Ged’s Story
Ged, 17, was referred to The Junctions Mental Health Services by his GP in December 2015. He was feeling very low in mood and had deliberated ending his own life.
At this time Ged was very confused about his feelings and why he felt so low in mood as there didn’t seem to be anything he could identify which was causing him to feel so unhappy.
Ged was assessed by our team and accessed The Junctions drop in service until a worker could be allocated to offer him one to one support.
Ged began his one to one support with a very negative way of thinking. He had very low self esteem thinking he wasn’t good enough to achieve anything in his life. Ged struggles socially and worries about what others think of him. Because of this he was often isolating himself. Ged finds life at home difficult as he and his mum argue a lot of the time. He had the perception that mum was disappointed in him. Ged also identified that he can become angry, and at times this can become out of control and he will punch himself or pull at his skin.
To begin with we spent some time challenging his negative thoughts and building his self esteem. Ged was very receptive to this and found writing things down very helpful. A few weeks into his support Ged started to feel a lot lower in mood again and we identified that this was linked with him breaking up from college and having no structure to his days. Ged was offered time to talk about his mood and we ensured he wasn’t at risk of having any thoughts to harm himself as he had done in the past. Ged explained that he did feel he would be able to talk about that with me should he feel this way again.
We began setting him goals in-between appointments to join the gym, spend time with friends and to apply for a part time job over the summer. Ged found this a helpful way of working as he was motivated to do things he wouldn’t have done before. Ged and I also spent some time talking about his anger and looking at ways of managing this.
What outcomes did we achieve?
Ged feels a lot happier stating in our last appointment - “I never thought things would change for me, I feel accepted, and positive about my future”.
Ged now attends the gym on a regular basis.
He contacts his friends regularly and organises outings with them.
Ged is able to apply more helpful thinking in situations and therefore becomes less angry at himself.
When he does become angry he has safe strategies to use to cope instead of hurting himself.
Ged plans on applying for University and has the confidence that he will achieve this.
