Hahaha. This is an NHS therapist. I was on the waiting list for 5 years to get this therapy. I can't just get a new therapist. I can't afford to pay for one, I can only have what the NHS provides and this is what they eventually gave me.
I didn't know it had a name. This is definitely what they are doing to us.
Thanks. I wish I could join in with organising and agitation but my every waking moment is consumed with fighting my benefit appeal, trying to stave off homelessness and trying to get enough food.
Thank you. The thing is, I would actually prefer a blatant genocide than the "hidden" genocide we're going through. I'd honestly rather be rounded up and put out of my misery quickly than what we have now, being starved to death behind the scenes while the newspapers brainwash the public into thinking benefit claimants have it so good. The cowards should have the courage to kill us blatantly instead of pretending we have a great "safety net."
I don't believe my therapist is skilled at all. She doesn't even seem to know what to do in the sessions. She tries to make me think of things to do. For instance in the first session she asked if I had any ideas for things I've thought of that might make me feel better and I expressed a vague interest in meditation, and she leapt on that and from then on made a large chunk of each session a meditation, and not even a good one. Literally telling me to close my eyes and in a very unenthusiastic voice, showing how bored she is she'd drone for about 20 minutes whatever nonsense she could think of, always the same "Feel your breath. You can't breathe in the past or the future, only the present. Feel your feet, thank them for walking for you. Roll your ankles. Mentally scan your body and notice anywhere you feel discomfort. Turn your head to the left. Now the right." Just on and on for 20 minutes. Then in every session she gets out a diagram of a human body, brings out some crayons and tells me to colour in wherever I feel pain in my body. Then she tells me to draw a picture of whatever I'm feeling that day. Then she writes a timetable for the week (of getting out of bed, watching TV, walking, meditating, eating mindfully, etc) and tells me to stick to it. That's the end. The same every week. How on earth is this crap meant to help me? And then she got defensive last week when I said this wasn't working for me, isn't doing anything to help, and told me to quit if I want. When I explained my financial reasons for not quitting, explained how I'm worried it will lead to losing my appeal, my benefits being stopped permanently and destitution and homelessness she didn't give a shit and said that's not a good enough reason to have therapy. So I don't know how to explain to her that I need my basic needs met, in a way she will accept. She clearly doesn't understand or care about my impending potential homelessness and regular periods of starvation. I even told her about this website and how several people here over the last couple of months have helped me out with food vouchers to prevent me from starving because my situation is that dire, and you should have seen her face. I've never seen anyone look at me with such contempt before. She looked like she thought I'm some kind of piece of shit scam artist begging money from strangers. She actually told me to stop asking people on here for help. What am I meant to do, just starve to death? She clearly has absolutely no concept of what it's like to be so financially desperate and doesn't want to learn.
I once went to hospital with status migrainosus and they gave me aspirin and sent me on my way. Truly, no-one cares about us.
Thanks, I would like to try this. But I need to frame it in way that won't anger or offend her. Any suggestions?
I'm truly worried I'll end up like one of the many ill and disabled people I've read about in the news who are forced back to work by having their benefits stopped and then drop down dead at work. Or one of the multiple benefit claimants who have starved to death or committed suicide. It really does seem like a genocide of the disabled.
Thanks for the solidarity. Yeah the NHS is usually fine for emergency treatment. But for chronic problems, it can be awful. And it's difficult to get diagnosed in the first place. The therapist is causing me so much extra stress, she doesn't listen at all when I tell her I'm worried that stopping the therapy could stop my benefits permanently. I even told her if that happens I'll have no choice to commit suicide and I intend to commit suicide anyway one day and she said she understands that seems like a reasonable plan and there's nothing she can do to help me other than get me to accept my situation.
I feel really bullied into treatments and interventions I don't want just to try and keep my benefits. Does anyone else feel the same way?
I'm going through yet another disability benefit appeal right now. They use any excuse they can to stop my money. Last time I had a stroke during covid and a benefit reassessment shortly after. Because of covid, the physiotherapy department was closed, so I couldn't start physiotherapy right away. They used that as an excuse to stop my payments - because I wasn't having physiotherapy, according to them, the effects of the stroke can't be that bad therefore zero points and no money. So, I don't dare to stop any of the treatments I'm having, even though most of them are pointless and just cause me a lot of extra stress. One example is mental health therapy. After making a suicide attempt it took me 5 years on the waiting list to get this therapy, and the therapist wrote a letter of support for my benefit claim, which is something at least. But the therapy is shit.
The therapist doesn't lead the sessions, she expects me to think of things to do. I once expressed an interest in meditation so now a large chunk of the session is her doing a very crap guided meditation where she makes me close my eyes while she tells me to roll my ankles, roll my head and wiggle my feet. Then she gets me to draw a picture of whatever I'm feeling that day. Then she writes me a daily timetable of nonsense and tells me to stick to it. It's utter rubbish, how is this meant to help? It's stressful juggling my many medical appointments (therapy, eye clinic, stroke clinic, endocrinologist, oncologist, physiotherapist, neurologist, GP) and I would love to quit all the unnecessary ones that aren't helping and are just causing me extra stress, like mental therapy. But I'm worried if I do, the DWP will use that as an excuse to stop my money, because that's what they do.
