Ask Anything Monday!

[Happy_Valley]

Although its not directly addressing or solving your issue with management, I had an amazing volunteer experience in a role that I knew would be super easy and enjoyable and wouldnt create too much anxiety, where I didnt feel the need to mention a single word to supervisors about my mental health issues. (This was after 4 or 5 disasterous attempts at other volunteer roles where I had either disclosed too much information, or not enough...)

At this particular event I was able to completely forget about my anxiety and mental health issues for a few hours per day for the 6 or so shifts I worked over a two week period, and remember what it was like to feel comfortable and capable at work. Because it was a one off event, many of the wide range of different types 100+ volunteers were most likely as nervous as each other. 

I gained HEAPS of confidence from this experience, and even felt positive enough afterwards to start believing in the chance of returning to paid work one day.

However I am also still concerned for the future about the issue you have mentioned, and hoping that when the time comes an understanding employer will come along, OR instead considering the fact that perhaps i can no longer (or for the time being) work in the high pressure jobs i once thrived on, and that a switch to something slower, something with less pressure, something more free and creative, and perhaps even something working as my own boss - is actually a change for the better anyway.

I hope this helps a little. Best wishes.

[NikNik]

Happy Monday everyone!

A big thank you to @cg02020 @PeppiPatty @Former-Member @Drac0 @Shaz51 and @Happy_Valley for contributing last week.

This week's question is:

My query is about SRSs, in other words, Supported Residential Services (as these types of shared accommodation are called in Victoria; I think they have other names in NSW, Queensland, and elsewhere). Do any readers of this forum have any experience of what it is like to live in such a place?

I am 54 years old, single, and I own my own apartment outright (no mortgage on it). But, because of my lifelong mental illness, I am excruciatingly lonely and am finding it extremely hard to keep on living by myself. Some SRSs are affordable by persons who (like myself) are on the Disability Support Pension. Others - and these are increasingly common - are as expensive as any nursing home; those are too costly for me even to consider.

If any readers have experiences of SRS life which they would like to share, whether these experiences are good or bad, I would be interested to learn of them. I am also researching other forms of shared accommodation (the idea would be that I would rent this apartment out to a tenant and get rid of lots of my books, CDs, etc., since it would be extremely expensive to store them).

Any feedback, whether favourable or unfavourable, about people's direct knowledge of SRSs would be much appreciated.

[BamBam]

Hi there

I would be interested to hear people's experiences about this as well. While still young, I have been relying on rental share accomodation and finding it hard to keep tenancies while in hospital from time to time. There are a lot of sharers available on Gumtree if this is an option for you.

I will be honest and say that my knowledge of SRSs is based on psychiatrist who suggested that they can be tough places for their own reasons (I think due to having different people with serious mental illness all living together). I have the option of living in my parents' house for a while yet, but can't rule out that I'll need to go down that path at some time in the future (for similar reasons to you).

[Shaz51]

Hello

I agree with @BamBam --- I would be interested to hear people's experiences about this first I would look into this more

and I own my own apartment outright (no mortgage on it). -- this is great

[Robertmelbourne]

Thanks for the above comments. It was I who posed the original "Ask Anything Monday" question, the one about SRSs which is in green type.

As mentioned earlier, I'm not in a position (financially speaking) to move anywhere at the moment. For as long as I'm mired in my current pretty excruciating poverty, I'm trapped in my home as completely as if it were a cell. (My parents are dead and I have no living relatives in Victoria.) 

But I did want to find out if anyone else had feedback about SRSs. Such a place wouldn't be my first choice to live in; I simply wanted to find out what experiences, if any, others on this forum had had of living in one. As for Gumtree-style share accommodation, I certainly wouldn't rule that out.

[Shaz51]

Hi @Robertmelbourne

how are you today

thank you for your added information , i am unable to give you advice , but I wish you all the best

my husband has MI and he would love to move because of situations turning up

[NikNik]

It's that time of the week again - Ask Anything Monday!

I hope Monday is treating you all well. I'm looking forward to hearing your advice and insights to this question:

My psychologist diagnosed me with Bipolar 2. When I read more about it, I had an 'a-ha' moment, as the factsheet about bipolar was exactly everything I had been experiencing.

The psychologist referred me to a psychiatrist to discuss medication. However, in our first appointment, the psychiatrist said she didn't think it was bipolar 2. I'm quite upset about this because I finally felt, after years of thinking I was never going to get better, I had hope.

She thinks it's something else (which I don't want to go into, because it's not the point).I respect her opinion, but I feel like I really relate to bipolar 2.

So my question is - Have you ever told a psychiatrist that you think they are wrong? How did you do it? Were they receptive?

[Former-Member]

Have you ever heard the joke- if you have 12 psychiatrists in a room, you'd get 13 different opinions?

If you have a good doctor, I would highly recommend speaking up and asking questions. And they should welcome that too. Research into the other diagnosis they mentioned too, you might find yourself relating to that too.

I think you'll find there are a lot of us who have had diagnoses change over the years as our symptoms change or as other things become apparent.

I guess what is the most important thing right now is moving in the right direction and getting better.

What were the treatment options that this doctor recommended? Did they sound helpful? Often many conditions are treated with similar therapies/medications.

Another option is to see another psychiatrist, which I would also recommend.

I've encountered my fair share of, quite frankly, arsehole doctors. If you have been so unfortunate, there are many lovely psychs out there that would welcome your questions and interest in your diagnosis.

[Robertmelbourne]

If I have learnt anything from more than two decades of the psych hospital system and more than three decades of dealing with individual psychiatrists, it is this. I have discerned the folly of placing undue trust in any specific mental health care provider.

It took me a long time to perceive this folly. And there are cultural factors too: I think Americans are much more likely to get freaked out over the departure of, or over disapproval by, "my therapist" than Australians are. 

I should add that I have never had any real maltreatment at psychiatrists' hands. Yet it's important to appreciate that psychiatrists do not have a hotline to God. They are mere humans, like the rest of us, and at least as capable of making lousy decisions, having bad hair days, doing wicked or merely stupid things, as you and I will always be.

Not all psychiatrists are in their profession for the best of reasons. Some are admirably conscientious; but some others are there because the money was good and there are fewer corpses that have to be dealt with than will occur in training for other medical specialisms. Whilst this is nobody's fault, it is a sad truth.  

Naturally I am not advocating that one be obnoxious to health care professionals. But I am advocating an end to hero-worship, which the eminent English writer G. K. Chesterton once called "devil-worship softened by a touch of monkey-worship."

[PeppiPatty]

very very clever @Robertmelbourne ! I like your wellbalanced approach, in that they are just people and truthfully......I actually felt bad for this wonderful Psychiatrist who came banging on my door last week. I knew that he came out of his way to visit me because of the bad reports of the Psychiatric Hospital but he was wonderful and put me at ease straight away.

I like what @Former-Member writes; 

What were the treatment options that this doctor recommended? Did they sound helpful? Often many conditions are treated with similar therapies/medications.

Another option is to see another psychiatrist, which I would also recommend.

I've encountered my fair share of, quite frankly, arsehole doctors. If you have been so unfortunate, there are many lovely psychs out there that would welcome your questions and interest in your diagnosis.

I agree too ..........

My suggestion is get another opinion.