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CEDT assessment 😬

Lottie5433Lottie5433 Posts: 784 Part of The Mix Family
I have my assessment online with the complex emotional difficulties team (CEDT) today at 10am and I'm bricking it.
I've not slept a huge deal as I was in a mini crisis last night but also I was just panicking about it so much as I don't know what to expect and no one has been able to tell me what to expect.
I worrying about where I do this as my sister and parents are home so I feel I can't do it there, mainly because a share a room with my sister. I spoke to my GM about doing it at work at the leisure complex whilst it's shut then going straight into deep cleaning up there but I don't know if she's going to let me.
So now im worrying about this and in the edge of crying and just emailing/phoning them to tell them I can't do it anymore and cancelling it.

Currently just in the gym trying to distract myself but its not helping 🙃

I fucking hate this feeling

Comments

  • shannon_164shannon_164 Community Connector Posts: 1,716 Extreme Poster
    hey @Lottie5433 🙂

    i really am so so proud of you for even getting to this point, it takes so much strength just to show up for something like this, even when you’re bricking it. it totally makes sense that you’re feeling overwhelmed, especially with how little sleep you’ve had and all the uncertainty around the assessment. not knowing what to expect can make anxiety spiral, and you’ve been carrying a lot already!

    please don’t be too hard on yourself for feeling this way. you are not at all weak for being scared, you’re actually really brave for considering going through with it even with all this going on.

    is there any way you can message your gm again just to check in about using the leisure complex? and if it isn’t possible, do you have any alternative places to use?

    please don’t cancel because of panic though - the assessment is there to help you, and even if it feels intense, it could be a step toward things getting a little easier down the line. you deserve support and you deserve to be heard!

    you’ve got this, even if it doesn’t feel that way right now <3
  • Lottie5433Lottie5433 Posts: 784 Part of The Mix Family
    Thank you @shannon_164 I appreciate you taking the time to read and respond ❤️

    I just keep going into a spiral and into a state of panic about it. Like every time my phone get a notification I'm scared to look at it, or when the phone rings just incase it's them moving the assessment forwards or better cancelling it.

    My GM phoned me today to ask where a key was for the leisure complex but I don't think I could go there now because we are having something fix - steam room tiles? I'm not sure. So it will be awkward if builders are walking in and out.
    The only other place is my brothers room as he's at school or going to work and potentially doing it upstairs in the cafe (we don't use that and only staff are allowed)

    Thank you again
  • Invisible_meInvisible_me Posts: 352 Listening Ear
    Hi @Lottie5433

    Your showing immense strength and I hope this goes well for you. I can hear how scared yiu are feeling anoit this and how drained it's made you feel.
    Remember in a way with it being virtual uoy in control, you can use fidgets to help you manage emotions and cam step away easier than face to face. Also you cannot see them.as such so that can sometimes make it easier.
  • Lottie5433Lottie5433 Posts: 784 Part of The Mix Family
    Hi @Invisible_me
    Thank you for the message I appreciate it ❤️
    I did have my fidgets with me which helped a little bit.
  • Lottie5433Lottie5433 Posts: 784 Part of The Mix Family
    I'll update this post later on, just need some time to figure out and put together what's been said but also wait for a call back later on
  • Lottie5433Lottie5433 Posts: 784 Part of The Mix Family
    So a little update. I had my CEDT assessment with a dbt therapist who has previously had work with eating disorders. This lasted about an hour and was quite alot to take in but also took alot to talk about

    TW mention of self harm and suicide

    During the assessment we spoke about various things, like the guy had read my notes and my file on everything thats happened. To begin he just wanted to know about my situation of like who I live with and how I get on with them.
    I said about how I get on with my brother coz he doesnt understand anything, i don't get on with my sisters because they use my mental health against me, and my parents are too helicoptery. We went on to discuss the helicoptering of my parents.

    He asked if leading up to the appointment if I experienced anxiety and out of 100 what would I rate it. Moving on he asked about my suicidal thoughts and when my last attempt was
    he had down it was august/september last year. I went on to say about one in june and that one are the ones people know about but more have happened that they dont know about. To which he asked when my latest one was: thinking it wouldnt be too recent, I followed with last month roughly (he seemed shocked by it in a way)
    we didnt go into too much detail about what happened in the lead up, but did ask about my methods of doing this as there is a specific method mentioned in my record. After that he asked about my self harm and when the last time i did it was
    the nurse i saw made a note of it in my record that I had fresh/new cuts on my upper arm
    i confirmed that was the last time, which followed with how I usually do it and the location I do it on typically.

