Tag Archives: Bury Council

Lockdown

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Well 2 weeks before the UK went into lockdown I was at hospital having a camera inserted into my nose and had other tests. The diagnosis was Allergic Rhinitis, 2 months on I’m still waiting for test results to find out what it is I’m allergic too. However it could just be my fibromyalgia and the body is attacking itself. I have tried to chase up the results but the GP, hospital and NHS are understandably busy dealing the pandemic.

I’ve been in self isolation for almost a month now as all my medical conditions been I’m classed as a vulnerable person during this crisis. But the only trouble is all of the symptoms I get overlap with covid-19 symptoms, so I don’t know what is what. However one thing I can say is I feel terrible: physically, mentally and emotionally.

Social distancing is a very interesting thing at the moment. I’ve never been very social and social situations were very difficult for me with my autism but I’m finding that now everyone is social distancing its making parts of my life easier. I don’t have to try and make small talk or remember the correct social etiquette. I think neurotypical people (non Autism people) will find this a lot more challenging. For years I’ve been told to try and be more social to speak up and fight my corner, but now those rules have gone out the window and everyone is experiencing the world as a person who is introverted and doesn’t like social events.

As for the lockdown and having to stay inside, well that’s just been my normal life for 7 years. The outside world with my Autism, anxiety, depression and PTSD has been a scary place and its been better and easier for me to lock myself away and now the whole Country is doing it. People seem to forget that lockdown is their usual way of life. Hopefully now that the whole country has experienced it peoples attitudes will change, wishful thinking I know.

I struggle with recognising that I need help and struggle with asking for help. I have reached out to Bury Council, the government and mutual aid charities near me to get help with shopping and collecting medicines, so far everyone has said no. Even though I’m classed as vulnerable and self isolating people are refusing me help because I’m not elderly. I agree elderly people need and should get help but so should others. Everyone is trying to save lives and protect the NHS but by ignoring vulnerable people isn’t right, we have a lot of complicated medical conditions and would rather manage at home then put more strain on the health service. But at the time. Without help or coordination we are forced out to do shopping and collecting medications to make sure we stay alive and healthy, putting ourselves at risk and that could tax the health service later on. I struggle to ask for help, I’m very independent and I don’t want to cause trouble or make someone’s lives more difficult by asking them to do things. Even more so now that people are risking their lives to do it.

STAY HOME – PROTECT THE NHS – SAVE LIVES

Getting Help with Mental Health….or not…

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It is scary, when you need help and there’s no-one there.

There are charities and organizations out there:

Anxiety UK

Mind Charity

Time to Change

 

Unfortunately I have found that a lot of the help out there you have to go and find yourself. When your nervous of social situations and terrified of using the telephone it doesn’t help. Quite often it feels like you just have to be quiet and get on with it but not disturb anyone else with it. Which in the 21st Century is really disgusting!

We had the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) come to our flat as they were ‘Concerned for our welfare’ back in February 2014. We were put on a ‘Vulnerable Adults list’ Were told we’d get a social worker and guess what, nothing happened.

My Doctors Surgery depending on which doctor you see sometimes helps. But when going in and being asked “How can i help you?” when you’ve explained everything going on, doesn’t really help, if i could cope and knew how to fix it i would have already. Trying to get medication from them is difficult as well, because the medication is strong, it cant be put on repeat prescription, i have get an appointment and go into the surgery every time to see the doctor. Which i can understand. But there are no appointments available currently and they would re-order medication over the phone (understandably), but leaves me without medication. So all the work and progress i’ve made could be unravelled.

My Local Council ‘Bury County Council’ Doesn’t seem to have anything set up for people with Mental health Issues, not that i have found. I have asked them on numerous occasions through a variety of different means and they have responded with silence. As with a lot of services is they do have anything its either not on there website or hidden away under loads of different options. The Mind Charity has recently written a report which reveals an ‘Unacceptably low spending on public Mental Health.’ (See the report Here).

Although i agree at times i’m not able to accomplish anything but with the proper help and support not just me but other sufferers would be able to recover or at least cope better with the Issues and get back into society which surely would be good for everywhere. Why people see Mental health as a taboo and something to be brushed away out of sight is beyond me. Hopefully attitudes will change.