Lived Experience Forum

[Krabbe23]

29th February 🥳

[Shaz51]

Got it @Krabbe23 🥰

How is your day going today xx 

[BlueBay]

Hi lovely @BPDSurvivor 

i wish i didn't have to pay for therapy.  I have spent thousands$$$ with therapy to help me with BPD. 

I just wish the hospitals (local) would help more but they don't.

I know of Spectrum and I have been there once to do a 8 week ACT course with a guy one on one.  But my hubby used to take the day of each week and drive me there.  It's in a very busy spot and I couldn't drive that far (1 hr) and then find a parking spot.  I would stress.

I just wish there was more.  I am currently paying $150 each fortnight to see my new psychologist but she is more trauma based.

i am yet to find a free therapist for BPD.

[SanSan]

Hey @BPDSurvivor, I think it's fantastic that you were able to get the support you needed for no cost to you (and yes I do understand that there are people out there that really do want to help so will offer their services for a reduced fee to the point of it being free).

I'm not someone that believes everything should be free or cheap as I think people should be paid what they are worth, what they have worked hard for to put them in their position.

Unfortunately though, those services are rare outside of the main cities and as I've mentioned before, there are none in my area which is why I wanted to see if they are online.

I did contact BPDOnline and the response I got wasn't very helpful and absolutely insisted on showing me the costs without discussing what one would be paying for - nearly two pages of fees for various people that is confusing in that they mention several different types of therapist and how much needs to be paid for each one, but failed to communicate which one anyone would need or if one would need them all.

And any rebate from Medicare would be exhausted in a little over a month for a 1-2 year plan costing thousands a month.

To be clear, I wasn't sold on them providing a service for me. And there's been no follow up either.

Anyway, I'm having a night where I'm not sleeping so I need to go do something creative rather than think about how mental health care is available to only those that can afford it or are lucky enough to be helped for free. 

Thanks for your continued support ❤️

[SanSan]

Hi @Shaz51, thanks for the request. I don't like giving out certain details to online forums and my birth date is part of that (more so with the recent Optus and Medibank hacks which both seem to have gone really quiet...).

So how about we say May Day, May 1st?

Thank you!!

[SanSan]

Oh PS @BPDSurvivor, thanks for the SANE recommendation, I'm currently in the process of registering my intent so I'll let you know how it goes 🙂

[BPDSurvivor]

Hey @SanSan ,

Absolutely hear what you are saying about things being free. 

I think for me, it was a double-edged sword. My BPD was so acute that I ended up case managed, and accepted into Spectrum which is a public health service. As for my psychologist, I don’t pay because there’s no gap. I ask all the time whether I need to pay something on top of Medicare and they always say no. And since I’ve seen this psychologist for so long, I only have Telehealth appointments. I don’t see him f2f because I don’t have time to drive there  (lol. Life’s too short to travel for psychology anymore!). He prefers f2f, but I ask for Telehealth.

So when I think about it, I guess the ‘system’ would be paying more if I wasn’t case managed and accepted into spectrum - that is, my very regular involuntary admissions, health ward admissions (from SH), ambulances, police…. The lot….would be more expensive than helping me recover.

At that time, I really really never expected to live to see my 25th birthday. Every day was ‘death day’.

So for me to have this turnaround and ‘recover’, God only knows how eternally grateful I am.

Thats why I’m saying to everyone that if it is possible for me, it is possible for anyone.

As for SANE’s guided service, I hope you get a BPD experienced person! Honestly, the people are lovely to speak to. I’ll wait to hear how you go.

BPDSurvivor

 Tagging a few people @SanSan @BlueBay @Krabbe23 @Sirine @Little_Leopard 

[BPDSurvivor]

Also, I found that when I got connected with ONE awesome therapist/pdoc etc, it opened up connections everywhere through word-of-mouth.

Since being in the public system, I’ve never had to go and find my own supports. One support led to the next.

However, I had to be willing to give everything a go. 

I had a treating team (case manager, psychologist, psychiatrist, registrar); then I had a peer worker, psychosocial worker, women’s health program facilitator, dietician, exercise physiologist.. then through this, Ive got access to a leisure centre, Zumba classes and dance classes (all free of charge). Honestly, I never went out looking for these supports… it just ‘happened’ and it all started with ONE person who had a heart to care.

 So please don’t give up on looking. There ARE supports out there.

And @SanSan , some of these were accessible online which means regional people can also access these services. Just need to keep looking! Perhaps if you connect with someone on the guided service, they will be able to link you up with services too.

Keep going my comrades!

there’s no victory without a battle!

BPDSurvivor

@BlueBay @Shaz51 @Krabbe23 @Sirine @Little_Leopard 

[SanSan]

I'm truly devastated and heartbroken over the death of my beloved cat Charlie after a very sudden and rapid illness; he looked to be making a full recovery on Thursday before crashing on Friday and dying in my bed on Friday night with me and the other cat - Trouble - there with him until he peacefully slipped away in the early hours of the morning.

I'm struggling to write this - the loss is immense.

They both came to me as rescue cats 2.5 years ago and Charlie had already lived 5 years of what must have been an extremely traumatic period as I've never seen a cat with as much PTSD as him - always hiding away in the bathroom cupboard at the faintest knock, I was the only human he came to trust and that was still only ever on his terms.

He began to enjoy offering me his belly for a rub and, after those 2.5 years we were making progress for his rehabilitation before what appears to have been Ataxia with a possible brain tumour took him way to soon.

His favourite place in the house - when he knew he was safe - was sitting in the bathroom window for hours and so I buried him under it. It was a great place for basking in the Northern sun all afternoon and seemed to hold his interest through the night as well.

He was extremely quiet (he didn't let out any voice in the first year) and I fondly rereferred to him as my little ninja assassin.

He will be terribly missed 😭 😩 ❤️

[hanami]

So sorry to read about the loss of your beloved fur baby @SanSan . 

Our pets give us so much love and it's so damn hard when they go. I always think how unfair it is that they live much shorter lives than ours. 

They ask for nothing from us, their love is unconditional. We can be angry at them for doing their 'naughty' things but they don't care what we say to them, they still look at us lovingly and continually try to please us. 

It's such a devastating loss for you.

Sending hugs to you

Hanami