all, indifferent.

:missing:

 

[H011yHawkJ311yBean]

Can you get out?

 

[phoebe22]

Can you get out?

Short answer: no :grey:

Longer answer - I'm better off staying where I know what I'm dealing with than gambling on a move which might or might not be permitted by the Ministry (DB).

One very faint possibility would be a move to a nearby town (IF - and only if - there's absolutely no roof to be found locally should I lose this one), but even that is fraught with difficulties. As bad as things are here, they could be very much worse elsewhere.