"Lack of support and concern"

I rang MHERL after ringing Lifeline and 1800 RESPECT ad nauseum with absolutely no support other than googling ‘Support in the community’. I needed support to discuss what I was going through.

My partner had been emotionally abusive and picked a fight, then kicked me out of their house because they were about to have lunch with their ex partner and children, amongst a bunch of other manipulative tactics I can’t mention here.

I already suffer anxiety and have endured relational trauma across my lifespan, made complicated by being Autistic.

I was inconsolably crying and forced myself not to cry as I had been hung up on previously when I rung MHERL in desperation after a similar incident.

Being on a weekend, there is no mental health resources around so I took the plunge and contacted MHERL.

The person on the other end simply told me that I was going through relationship difficulties, and that I need to see a GP and ask for antidepressants.

The person then said that because I am Autistic, I think in black and white, and maybe that is the cause of my partner’s angry outbursts.

It was awful. I nearly hung up but I stopped responding out of shock, until I recall the person on the other end said all the best, have a great day! In what I felt was an eerie upbeat tone.

I asked what support services could be offered in the interim. They said nothing is open and that I may be referred to an outpatients.

They added, even then that they don’t think they’d have anything that could help me.

No mental health assessment was done and I wasn’t offered any immediate, real tangible support.

At the time of writing this, I have no support, no answers and I am left feeling far worse then when I woke up.

I have a major headache and still severely struggling.

I felt the response from MHERL was very unprofessional and I will be making a complaint.

Why is it that it seems to me people have to wait until they are about to self harm or borderline suicidal before they will be taken seriously?

We are told to seek support if we have mental health issues, only to be trivialised.

I feel this is not good enough and if I am in a similar predicament in the future, I sure won’t refer to MHERL with the disgusting response I received recently.

Twice I have received no support.

I believe this is why people give up.