    After all this i started to withdraw and was more restless and fidgety- more distracted I would say.

    We also looked at and discussed relationships and he mentioned how trust seems to be a big part on me forming and maintaining relationships. I mentioned how it takes alot to open up to others and trust people with things that are happening with me. Due to this trust issue I never learnt to properly regulate my emotions because they were never validated. He asked how I dealt with emotions and I said i supress and bottle them up which is exhausting. I was asked if I remember how I dealt with or what emotions I had in childhood (I can't remember just what other said - me being bubbly, happy and smiley).

    Then comes the treatment options - both im not too keen on but i spoke about that anyways.
    So i can either have DBT where it's on a 24 week rolling schedule of emotional regulation, mindfulness, some other stuff but I can't remember just that there's alot of 2 week mindfulness blocks. With this its would have an hours sessionn with a therapist individually and a 2 hour online group session weekly as well.
    If i miss 4 group session or 4 individual session theb treatment stops.
    Then the other is CAT - not much was spoken about that but it would look at my relationships

    So after I had my assessment the therpaist took my case to their MDT meeting to see what they could offer me.
    At about 3:20pm I received a call from them therapist with the decided outcome of the assessment.

    So i have been but on their DBT waitlist which is 6months to a year long. Because their is an extensive waitlist he mentioned how I will receive wellbeing calls about every 6 weeks or so just to see how things are.
    It was mentioned how yes the waitlist is close to a year long there could be a chance to be seen earlier around 6 months. But not to get hopes up just to think about the waitlist being a year long

    Do yeah that's that.

    Despite this I still contacted SHOUT at about 4pm who were no help so yeah waiting a year will be fun
  • shannon_164shannon_164 Community Connector Posts: 1,716 Extreme Poster
    hey @Lottie5433 🙂

    firstly, i am so so proud of you for attending the assessment! how are you feeling now since its been a few days since?

    it sounds like such an intense and emotionally draining assessment, and i really want to acknowledge how much strength it took for you to go through that and be as open as you were - that is not easy, especially when it means digging into things you’ve kept bottled up for so long.

    i’m sorry the outcome is a year long wait, that feels like forever, especially when you’re struggling and need support now - i know it is dependent on where you live etc but i was told in after an assessment in september 2024 i would have to wait approximately 3.5 years before i would see a psychologist, that felt like a lifetime away for sure, but in november 2024 i ended up getting a letter telling me to book my first session - i know it doesn’t work out that way all the time, but there is a little tiny chance it might be sooner! it is so frustrating when you’ve done everything right, showed up, opened up, gave them all the hard truths, and the system still makes you wait. i hope the wellbeing calls do bring some form of check-in comfort, even if it’s not what you truly need. how are you feeling about the idea of dbt? if you’re comfy sharing of course.

    it’s totally understandable that you reached out to shout after all that, even if they weren’t helpful, you were trying to take care of yourself in that moment, and that matters. i am proud of you for reaching out at all - i hope you’re proud of yourself too!

    you’ve got this, i believe in you <3
  • Lottie5433Lottie5433 Posts: 784 Part of The Mix Family
    Hi @shannon_164

    Im feeling slightly better, still just riding the roller coaster of life 🎢. Everyone that ive spoken to or mentioned too are pleased that im getting that part of me figured out, they are aware bit shocked of the waiting time, but those at work are being supportive and checking in with me right now.

    Yeah it is a shame on the waiting time but I thinks it's down to that CEDT work with various mental health issues - like they dont just focus on one area; not like the eating disorder team I saw.

    I was told to keep in mind that - yes the waitlist is a year long it has been known for people to be seen after 6 months, so I guess that's something.

