"Awful"

I went to my GP for anxiety and depression and was pleasantly surprised when she said she could refer me for a talking therapy. The initial telephone interview with Health in Mind was nice and relaxed and I had high hopes. But afterwards I was offered only group sessions (which I did not want) and a computer-aided service (which I chose, though I would have much preferred sessions with a human). The problem is that I had to complete a long series of questions on suicidal ideation every single time I spoke to anyone or engaged with the computer system. So, even before starting the first computer-assisted session I had been asked the same questions about suicide 3 times, and I had to answer them again at the start of the initial session.

I had been having some suicidal thoughts before starting treatment, but they were pretty much under control. But being asked CONSTANTLY how often I was thinking of killing myself, how likely I was to actually do it, what was stopping me from doing it, etc etc etc, was absolutely horrible and made me think about suicide a lot more. This approach might work for some people but it was extremely distressing and counterproductive for me.