People are supposed to have the freedom to refuse medical treatment, but there is no real freedom to refuse if you're going to be made destitute in retaliation.
Well, eventually I broke down and explained how I feel to the therapist. She said trying to get benefits isn't a good enough reason to have therapy. I tried to explain to her about how worried I am about being homeless and totally broke permanently if they don't reinstate my benefits, but I could see I was talking to a brick wall. She just doesn't understand being totally destitute with no back-up means of support, that much is obvious. She said if I don't want the therapy I should just quit, and I tried so hard to get her to understand my perspective but she doesn't. Eventually she said we could cut the weekly sessions down to monthly face to face ones, with weekly online sessions. I didn't want the online ones but felt pressured to accept. The first online one was meant to be today and I totally forgot about it. I got an angry sounding email from her which seemed to imply stopping the therapy altogether. I asked if we could just do it monthly but she isn't agreeable to that.
This is so stressful! I don't want the added stress from this shitty therapy but the DWP will use it against me if I stop. Even if it was good therapy it wouldn't help. My problems are severe disability and poverty. Therapy won't fix that. On top of all this, I get severe migraines, which are triggered by artificial smells and the therapy wing of the hospital stinks of air fresheners and perfume and stuff, it actually gives me migraines to go there. AND it's a waste of NHS resources bullying people into medical treatments they don't want!
Same here. I'm a partially sighted stroke and cancer patient. Multiple doctors have written to the DWP (Nazis who run the British benefits system) on my behalf, requesting them to give me a 10 year benefit award (the maximum possible even if you have an incurable disease like Parkinsons, Alzheimers, MS, etc). Still the most they've ever given me, after a lengthy and stressful appeal, was 4 years. However the appeal took nearly a year and that year was knocked off the total. They're allowed to start assessing you a year before the award ends, which they did, so really my 4 years was actually 2 years before the stressful assessment process started again.
I'm still having cancer treatment, with life-ruining side effects, I'm still learning to walk again after the stroke and I'm still adjusting to becoming partially sighted. Multiple doctors have told them my health won't improve any time soon. Why are they re-assessing me so frequently? Why did they give me zero points the last time and stop my money?
The DWP are saying they have a 10 year backlog of claims to get through. So why don't they stop giving people such short awards and assessing us so frequently?
I could tolerate life, even though it's painful and miserable, if it wasn't for the endless poverty. It's the frequent assessments and appeals, the low payments when I do get them, and the constant threat of having my benefits stopped permanently, that makes me suicidal.
Sometimes you even have an "acceptable/seen as real" underlying condition that hasn't been diagnosed yet. For three years doctors diagnosed me with things like depression and ME, but in the end it turned out I actually had thyroid cancer, that's what was causing all my symptoms. They simply hadn't bothered to do any tests.
I'm in the UK and going through a disability benefits appeal right now. I'm a partially sighted stroke and cancer patient who is learning to walk again but apparently giving me zero points and stopping my payments is reasonable. Anyway I've been starving as I have no family to help and the food bank is so difficult and takes ages to access. So a couple of times I asked comrades on here for help. But then the DWP (British benefit nazis) said that they are going to check all claimants bank accounts, and I'll get in trouble if they see money going into my account. So I don't dare to ask for money. So I asked for supermarket vouchers/justeat voucher/amazon voucher for amazon pantry instead which means I'm not getting any help now as most people here aren't British and don't want the hassle of trying to work out how to buy vouchers for a different country. It's bad enough having cancer and having had a stroke, hospital appointments, awful treatments, etc. But on top of this society has decided that it doesn't want to pay me enough to live. And as if that isn't bad enough society has decided that I shouldn't be able to get any financial assistance as charity from members of the public either. Why does having cancer mean that I have to be punished with starvation and destitution?
It's not detergent I'm after, it's this strong disinfectant as I have a lot of skin infections.
Some people definitely believe this stuff. I used to know someone who really believed this kind of thing. He had some type of undiagnosed mental illness and as well as believing things like this, he believed that everyone he knew was being paid by the government to stalk and harass him.
I don't know this one's qualifications, but the previous one (many years ago) admitted she wasn't qualified yet, so who knows if this one is even qualified? It's not a possibility to transfer. I was on the waiting list for 5 years to get this one and this is all I've been offered. I could ask her to stop the guided meditations but then she will either expect me to think of something else to do, or she'll drag the drawing nonsense out. Whatever she does it will be nonsense, she's clearly just trying to fill the time with whatever so she can collect her paycheck. I don't actually want therapy at all. I've had four therapies in my life and they were all shit. I've accepted my situation. I'm just trying to stick this out to help my benefits claim. Another issue is I hate the therapy wing of the hospital, it stinks of perfume and air fresheners that give me a migraine and the therapist doesn't care about that either.