Report transcript in: "They never really saw me as a high priority"

Please Report the Errrors?

Hi. Good morning, Matt. My name is Benjamin Mordecai.

We're doing a quick video of various different

people from the Cardiff and Vale area.

And

we've been asked to ask you a question, wondering if you could

answer it to best your abilities or just answer it

with as much information as you wish to give.

Uh,

the the question we got is what has been

your experience of seeking support as someone with a co

occurring mental health and substance issues.

OK,

just to let you know, this was a long time ago, actually,

So this was around, say, 2007.

was

using alcohol,

right?

Quite dependent at one point.

Dependent,

um,

got to the stage where I

got that help that I needed to address

my alcohol issues through counselling and counselling.

Only the

doctor referred me to back in that day. It doesn't exist in its current.

What I experienced was counselling for my alcohol,

and it was like 16 weeks of counselling,

really good.

The real deal counselling. It wasn't just

trained

high expertise,

so I did the counselling and really managed to get on top of my

issues.

But then

along comes the party drugs,

methadone and

MCAT and all that stuff was

legal at the time. And because I wasn't doing

alcohol, I thought, Oh, well, I'm missing on a bus. Let's try this stuff.

And as soon as they made it

illegal

in 2010, I

was

I had to buy it off street dealers and was being

basically was no longer

methadone. It was any old rubbish

that you get off the street

and I ended up taking stuff. I didn't know what it was.

Clearly wasn't the right thing. I could have had anything in it. Yes, clearly

was

not.

It wasn't safe to take, really wasn't what I was expecting. And

it reminded me somewhat of a ketamine bus instead of a party EBU.

They actually sent me into, like, a whole like a vortex.

And from that day onwards,

I had a a

drug induced site that was the

catalyst for my psychosis, drug induced psychosis.

So now we're talking about some serious mental health issues that I

need,

and I wouldn't have known where to turn.

Obviously the doctors, my only thing I didn't know about drug services could

In fact, I was in such a bad place.

So I went to the doctor.

The doctor referred me to the community mental health team,

but they really only wanted to give me antipsychotics and no counselling.

So say there was no doctor.

How would you have got the information as to where to

get this counselling or any other support

You would have been stuck. So the first point of call,

you would say

from anybody's experience would be doctor.

And if

that service wasn't provided by a doctor,

you could

can

probably continue doing

what you were doing

using substances

and could still be on it

in 2023 which we are now.

And you said 2007 that you

managed to

give

up the alcohol

drugs, got party drugs. Yeah, and then

caused

psychosis,

which,

well, in recovery

from now, I don't

In fact, I was discharged from the community

years and years ago.

They never really saw me as a high priority,

and I was trying to express to them how messed up my head was. I really needed help. And

they seem to want to do is just dish out the

antics and send me away.

Can I ask, why did they change the methadone?

Or Or is it just the way the NHS bought it?

Because you said there was a difference and you

had to buy it from somebody on the street

that

as a heroin replacement what I was taking me

with.

Oh, right. I see A

party drone

was a time when it was perfectly legal to

buy,

was labelled as

I see and that stopped. And then, of course, you had to go down the

the black market. As you say, I buy

online as it goes. But still,

it's an illegal thing.

So the dealers don't

need

100 per cent honest.

How did you get off drugs altogether?

Well, that psychosis was the end of it for me.

I really could not.

There was a time after when I was trying to deal with my mental health with cannabis.

There was a time when I was able to reflect and have insight and I was

able to work out different things in my head with cannabis that didn't last long.

It gave me all the insights I needed, and I moved on from that.

A lot of people say cannabis is a psychosis inducing drug in itself.

But I suppose if you got the psychosis and you're helping,

helps you deal with those issues.

You're replacing one thing with another,

but they've all got side effects. All drugs were for a certain reason. I was.

I was depressed

and

anxiety in 2006, well, arguably for most of my life. And this is why

alcohol is such a big thing feature feature of my life.

But then, when you're addicted

dependent,

you

got no choice. Then every day you have to keep on.

Would you classify yourself that you'd have an addictive personality?

