Being on a waiting list for treatment for your mental health doesn’t mean that your other problems stop. Mental health difficulty is something that happens in your life not only when you’re using services. What happens when people reach out for advice and support? Often, there’s no one there to answer.
Mental health difficulty is something that often deeply affects the lives of those that experience it. It often isn’t easily compartmentalised or contained. There is a symbiotic relationship between circumstances in your life worsening and the level of difficulty your mental health poses in finding solutions to those difficulties increasing. If we are unlucky enough to be living with the kind of mental health difficulty that does not just go away, the challenges that result from living for years with this reality will spread across many domains of our lives. Treatment may be part of solving these challenges, but what about other more direct problems?
We all like to think we know where to turn in a crisis, but the reality is that we count ourselves lucky to never reach those crises and have our security challenged. I spoke to a number of people who live with the longer-term impacts of mental health difficulty, asking whether they feel there is anyone they could turn to for advice and support. The answer was mostly a resounding ‘no’. Jenny lives in London and experiences mental health difficulties and another chronic health condition. “I really don't feel like I have anyone I can ask for help with stuff at the moment, practical issues or otherwise,” she told me, “especially because if it is a practical issue totally unrelated to your mental health, mental health stuff complicates it. People don't appreciate how hard it is to be hunting around for the right service or organisation when you are already in a bad way.”
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