Honestly, I don’t know why I want to share this. It’s late Monday evening here and I’m feeling okay’ish. Tomorrow, I’ll have another meeting with my CPN and nurse practitioner to discuss my treatment. This got us worrying a lot last night, so much so that we ended up in crisis.
As I probably said a few weeks ago, my nurse practitioner wants me to try acceptance and commitment therapy. This wasn’t what we’d expected at all and honestly I still don’t understand how he thinks it’s a good fit for my issues. I mean, it’s evidence-based for depression, anxiety and OCD, none of which we deal with to a significant degree.
He was also pretty dismissive of my trauma-related symptoms. Obviously he doesn’t believe we’re plural. Fine by me, though not by some of the others. But somehhow he seemed not to believe I suffer with any type of trauma-related condition at all. At least, he didn’t feel that trauma treatment could or should help us.
This got us worrying last night, as we really have no idea how to advocate for ourself without coming across like a malingerer. It got so bad that we ended up impulsively leaving our room.
After our last case of elopement, the staff decided to lock the door to our home, so I couldn’t go outside. The night staff though hadn’t come to my room to check on me yet. It was 11:10PM. The night shift normally starts at 10:30. Eventually, a substitute night staff came by, saying he had to do one-on-one with another client, that the real night staff was delayed and he was really busy so could I please go back to my room? That upset us greatly, so even though we went back to our room as requested, some of us started self-harming.
About twenty minutes later, the real night staff came to check on us. We were upset, so told her to leave. She left and we cried and self-harmed some more because we were still very upset. Our signaling plan says staff are to stay with us if we’re upset even if we tell them to leave, but I don’t know whether the night staff have access to this plan.
Finally, we left our room again and waited, still panicked, for the night staff to be alerted and to come check on us. She was distraught at seeing us so upset. It makes me feel shame and guilt for making her feel this way. She got us a PRN lorazepam, which calmed us slightly. Still, we didn’t sleep till 2AM.
Now I’m feeling okay again, but I’m still not sure what to do with tomorrow’s appt. I mean, after each crisis, my mental health team say I somehow managed to get out of it. They probably mean it as a compliment, but it doesn’t feel that way. Today, I didn’t even care to call the mental health team. I’m still shifting between wanting to give up mental health treatment altogether and demanding trauma therapy. After all, the reason the appt upset me so much is that it triggered my feelings of being unseen, unheard, unsupported. Then again, maybe we’re not worth being seen, heard or supported.
A Multitude of Musings 
hugs. I’m so sorry you were in such crisis. Its really tough. I do think you should demand trauma treatment, you are so entitled to it, you’ve severe issues that need and warrant it. xoxo
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Thanks so much carol anne. I will try to advocate for us.
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I am so sorry you had to go through this. How terrifying. I agree with Carol Anne, though I am no expert. You know what is best for you and what you need. I recognise those feelings of being unheard, unseen, etc. It is one of the most horrible feelings, and I can understand the self harm. Please if you cen, let us know how it goes. Hugs from me for all of you ❤️
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Thanks so much for your kind words. I’ll let you all know how the appt goes. It’s in about half an hour.
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Good luck x
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We’re thinking of you and sending hugs. You’ve come a long way so try to keep moving forward.
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Thanks so much for encouraging us. 💜
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Hugs from me, also
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Thanks Lizl!
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Everyone is worth being seen, heard and supported, and so are you, don’t let people make you feel otherwise. I of course agree with the previous commenters that you should demand adequate therapy for your trauma, but I understand how difficult it is in your current circumstances and how it makes you feel very ambivalent about the whole mental health treatment thing. I guess if your nurse practitioner thinks you should try ACT and it would work for you, he probably must misunderstand the root causes of your issues. It’s hard to find another motive behind this for me. Maybe he thinks that what you’re dealing with, things like your identity issues etc. is actually some manifestation of anxiety. I wish you had someone on your team who would be more understanding and perceptive than that.
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Thanks so much for your kind words. I do think he probably misunderstands my issues. I will ask him why he thinks ACT is suitable for me (other than he being trained in it and he being my responsible clinician).
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I hope he will be able to answer openly.
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Yes he did. There wasn’t really anything specific about my situation that would mean ACT is the best possible approach. He said honestly that he’d suggested it because of his own enthusiasm for it.
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I see, that makes a little bit more sense now. I think ACT is a good thing, so I can understand his enthusiasm, but even good things aren’t good for everyone, even I, though as I said I like the general idea behind it, don’t think I would ever do it myself, just because I don’t think it really fits my needs that well.
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Yes, agree. I said that I may be able to find some use in ACT alongside trauma-focused therapy.
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That could be a cool combo I guess.
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Yes, I think so too.
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