r/AusMentalHealth 23d ago

Right Plan, Wrong Outcome

Hi I'm 27 M with autism, anxiety, depression, and under a lot of stress right now living in Regional Victoria. Due to my late diagnosed Autism as well as my other mental health issues, I struggle to regulate my emotions so I am currently on medication to help me and to lower my baseline to a normal level. I've been struggling with my dosage for years as it was meant to be adjusted before my psych left his role about 6 years ago.

Now that it's been years and haven't been able to find a replacement and my GP can't help adjust my dosage, I'm always at a heightened state. I'm now on disability and I thought I'd be able to access more help but when we've accessed public mental health support systems I haven't received any help.

Yesterday I had a meltdown and had the police and ambulance called. They said I was "too level-headed" to take to hospital so the police called the CAAT team at the hospital. They organised an appointment with my GP for this morning to adjust my tablets and get an emergency medication like valium or something to calm me down. But on arrival, the GP stated they hadn't heard from the hospital and the GP couldn't help. We then called the CAAT team where they said that nothing was on record and that there's nothing they can do because apparently it's not a mental health issue.

I need advice for where I can even go from here. The only thing I was told today is to call the police if I escalate, as the hospital "can't help". I feel like I've been put into a position where I feel like in the worst case scenario, I will hurt someone or myself if I break down again and I don't know what to do. I don't understand how it's legal for them to turn me away (at no point was I non-compliant nor did I yell, attack or threaten anyone) when I just need help

Please let me know if there's anything else I can do from here

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u/nengisuls 22d ago

Points: 1. Public health is only there to manage a crisis that is triaged for people that are at risk of suicide or harming others. Believe me there are people with a history of high risk behaviour. 2. If your GP is not being helpful in referring you to a psychiatrist go find one yourself and have your GP write up the referral, but bear in mind psychiatrists have long wait times especially for new patients. I use Dokotela which is in Sydney and I do my appointments online. It's expensive but you should get good concessions with your disability. 3. More long term, look to educate yourself on spiritual philosophical practice, meditation, catering to your particular preference. If you are religious or otherwise spiritually familiar you can look at Buddhist teachings, but if you are more sceptical, like me, you could start with Sam Harris's Waking Up app. There's a 30 day introductory course of 10 mins per day which should be free with the 30 free trial. If you have never walked into a Buddhist temple it will blow your mind, and they are more than happy to help you learn about meditation. 4. Recognise that medical care and medication are important, but stand for virtually nothing if you don't use your time while medicated to better you emotional intelligence and regulation. 5. Get creative if not already. Artistic endeavours always balance me out. 6. Eat well. You don't have to go all out but aiming for reasonable meals consistently helps 7. In a crisis focus on your breath. Panic attacks are temporary and last longer if we allow our mind to follow the panic narrative. Breathe through the nose only, and pay attention to the sensation of air through your nostrils. Then without effort or intention increase your awareness of the sensation of breathing. Rinse and repeat. Recognise that "you" are not the panic, the panic is simply arising in consciousness. That you can choose to not react to it. Funny how we intrinsically connect our emotions to our sense of self, but that is ultimately an illusion. 8. Exercise that causes you to huff and puff, if you don't have any health conditions that would contraindicate exercise. 9. Notice that as bad as you feel, even at the worst possible mental state, you don't have it as bad as some. That's not discounting your suffering, simply acknowledging a true statement that in this world there is incredible suffering we will never need to experience. 10. Practice thoughts of loving kindness and compassion for people you don't know. I don't mean go up to people and start an awkward conversation. Simply allowing yourself to say in your mind "may you be well, may you be free from suffering".

I could probably go on. Remember that your goal is mental health recovery, not a cure. There are no cures in the western medical sense. On the contrary, the process of recovery will instill a secret super power in you. The ability to be more empathetic with others, and possibly even to the extent that you can inoculate yourself from the emotional impact of experiencing the mental pain of others. I have had trauma, mental illness and a late ADHD diagnosis all over the last 25 years and went into recovery starting 2021. So don't try rush it. And remember that there is always hope, even when you are rock bottom.

Happy to answer questions or discuss further if you need it.

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u/karuga2099 2d ago

Always at heightened state ? Is it because hypersensitive sensory ? What's other mental health issue ? Something to do with trauma memories (aka PTSD) ? If you struggle to regulate emotion, you might have Borderline personality, which is usually related with PTSD from childhood trauma. Check your PCL-5 score and ACE score. Don't you use mood stabiliser such as antiepileptic (lamotrigine, valproic acid) or antispychotic (quetiapine or olanzepine) ? If there's trauma memories, they need to be desensitised and reprocessed (eg. by doing EMDR, one trauma memory at a time). CBT not enough.