OCD Action

DEAD!
Blocked

Just reading some of the messages on here and I thought I'd say this.

My psychologist is amazingly awesome, well she's even better that I've seen her just over a year and she's helped so much. I could never find any one better than her, even if I paid someone, she's been great and she listened when no one else would, that includes the police and the people on here (obviously not all the new members, since they hadn't joined then)

Then I got my appointment with the early intervention team in about a week and my nurse is ok, it could have been worse.

That's all NHS.

Nicola

Sun Dec 6 2009 12:58:44 #
Unregistered

Dear Nicola
I am so pleased you have found the right therapist. I paid for mine because she is Maudsley/Bethlem trained and is therefore au fait with the treatment which works for me. (ie exposure therapy). She is the only therapist who has ever been prepared to walk round town with me on wet drains. And as a result of her help I did this alone last week for the first time in 30 years. I am sure there are therapists like her on the NHS. But the wait would have been too long for me as I was at rock bottom before I asked for help. Also the drugs I was given worsened the problem. Before I took them I was having two bad days a week. after taking them for five days I was having problems 24 hours a day every day and was scared to get out of bed and I am not a quitter. I think it is simply a case that the NHS is over-strained and under-resourced and hence simply unable to provide the right care for everyone with OCD which affects people in different ways and to different degrees.

When I started my therapy four weeks ago I was absolutely desperate for help and
several people on this forum helped me to keep afloat. They listened, gave me good advice and the friendship I so desperately needed. When I was at rock bottom 13 years ago this site did not exist so, as my doctor would not believe that I was ill (he thought OCD was a personality disorder), I had to resort to the Samaritans. They are truly wonderful people but they were in no way as good as the members on this site.

Best wished with your for your treatment
Love
Glad

Sun Dec 6 2009 16:35:22 #
DEAD!
Blocked

Well I'm glad you have a good therapist

I just wanted others to know that although my psychologist is with the NHS - it doesn't make her any less amazing.
She's an expert at CBT and she has a high success rate.

There's a pretty long waiting list for where my psychologist works, but I didn't have to wait so long and she accepted that I didn't want to take meds.

Then when there were other things going on, well there still is, she's helping with that as well, it wasn't like she didn't care, because it wasn't OCD.

Nicola

Mon Dec 7 2009 12:01:48 #
Unregistered

Dear Nicola, There were those of us who listened, before the new members joined.

I’m worried that you might think I’m ignoring you, because you haven’t replied to my last two e-mails. If you didn’t receive them let me know.

You are right about the NHS. The Maudsley and Bethlem are NHS only and some of the best psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists work there. I do realize, though , that some people will have been treated badly, appallingly even, by NHS staff. I have had two bad experiences. One NHS psychiatrist apparently appeared to ‘boast’ at a medics’ party, that in his forty years of practice he hadn’t helped a single patient. I was one of his patients, and I have to say I was not surprised by that, just by the fact he wanted to broadcast it (he had been drinking, apparently).

How have you been doing?

Love, Tricia x

Mon Dec 7 2009 14:57:44 #
DEAD!
Blocked

I didn't get emails from you.
I have from others though, so it can't be my email, but maybe try my yahoo address.

Well they didn't exactly listen, people tried to tell me it was OCD, when it wasn't. I knew it wasn't and my psychologist knew that as well.

Yeah, well that does suck, but my psychologist isn't like that. I would say she's probably the best, I think she should write a book about OCD, would be the best 1 so far.

I'm not sure how I'm doing, I desperately need to talk to someone, then I'm sure I'll be fine.
Although I am kind of excited for when I get to tell the world what I know.

Nicola

Mon Dec 7 2009 15:37:06 #
Wombat140
Member

That's the thing with NHS psychologists, I suppose. It's just pot-luck, you get referred to whoever's got space on their waiting list. Some of them, like Nicola's, are really good, and expert on OCD. Some are expert on something else that isn't helpful, and don't know so much about OCD. A few (like the one Tricia mentioned) do seem to have talked their way into an NHS job without being much good at anything!

Nicola, it's good to hear from you again, although obviously not to hear that you're still worried. If you want to drop me a PM some time, you're welcome. I think the PM system's working, isn't it? Glad to hear that you're still getting so much help from your psychologist.

All the best,
Wombat140

Mon Dec 7 2009 20:32:07 #
ash007
Member

Thankfully, the govt, have invested, into training new cbt therapists, and
the "training" will, and does take over 3 years.

In a year or so, we should be seeing more newer, up to date cbt therapists,
who are specifically trained in dealing with ocd.

ash

Tue Dec 8 2009 18:41:47 #
Wombat140
Member

I heard that the first few have just qualified, so that might take a bit of the pressure off. I did also hear, though, that the scheme is behind schedule overall. So we'll have to wait a bit longer than we expected for all of them to start.
Hope it does the trick when it finally is finished, anyway.
Wombat140

Thu Dec 10 2009 18:14:12 #