Hi @Lagoon2020
The mental health system isn't designed for low or middle class people. Most people with mental health have to just settle with medication that only masks their underlying trauma and not addressing the cause of their pain.
There are specialists out there, but they come at a price. Most Australians can't afford their next utility bill, let alone paying upwards of $250 for a 50 minute appointment with a psychologist. The 10 appointments under medicare is nothing to address most trauma's.
I have CPTSD and have been told it could take 2-5 years of therapy to address it all. That's a long time and possibly tens of thousands of dollars. I need a therapist trained in a specific field to target my behaviours and there are only around 3% of psychologists trained in it. I still haven't found one nearby.
I live in regional NSW in an area with appx. 100,000 people. There is 1 psychiatrist here. My previous psychologist recommended I get a diagnosis from a psychiatrist. So I went to my GP, he was clueless. He referred me to a psychiatrist 4hrs away in Sydney. It was only that I called them before going that I found out they only did workplace Psychiatry. I finally called the mental health hotline out of desperation and I was given an appointment with the only local psychiatrist. He diagnosed complex ptsd and adjustment disorder with depression. He wanted me on antidepressants for minimum 6 weeks before even starting therapy and said I may need to be on them for up to 12 months before starting EMDR. I took them for a short time and came off them. They were terrible. I was averaging only 3hrs sleep per night and told the clinician I was in crisis and needed sleeping pills. She said she'd speak to the psychiatrist and get back to me. 13 days it took me to get a response and sleep relief. Clinician said she was sorry and that the psychiatrist "was busy" as he was the only one in the area. I've now had to find my own psychologist 2hrs away to do EMDR and I have pretty much bypassed the GP and psychiatrist now. No where along the way has the GP or psychiatrist helped, they just wanted to throw pills at me.
If you need help, you really have to go looking for it yourself unfortunately, and be willing to pay for the right help. But most people can't afford to do it or aren't in any kind of headspace to put in the effort to search high and low for scarce therapists, hence their depression and mental health condition.
Unfortunately, the mental health crisis will only keep increasing and the only ones benefiting are the pill makers and therapists. The general population are just statistics. It's so frustrating.
