How being under the care of the Crisis team has helped my mental health

A short while ago, I had a breakdown. I had been struggling for six weeks with mania, an episode which occurred due to my diagnosis of bipolar disorder type 1.

The mania saw me do things such as spending a lot of money, being incredibly irritable, having trouble sleeping and making reckless decisions.

After six weeks of what felt like non-stop chaos inside of my head, I crashed.

After a drink with my friend, I’d returned home, and I made the decision that I didn’t want to be here anymore.

Nothing triggered that decision, and to this day I’m still not quite sure how I managed to go from a quiet night out with my friend to something so extreme – regardless, I ended up putting myself in a dangerous situation, and found myself in A&E.

I’ve never been one to be ashamed of my mental health, but that night I felt uncomfortable, sitting in the waiting room looking physically fine.

When the A&E receptionist asked me to clarify why I was there, she wouldn’t even say the reason out loud herself – looking around to make sure other people couldn’t hear her before she asked: ‘Are you here because of the reason on this paperwork?’.

It made me feel incredibly embarrassed.

Following an hour and a half of waiting, I was taken to see a duty psychiatrist who assessed me.

After speaking with her, she told me she would be contacting the Crisis team who would be coming out to see me the following morning. This terrified me a little bit.

As far as I knew, the Crisis team was only for those who were severely unwell.

Sure, I’d had an episode, but overall I was aware of my surroundings and accepting of why I had ended up in A&E.

I was worried they were going to judge me, whether they’d think I was an attention seeker because my attempts to hurt myself didn’t work.

But it wasn’t like that at all.

As it turns out, Crisis teams are just there to give urgent help to people suffering from their mental health – almost like an emergency service for mental health issues.

They’re there to support you if you’re having a mental health ‘crisis in the community’ and to help you get better.

They’re there to make sure you get the help you need in your own home – to prevent you from going into hospital.

And most importantly, they’re there to listen to you.

Upon their first arrival to my home, they explained to me what was going to happen.

The first session would see them assess me. They asked me a tonne of questions about my home life, my work life and my relationships. They asked me about the night things took a turn for the worst and how I’d been feeling since.

They were very calm, and they didn’t make me feel uncomfortable, in fact, it was nice just to talk.

They explained to me that over the next three days, they’d be coming to my home every day to speak with me. After these three days, they would visit me twice more before discharging me.

I worried this wouldn’t be enough time – but as the sessions went on, I found myself reaching stability again.

While, as someone with bipolar disorder, I have a psychiatrist, they’re mainly just there to talk about medication and not to support you emotionally.

But as I opened up to the Crisis team and honestly felt listened to each time, I realised talking therapy is something I desperately need alongside my other support.

And the best thing about their support was that, despite the fact they were there to help improve my mental health, they didn’t force me to talk about anything.

They allowed the conversation to flow naturally and helped me on whatever query I had.

The sessions weren’t uncomfortable; I didn’t feel as though I was in an interview or they were judging me as I opened up to them.

I felt as though I was finally heard, and it felt amazing.

So amazing that when the final session came, and I was told further plans would be put into place for support, I was pretty upset.

These people had been there for me in my time of need, and I worried I’d fall back to where I started without them.

But before leaving, they ensured plans were put into place for me so that I wasn’t left alone.

They made sure I had an early appointment with my psychiatrist so that my mental health could be documented soon after discharge.

They referred me to someone I will be able to talk to when things get bad.

And amazingly, they have made it so that if I ever need to meet with them again, nothing drastic has to happen in order for me to get that support – I can simply call through to their number and explain that I need some help.

After years of battling with my mental health, this is the first time I’ve ever let things get as bad as they did.

And when it all happened, I was sure the only thing I would be facing was judgement and shame.

Source -METRO