Ruby on why ‘we are in the dark ages when it comes to mental illness’

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after 30 years (on and off) of trying to find the right counselling to address the effects of a childhood trauma, going through the nhs and being given happy pills, hospitalised, cbt, art therapy (all of which did no good whatsoever cos the reason i was there was not addressed, i was finally fortunate enough to be referred (through a tenancy support agency of all things) to counselling which only lasted 8 weeks. i was worried that wouldn't be enough, but i have come out of it feeling at peace with myself at last. so all i can say is if you get the right counselling first time you are indeed blessed, if not then keep looking, don't give up

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I totally agree with you Ruby, nicely put. The mental health is so archaic, but the genral public seem to think that with the advent of Proxac all is well . They don't know that electric shock therapy is still used. people don't believe me when i tell them that i had to fight against it, and i won that fight only to be put into a medically induced coma...people don't really believe that either.As for a shrink falling asleep, on you, that sure had to make you feel worthy..not! I had to wait over a year to get CBT even when my history shows that i'm a risk to myself...i wasn't urgent, ie even though i felt like killing myself every darn day, i wasn't acting on it.. We need more money spent on mental helath, but i am not sure where that money will come from. At least with black dog tribe people know that we are not alone. so Thank you guys.

I don't feel this is a taboo. I don't feel ashamed. I just want a few real people who care enough to give a shit. I have now got an appointment to see someone through my GP. Its taken 2 months. My appointment is for a phone call!!! I'm waiting months just to talk to someone on the phone. It just adds to how shit it all is. No one listens.

In my area we are allowed six 40 minute sessions with a therapist. After those sessions we are expected to be cured. You cannot be referred within the next six months of being discharged.

My message is going to be short and sweet as I'm new to this... Thank you Ruby for making this topic less of a taboo subject. All my life I have always felt different, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Five years ago it all came to a head and I honestly thought it was the end. After a year off work and many, many dark days, weeks, months I eventually came through the other side. Of course I still have bad days: some worse than others, but I cope because I believe it's worth it. I have a good job, comfortable home, an amazing civil partner, so why I ask myself do I still feel like this. Depression is a dirty word for most people and even for me as its seen as a sign of weakness. It's a case of a stiff upper lip and just get on with it, but life as we all know isn't that easy... A big thank you to Ruby and everyone else for their contabution with Blackdogtribe.com

Dear Ruby, Thank you for your blog post. I couldn’t agree more. As you know, Mental Health Research UK is the FIRST charity in the UK wholly dedicated to funding research into the causes of mental illness in order to develop better treatments with fewer side-effects. We set this up in 2008 because we were appalled to discover there was no mental illness equivalent to Cancer Research UK or the British Heart Foundation. Yet 1 in 4 people are affected! We contacted all the key researchers in this field who struggle year on year to have their funding continued, and we had a meeting at the Wellcome Trust and they begged us to set up the charity. We have already given out two research scholarships, with another currently being advertised. Here are a few stark figures taken from our website at www.mentalhealthresearchuk.org.uk: The burden of mental illness is widely underestimated. In the UK: • of the 280 million consultations with a general practitioner each year, 30% are related to mental ill- health • 3 in 10 people have sick-leave from work related to their mental health in any one year • 91 million working days are lost due to mental ill-health • 1 million people are on long term sick-leave due to mental illness, and of those on sick-leave for more than 1 year, less than 5% return to work • the cost to the economy of mental ill-health is of the order of £77bn per annum Comparisons with other major groups of diseases have been carried out in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Mental illness has the second highest ranking in terms of global burden of disease; infections ranks first (31% of DALYs) and mental ill-health second (13%). Notably, in Europe mental ill-health accounts for 25% of DALYs and ranks first. In 2002, 4.5% of the health budget went to mental illness research; 18% went to cancer research. Although the government has increased its spend in relation to mental illness, it still lags well behind research in relation to physical health. The impetus for me was as a mental health barrister who simply couldn’t help the majority of my clients because they were treatment-resistant. Or ‘current’ treatment-resistant. The ‘new’ anti-psychotic medication is now 20 years old…what physical illness sees such stagnation in drug creation? The pharmaceutical companies also don’t want to tailor-make treatments or identify which patients might not respond to their drugs – they want as many people as possible to try them. In terms of psychological treatment, the government has recognised the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy, yet isn’t training enough practitioners, there are long waiting-lists, and there is an arbitrary cut-off limit for the end of treatment. The mis-match of funding needs to be drawn to the attention of the public and there needs to be a sea-change. To be effective, it can’t just be the mentally ill who try to put pressure on the government to increase funding – it must be the general public. The Time to Change and Black Dog Tribe anti-stigma campaigns are excellent in helping to do that. The only way better treatments will be created is if we spend a lot of money on research. Yes, the brain is horrendously complex – but we can do face-transplants and so many other marvellous seemingly impossible things in medicine – all it takes is time and money. But what a different world it would lead to! Best wishes, Laura Davidson Co-founding Trustee, MHRUK

Hey Tomj ! The Cardinal Clinic is certainly a find, and the people who have insurance and are able to recover from their first (sometimes then only) episode there are so so lucky. Of course it is a postcode lottery, because the incredible doctor I pay huge amounts of money to see there also runs an nhs unit for people who live in the right place. I live somewhere where psychiatry has been stuck in the dark ages...so we used up our savings, dug into our mortgage etc...and return eventually to local services with a very heavy heart...