So on the day off my relapse, i dont remember alot of it to be fair, but my partner got me a out of hours doctors appointment. We arrive at the surgery,and about ten minutes later we get called through, I took one look at him and said to my partner this isn’t going to end well. She asked me why, and i said this was a doctor that didn’t listen to me when i was younger. So we get in the room, and my partner has do all the talking, as im not in good way still. We were in there, i would say, for a good twenty minutes, and we came out, I said to my partner that i felt that it went OK. He said that he would refer me to the local mental health team, I felt that was a start. The following day, which was a Monday, and im still feeling in a weird place, and I was having panic attacks, which seemed like every hour. My partner got me in to the nurse practitioner at my own surgery. She listened to us and sent me to Northgate for an assessment that same day. Luckily, they were able to send me home as my partner was willing to look after me.

After i had my relapse last year i didn’t realise how alone me and my partner would become, and what a downward effect it would be for us both. I was told i couldn’t work due to my mental health which meant i wasn’t able to contribute to the rent or other bills. I had to go to the job centre to sort out what i was entitled to, and i messed it all up and had to redo it all from scratch. i was struggling to do the simplest of tasks. This all delayed my claim, so my partner came with me to the job centre, and she asked for some help. A man named Gary was our life saver. he sat there for an hour and a half and completed the claim with us, step by step to make sure we had our claim done correctly. i personally wanted to cry because of how useless i felt, and was so grateful for the help this one man had given us.

All the stress from looking after me and working full time, finally took its toll on my partner, and she was signed off sick. another huge impact on the finances. This resulted in the rent not being paid, as we were waiting for our claim to be dealt with. during all this time i was still being helped by my doctor and the mental health service. we also got advice from the recovery information centre, who were also a big help. We found that my partner was doing everything she could to keep us afloat, but still the finances were in a dire mess. We were so lucky and always grateful for our landlord, who understood and supported us as much as he could.

Our claim took eight months to sort out, and by that time we were now three thousand pounds in debt with the rent. This then resulted in the landlord having to serve a section 21, eviction notice. So off to the council. What can i say about Waveny council, they were brilliant! They walked us though everything, kept us up to date on our housing application, and even gave us advice on where to get food stamps from, as we were at the stage of begging food from friends and family. Alas, the food stamp people could not help, as we had money in the bank to pay direct debits, but their policy was, if you have any money in your bank, you were not allowed food stamps.

So back to family and friends. Then things started getting better, our claim was sorted, so we could pay off some of the rent arrears, we were able to buy food and not plead poverty anymore, and then we were offered an accommodation from the council. Happy days, things were on the up, well the day to day things. My mental health is not as bad as when my relapse happened, and its a upward struggle, but the stress of no money or food was sorted.

During all this i was referred to the recovery information centre, who then put me in touch with other services i could get involved with, who helped me immensely with dealing with my mental health. I gained some confidence with doing a lot of their courses, which then led me to starting my own page on Facebook and twitter, and now my own blog. If you had told me last year, i would be telling people my story, i would have laughed at you.

So just to say, if you are struggling with your mental health, or finances, there are people out there who are trained, and patient enough to help you. obviously you have to try to help yourself and show you are willing to do this, but the people who have helped us, will never really understand how much they helped us get to where we are now. My advice for anyone reading this is, dont feel too proud to ask for help, the people who have helped us, were our life savers, and even
though they are all trained to do their job, they did it with patience and understanding. Also a shout out to my friends and family, I can not thank all of the above enough.