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“If the issue lies in the community, then so does the solution”
Bethany Golding shares her lived experience of mental illness and community mental health services.
I have a severe mental illness – bipolar disorder. When I was younger, though, I was diagnosed with anorexia, depression and anxiety. I received a great deal of support via community mental health services during my teenage years and early 20s.
Getting the right diagnosis at a young age is important and I would like to see earlier diagnoses for people with bipolar disorder so that the best possible support can be provided from a young age.
Nearly 70% of respondents to a Bipolar UK survey said that they had received a diagnosis of depression prior to one for bipolar disorder.
According to the research by Bipolar UK: ‘Clinicians say there are also a number of other reasons for the delay, including a lack of psychiatrists, diagnostic complexity, overlap with other mental health conditions, people not presenting severe symptoms to primary care, people not recognising the significance of previous periods of hypomania and a reluctance to get a bipolar diagnosis which still carries a stigma.’
I have a severe mental illness – bipolar disorder. When I was younger, though, I was diagnosed with anorexia, depression and anxiety. I received a great deal of support via community mental health services during my teenage years and early 20s.
Getting the right diagnosis at a young age is important and I would like to see earlier diagnoses for people with bipolar disorder so that the best possible support can be provided from a young age.
Nearly 70% of respondents to a Bipolar UK survey said that they had received a diagnosis of depression prior to one for bipolar disorder.
According to the research by Bipolar UK: ‘Clinicians say there are also a number of other reasons for the delay, including a lack of psychiatrists, diagnostic complexity, overlap with other mental health conditions, people not presenting severe symptoms to primary care, people not recognising the significance of previous periods of hypomania and a reluctance to get a bipolar diagnosis which still carries a stigma.’
My mental health issues cost me a lot as a young person. I missed my grades for Cambridge University because of a period of severe mental illness during my final exams. However, I spent a fantastic three years at the University of East Anglia, and then two years for a Master’s degree at the University of York, during both of which I was able to access mental health support services.
The support I received from community mental health services for depression and anxiety as a young person was excellent. Mind provided me with a course of therapy, and later on I was able to access counselling from my university services. During my MA, I was able to access a course of CBT through the NHS which I found genuinely life changing. The CBT gave me access to coping strategies and skills which have stayed with me throughout my adult life. I also discovered other things which helped me through my own research, such as using an S.A.D. lamp and taking vitamin D in the winter to ease seasonal depression. The Bipolar UK community has since also played a part in securing my wellbeing.
A wise woman once said to me: “If the issue lies in the community, then so does the solution”. These words really resonated with me and continue to resonate, and I think we cannot underestimate the importance of mental health services working with the third sector and with people with lived experience to improve the services that they offer.
I am proud that despite my mental health condition – which does not define me – I am able to work full time in a meaningful role for the NHS, and to volunteer for an LGBT charity in West Yorkshire. I genuinely don’t think this would’ve been possible without the support I received as a young person to help me develop my coping strategies. I am therefore extremely grateful to all those services and absolutely passionate about ensuring that we hear from a wide range of voices in our work to improve access to children and young people’s community mental health services.
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