"Mental health care"

This is my story. I am an immigrant and sadly not quite by choice. The situation in my country is a disaster so I have to leave...

In the middle of the first lockdown I started feel very anxious, crying a lot and with intrusive thoughts, my life haven't been easy, but who have had an easy one? so in that moment I decide to ask for help and did that first step. I self referred with the Mental health team, they assessed my situation and gave me a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress disease. and then gave me my plan to treat this.

Because by that time the system was a bit overwhelmed (middle of a pandemic lots of people needing help), they offered me a choice to start with a group therapy and then I will be having my one to one sessions. So I did so! this first approach was amazing, they gave us tools to manage all our symptoms in a way that changed my way of thinking forever... and the fact of sharing with people who have similar problems always make you feel that you are not alone! 

so the group therapy end but I had a big deal of knowledge on how to deal with my problem. 

And then I had my first session of  CBT ( Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) with my dearest therapist Harpreet (she told me I can share her name). She was incredible good, patient and kind. At the begging she explained to me the purpose of this therapy and how we will breakdown all of my problems.

I  was having nightmares, very frequently and easy to being scared if something reminds me the situation in my past, the way to relate the current pandemic and my past situations create enormous anxiety that put me in situations of isolation and affected my day to day routine.  My situation was really complex because apparently people developed PTSD after one traumatic event... but I had many of these... hence it was really hard to pick the worst ones and attack them... But Harpreet had the patience to listen all my story and help me identify them...

(oh I have to say that all of these happened online... At first I was unsure whether I would like online therapy as I worried it might feel impersonal or I’d feel distanced from my therapist because it wasn’t face-to-face. But in the end, I didn’t struggle to connect with or trust my therapist; she made me feel just as comfortable and safe as if I was sat in her office. Being able to attend my appointments remotely also made being in therapy feel a lot less daunting and scary, particularly when I was feeling low and had little energy)

We set a system of weekly therapy, questionaries to track my evolution and she also send me more resources between our appointments when the sessions were difficult. Because yes some of them were difficult but always at the end I felt so much better and with energy to keep fighting against that trauma. 

At the end we did lots of sessions, I can't remember exactly how many, thanks to my therapist CBT practices has helped me develop some new coping techniques, and I feel better prepared to cope with shifts in my mental health. It has also helped me identify and understand the patterns of thought that some of the issues I’m dealing with stem from, which gives me a good starting spot to work from in further breakdowns (hopefully won't need it) 

Overall, I found CBT therapy very helpful.  Also, particularly with lockdown and all the anxiety that has come with the COVID-19 pandemic, being able to use online therapy services is amazing; even as things are starting to slowly open back up, being able to access these services from home cuts out the need for any travel or exposure, which is invaluable if you are considered high-risk for coronavirus or have high anxiety over the virus.

Dear Harpreet and Mental health team thank you really much for all your help.