No.

Never took the smoking.

I usually find that

certain drugs don't feel like I've never got into.

So do you think that

having a bit of a party type life, if that's what you classify yourself as

you know, it's sort of the the general thing to have a bit of drugs or a bit of drink

and did in that case, did it just spiral out of control with you?

It did spiral out of control.

What was I addressing?

Was I addressing my anxiety was

addressing my depression because you're depressed.

You want to

pick me

up,

pick

drugs? Did I want a social life?

Did I want to come out of myself and find a social network to get out

there and

be involved in making new friends and dancing, which is therapeutic in

itself?

You know, you said you saw a consultant. Was it psychiatrist or Counsellor?

How did that work for you?

The psychiatrist of community Mental Health Team

just seemed interested in dishing out the antipsychotics. And I told them I don't

work

in the right way for me. They knocked me out completely. In

fact,

it's something I

don't want to continue.

So really, and truly sorry to interrupt you there.

The missing link was

that they didn't have any life support to

go with dishing you out with psychotic tablets.

Yeah, I'm sure it's all different now because you've got caf

which is supposed

all under one roof with all different partners and

stakeholders,

and

I don't think it's still properly.

No, I agree. Especially with the

part of it.

Cafs

few weeks ago

had an open day in Barry

and they were testing people off the street for hepatitis

um, fatty liver disease.

Uh, obviously, with, uh,

conjunction with people who use drugs or alcohol or substances of any other sort.

And

I happened to attend. Now,

if you had attended, you'd have done all the same tests as me, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Waited two weeks for your results and so on.

They had a full team there. The trouble is, that was all done via the NHS.

And when I rang up for my results to

as you would

and this could happen

probably to anybody,

of course,

they said, Oh, you have to contact this number for the NHS.

So they're not linked at the moment.

But they need to be.

And I mean

sounding from what you've said,

Matt,

if that had been in place

2007,

it would be not easier for you, wouldn't it?

I think

cau have got a few things in place. If you meet a certain criteria,

maybe potentially on the opiate replacement therapy or you could be

you could have a detox. There's ways in to get your appropriate counselling.

It's not really made available.

I want to see a number rolled out on Twitter and

Social Media Bus Office Just to say if you want to counselling

drug problems, this is where you go.

You got drug problems

and then

assessments. And

so,

like these code words that you can use in boots and

Morrisons, for instance, at the restaurant you can ask for,

Henry can get a free meal, go to boots and what's the one that you are?

You mention somebody and you can get some free,

uh, ladies products or something. So it's something like that for many HS.

So you could have the number 15, for instance. As you said a number,

Um, and it'd all be linked around

that word and everybody we'd know. It's be like 118.

Everybody knew where they could find out

whose telephone number they needed. Um,

so I appreciate everything you said today. Matt.

Um, is there anything else you think we've missed?

I'll just repeat the first question because it's going on to

nearly nine minutes of recording.

The question was, what has been your experience of seeking support as someone with

occurring sorry, mental health and substance issues?

Do you think you've covered everything that you wish to say

just

the support you have for things like psychosis, as I'm sure people appreciate it

is struggling. You have to meet a certain threshold. You have to be potentially

deemed a danger to yourself or others to even get

into the CMT.

And

that was all a nightmare of hoops to jump through to even get

antipsychotics. I didn't even want

the drugs I was messing around with at the

time to cause that psychosis were party drugs.

Now

wasn't doing cocaine. I was doing things like Mephedrone, metello

and

Cathinone

NCA

different class of drugs like ecstasy.

But I don't feel drug services set up for these types of drugs.

They're more like for the hard end start to Coke.

The heroin and alcohol addiction, the detox.

Maybe maybe there needs to be more awareness at festivals and make

more interlinks at intersections of society students and all the rest of

to introduce a more recreational experimental.

Because this can all go very wrong, as it did with me.

And so there needs to be some way of looking after people navigate their journeys to

thank you, Matt, That was brilliant. Thank you very much.

Toggle

Posted By

Author

SarahH

Post date

16/08/2023