    Fingers crossed the wellbeing calls go okay, I just dont want to be repeating the same things each time or lying to them because im scared to really tell them out of fear of invalidation (my therapist basically did this during our calls/sessions at the time)

    Im unsure how i feel about DBT. Like theyve said that's the better option if I didnt find CBT too helpful. The only thing I'm not liking is the whole idea of group therapy sessions for 2hrs a week. I have mentioned how I dont like group and will hide in the background so idk what's going to happen at that point.
    Tbh I'm just scared it's going to be the same experience as CBT and im just going to not think it's helping (but make out like it is helping), then I'm also anxious about if it's going to be face-to-face individual therapy - i feel if it's face-to-face its going to give more anxiety because they pick up more on my body language but also im not sure where it would be too as their address is basically in the middle of nowhere. They also haven't said anything about if they think "i'm at risk" ect so I kinda what to clarify that this time round in therapy. There is also the fact ive been told it is almost a year long treatment plan- which kinda terrifies me and the whole process of if I miss any sessions (because I use to just phone my ED therapist saying I wasnt well just so I didnt have to go to the session).
    The only possitve I have that kinda relieves the anxiety is that i have been given a breif outline of what it's going to look like: in the sense of how long, the topics, plan etc.

    I guess i was "looking after" myself by contacting Shout but I just feel like i shouldn't have becuase i felt like I wasted their time. Then the fact they found out I had my assessment and they couldn't careless they wanted to get rid of me. Like I didn't even confirm I felt safe/okay before they ended the chat nor did we really do a plan of safety (because i had the necessary resources and contacted them too much essentially). But yeah not going to say anything else about Shout - everyone had different experiences.

    Thank you for your response and your belief in me ❤️ i truely appreciate it
  • Sian321Sian321 Community Manager Posts: 1,197 Wise Owl
    Hey @Lottie5433 , how are you doing? Thank you so much for this post and I'd really like to echo what @shannon_164 has said here - I remember just how anxiety-inducing the lead up to the assessment was, and I can imagine it might have taken immense courage to go along. That cannot be underestimated.

    You mentioned how the assessor look time to explore your feelings leading up to the assessment, spoke with you about your family dynamics, and explored your relationships and the theme of trust too. I hear also that they asked about your experience with suicidal feelings and self-harm, and during this part of the appointment you could feel yourself starting to withdraw and become fidgetty. That is so valid, Lottie, and it sounds hard.

    I see that the assessor then let you know that the team had felt a 24 week course of DBT may be helpful, including 1:1 and group therapy, as well as wellbeing checks each 6 weeks. It sounds really reassuring to have recieved some information about exactly what this course will cover and to get an outline, because I can imagine it feeling really daunting not to know. Waiting between 6 months to a year also sounds really tough, and I wanted to ask whether you know when you'll recieve the first wellbeing call, or whether that's maybe taken place?

    I hear how you have some mixed feelings about DBT (esspecially after CBT which felt unhelpful for you), and particularly the group-work aspects. Again, that is so valid, Lottie, and I can imagine its really tough when you're in this place of limbo right now waiting. You've been doing so well to be talking about this and to open up to your assessor as you did. I can imagine that might not have felt easy at all. What kinds of questions would you say you have about how DBT at this stage?

    If helpful, I'll share below a few resources around DBT here:
    How have things been feeling more lately day-to-day? We're here and we're listening if you'd like to share.
  • Lottie5433Lottie5433 Posts: 784 Part of The Mix Family
    Hi @Sian321
    I haven't been doing great at all over the last few weeks but hayho I'm ✨️Thriving ✨️🫠

    Yeah leading up to it it was alot of anxiety just coz it was different to all the rest of the assessments I've had. Just going and finding a private space I could have the assessment in was enough to worry about.
    You mentioned how the assessor look time to explore your feelings leading up to the assessment, spoke with you about your family dynamics, and explored your relationships and the theme of trust too. I hear also that they asked about your experience with suicidal feelings and self-harm, and during this part of the appointment you could feel yourself starting to withdraw and become fidgetty. That is so valid, Lottie, and it sounds hard.
    yeah he did breifly look at the feelings leading up to the assessment. We focused on my general feelings and what I feel, as well as my relationships particularly the trust part. I did start to withdraw at that point when he wanted to talk about the recentness of each of these things, good thing was we didn't talk too much about it.
    I see that the assessor then let you know that the team had felt a 24 week course of DBT may be helpful, including 1:1 and group therapy, as well as wellbeing checks each 6 weeks.
    Yeah so it would be 48 weeks in total on a 24 week rolling schedule with the wellbeing checks happening every 6 weeks till I get the support of therapy etc.
    The first wellbeing call hasn't happened yet if it's from when my assessment was it would be expected the 1st week of June but idk.

    I dint have any questions about DBT yet.
    How have things been feeling more lately day-to-day?
    well day to day is very hit and miss. But majority of the time has been a struggle as of lately but that doesnt matter
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