Psychiatry-UK 2023-03-14 Person 1 5 0

I must start with saying I find it extremely difficult to navigate health care settings as to give a little background. I find it near impossible to advocate for myself which definitely contributes to my experience here and unfortunately I do not have anyone else in my life who can help me with this. This was explained to my Psychiatrist and my Prescriber during my care but mainly fell on deaf ears. I will say that I have seen a plethora of shining reviews for Psychiatry UK and unfortunately my experience was the opposite. I was under their care for 3 years, received my adhd diagnosis and have been waiting for medication since. Getting the diagnosis was smooth sailing it was around a 9 month wait which is understandable with the shortages that if you are looking at reviews im sure you already know about. it was another 6 months before I received a message in talks of starting titration although this never began. to begin with you are asked to measure your blood pressure and pulse daily. My bp was completely normal but pulse slightly above normal so from here my treatment was put on hold until I I had everything checked out by the GP. I went for multiple tests with the GP who confirmed that my pulse was slightly raised but everything was normal so there was nothing they could do as my pulse was to low to be a concern enough for any treatment. it took months for this outcome and a lot of me as the hot potato being thrown back and forth between GP & Psych while them not talking to each other even for results of tests. After months of tests and dr appointments back to the pyschiatrst I went with this information who basically said yeah no that's fine we will just start a slow titration will be started soon and asked how I was feeling, any issues or complaints of recent? Me a Audhder at this point being 2 years in, sick of jumping through invisible hoops and them moving goal posts took that literally and expressed how I needed more support with this process. I explained again my struggle with advocating for myself in heath care setting, how my executive dysfunction has gotten worse due to the stress of trying to navigate this service how I did not think the service was very adhd friendly and how constantly begging for help with this process both from GP and them had really had a detrimental effect on my mental health. To which the response was have you spoken to your gp about that, your mood should really be stable before we start treatment so we advise you go back to your gp. This same week I saw a tweet from someone expressing joy having just started medication and how much it has changed their lives and I liked it but carried on with my day. I kept thinking about and later on I went back and looked at thread and the tweet was actually someone who was a psychiatry uk patient and they were expressing how amazing of a service it was and how there were other services other than medications like therapy and diet plans that they were offer by pyschiatry uk. And this is where I became livid I do not know that this is true although I saw other people agreeing with this statement that they had gotten other treatment where I had been offered nothing for 2 years and was actively begging for anything. I can not stress how much this had such a negative effect on me, I went into one of the biggest burnouts of my life that I am still trying to claw my way out of, I have been suicidal and have now been discharged for non engagement of treatment although no treatment was ever started and I am back to square one. I will say if you have a good support system or can navigate the health care system you will be fine but if you have any needs that make you vulnerable you will not get any help and you should look elsewhere