Mental Health Support Society Mk X

Seven o'clock is a reasonable time to go to bed right? I mean, I used to go to sleep at 7 all the time. when I was 7. I need to not be awake anymore

It can be very stressful to get through the benefit system at the moment!! You are welcome to PM me as you go along if you hit any problems or difficulties. Hopefully not but you never know. Also a care co-ordinator may be able to refer you to their welfare advice people who can help.

If you are asked to go for an assessment with ATOS you are welcome to PM me for advice beforehand and there are also lots of advice agencies on line about this. It is all doable but you probably need some support.

Good luck,

so apparently my GP says im not fit to work (im doing that well at the whole life thing apparently ) but anyway according to the internet this means I get Income Support of like £87.80 a week cause I get DLA anyway (plus housing benefit if/when I move out), so apparently I just have to do/claim this and then that's okay, I don't know how/if that affects my doing a BTEC though? (which is what I want to do come September in IT as a way of looking at that as a career option)

so it's all a bit confusing but the good news I guess is that I don't have to find a job or get JSA which means no stress of that (which trust me with me is a good thing ) but I just have to figure out how it affects me in terms of education.

not sure if this means good morning or bad, still a bit confuzzled by it all tbh.

yeah I know there's lot's of stuff about it, disgusts me that the government are trying to stop people accessing help and support but I don't really have any other options, my mums gonna help me out so hopefully will be okay, but thank you for the offer

will they do that for IS? I thought it was just ESA?

thanks, hope you are okay?

This might not be the right place to ask this - but does anybody know any good ways to get involved in counselling for mental health issues without a social work degree/relevant qualification?

I've been doing voluntary work with a mental health charity since I was 16 (21 now) and I'd love to look into it as a possible career, but I did a history degree, so short of voluntary positions or doing another degree, I'm stuck for ways to make a career of it

Its not neccesary to have a degree to enter counselling but you have to build up to a diploma (level five) to get registered. The OU has a course and often the diploma course is also offered by local FE colleges. They are part time.

http://www.cpcab.co.uk/

http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/qualification/w09.htm

The good thing is that you can take your time working your way through the levels. You are in an ideal position if you have any access to user groups to work with.

The other option is to consider a masters conversion degree (with the fees paid for by the NHS) in something like mental health nursing. They do a fast track MSc/MA Nursing (two years) at places such as:

http://www.essex.ac.uk/coursefinder/course_details.aspx?course=MSC+B76024
http://www.healthcare.leeds.ac.uk/study/PG/nursing/MSC-NUR-M13/details.htm
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/studying-at-brookes/courses/postgraduate/2013/mental-health-nursing-preregistration/

There are many more. You can get funding for maintenance.

They often ask for a first degree in a social science discipline (though Leeds take any first degree discipline) but you can also present evidence of voluntary work in the field, such as you have.

There is also the opportunity to just train as a mental health nurse by taking a second bachelors first degree (BA/Bsc Nursing (mental health) after finishing your History degree. Again the fees are covered by the NHS and you can get a bursary coupled with student loan grants for living expenses. You can access all this even if you have used student finance for another degree.

Mental Health nursing can lead to specialising in counselling/therapies within the community. However you would, as part of your degree and for about six months afterwards, have to work in a clinical setting within a hospital and would be expected to work shifts. Great career though and fair pay with the opportunity to progress in various specialist directions as you go on.

Personally if it appeals I would go the mental health nursing route as there are lots of opportunities and jobs in this field, including switching into counselling.

is theere anyone atound to tslk to msybe> i wokeup liklast time and hes allkj vover me and i cant brreathe amdf i cant emke it sop hes not ging to stop

I'm on Skype.

Is there anything you can do to distract yourself from bad thoughts? Films, tv, games, books, music. Personally i find games are the only thing that make me focus enough to distract me.

You will be safe with your bf there, and theres us guys on here

I've been very anxious recently about things recently also, i think because i came off citalopram and have been trying sertraline. It seems that any kind of travel; by foot or public transport terrifies me, though i think its more because of the people than the travel itself.

is theere anyone atound to tslk to msybe> i wokeup liklast time and hes allkj vover me and i cant brreathe amdf i cant emke it sop hes not ging to stop

I really really don't know what to do. I want help. I can't do this alone but I'm too scared to tell anybody about it. All the time I don't know if I'm safe or not. I'll forget about it for a while and then I'll be reminded and I'm back to worrying. I don't know if I'll ever be safe. I try to just live my life and ignore it cos there's nothing I can do about it anyway but I just can't ignore it all the time. I don't know what I did to deserve this! I tried to be a nice person but it just doesn't matter. :'(

I'm scared about even saying this cos people can see it. Whatever I do, wherever I am I can't escape it!


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could play games prehaps, was gonna watch a film, but my dvd players ****, and dont wanna wake my boyfriend up just eating again

unfortunatley hes not WITH me, were on skype, id be safe if he was here though. just so lost at the moment

gahhh dont tell me that im meant to be coming of citalopram, but scared to half my dose
hopefully things will pick up soon.

you can add me on skype if you want just PM me if you want my ID

I'm guessing you're not doing any kind of therapy or taking any kind of meication atm?




Ooh oki, well as long as he's still kinda there :P I don't think things will be that bad if you just half the dose, it's hit me hard because i went straight off of it and onto sertraline, been on it 6 weeks and just had my dose upped to 100mg. I just hope it does something for me.

I feel pretty lost myself atm, having trouble keeping track of events, days, weeks. I feel out of touch with reality kind of thing...everything just seems wrong, like its not how it should be. I think it might be that that's scaring me.

And yeah add me on skype too, its always nice to know theres someone who can relate to the crap you're going through

I'm guessing you're not doing any kind of therapy or taking any kind of meication atm?