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Therapist leaving

Posted , 4 users are following.

lisa95164
lisa95164

hi everyone

ive been attending therapy weekly since about September. its through an addiction service (i have had opiate addiction & im on a substitute prescription and stable on it) my therapist has been amazing i have bpd and depression and her speciality or background is in bpd so she has been helping me with that as my mood fluctuates so much even within a few hours i can go from extreme feelings of happiness to the deepest depths of despair so bad it makes me feel like i dont want to be here most days. i made an attempt on my life last year so i am really trying to engage with services and get help

the thing is, my therapist has a job somewhere else so next week is our last session then i will go back onto the waiting list with a new therapist. however it is very unlikely i will get a therapist who specializes in what my therapist has been doing which is schema therapy . its left me feeling so down . i do not cope normally with ending of relationships (professional or otherwise) with having bpd so this is causing me huge amounts of anxiety

I am not sure i will cope when she leaves. i know my mood will take a huge hit. just wondering if anyone else has had a similar scenario and how they coped

i feel like just as I begin to make progress or get the help i need it is ripped away from me. im in my late 30's and this has been going on for so long now its exausting. i have a lot of past trauma that i need help to deal with.

thanks for listening

Lisa

1 like, 6 replies

6 Replies

  • sam18386
    sam18386 lisa95164

    Posted

    Hi Lisa, i can to a certain extent understand you. I have PTSD and due to me starting a part-time job that clashed with my counselling sessions i was facing a new year with a new counsellor, which i wasn't looking forward to! I had spoken to her colleague and luckily for me i could see him, the PTSD is rape related, so this is tough! I have Dyspraxia/low level Autism so change is horrid for me too. I hope if you go back to your doctor or certainly the same service they would advise you of either where to go next or what you can do. I wish you luck. It's tough, you can pm if you want.

    • lisa95164
      lisa95164 sam18386

      Posted

      hi

      thanks for youre reply. its so hard to get the help we need isnt it? i feel like all ive done these past 15 years is fight for help. when i first went under the community mental health team in 2010, i was told i had ptsd. now they say borderline and depression.

      you are right, change is hard for us because it takes us so long to trust someone. so starting new with someone else is difficult. im back on the waiting list but have no gaurantee that my next counsellor will be right for me. i prefer to work with females due to physical abuse as well as other abuse. but again, i have no gaurantee this will happen. its all very uncertain

      lisa

    • sam18386
      sam18386 lisa95164

      Posted

      Hi Lauren, i don't know what part of the country you're in but here where i live i found my counsellor by looking online, i have a specialist PTSD counsellor. It took me so long to trust anyone i was in Jasmine House first (rape crisis) they help with assault, but sexually obviously! If you speak to a ptsd counsellor they would help you i'm sure. Mine is luckily the colleague of my old counsellor. I wish you masses of luck!

  • KyleP
    KyleP lisa95164

    Posted

    Hi Lisa,

    This seems to be the norm regarding this topic and situation. I myself have had about 4 psychiatrists in the past 2 years. Every time I feel we are making good progress, the the psychiatrist is shipped off to a new location. I think most of them are rotated on the regular and that it's not always within their control to settle in to a single location.

    I personally believe this is counter productive for us who are actually serious about getting help.

    Every time a new psychiatrist is assigned to me, they have a completely different view on what my problem may be. I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and have been medicated accordingly, but now the last 2nd last person I saw decided that I am not biploar. The latest entry to the diagnosis party has decided that I am biploar. Not sure how any of us are meant to get the assistance we need if the people keep changing.

    I wish we were assigned a psychiatrist who we could stick with over a few years at least. These things obviously take time to resolve and the current system in place is most definitely not catering for mental illness.

    I am currently on 225mg Venlafaxine, 800mg lithium carbonate and 40mg mirtazapine.

    "California Rocket fuel" with a dash of mirtazzzzzzapine. zzzzzzzzzz, because it knocks me out at night haha 😃

    Anyway, I thought i would share my 2 cents! Goodluck!

    • lisa95164
      lisa95164 KyleP

      Posted

      hi

      thankyou for your reply. I agree with you say about the system not catering for mental health. Considering that mental health patients often need a good bit of time in which to work to recover, you would think there would be more consistancy or continuity with regards to professionals. especially since a vast number of patients with mental health diagnoses dont have a lot of trust in the system that is supposed to help them. i am in the uk so help on nhs is very scarce with long waiting times.

      Its not fair they have messed you about with your diagnosises. can the professionals not agree on a set condition. how are you meant to seek help if you are not fully aware of your illness or that illness keeps changing . I do hope you get some honest answers soon. i am also on 225mg venlefaxine. one psychiatrist in 2016 added on olanzapine, but i was like a zombie was too sleepy.. which would have been fine if i didnt have my child lol

  • lucy1969
    lucy1969 lisa95164

    Posted

    Hi Lisa

    I'm sorry this is happening. I can relate to how you feel. My GP left in October. She'd been my GP for many years, helped me through treatment for breast cancer and severe depression. I saw her every week since an attempt a couple of years ago (and you know how hard it can be to even get a GP appointment in the UK sometimes!). If I was having a particularly bad week she would see me every day. I honestly don't think I'd still be here if it wasn't for her. I was heartbroken and terrified when she told me she was leaving. Now I see another doctor in the practice that she recommended to me. The first few times I went to see her, I could barely walk past my old GP's office door without crying. But I am getting used to it now although it's taken a while.

    It really doesn't seem fair that you're being put back on a waiting list. It's bad enough that your counsellor is leaving without that too. You'd think that once you are actually receiving therapy it would remain constant even if the therapist has to change. But to be honest, it doesn't surprise me. The NHS mental health services are in an appalling state. I've only recently got to the top of an 18 month waiting list for group therapy and that is only because it's a new group that my CPN has started.

    Is there anything your current therapist can do to help you get more help from the CMHT before she leaves? Do you have a CPN she could talk to?

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