Simon’s story was recently presented at September’s Trust Board session.
Now a colleague at Combined Healthcare in his role as a Peer Support Worker, Simon reflects on his experience of psychosis, and his journey with the trust services that supported him.
Simon begins his story by describing the period leading up to his first interaction with mental health services. “I’ve been a service user now since 2005 which is a long time. I went through a really dark period leading up to that time where I felt like I was carrying a bag of rocks really, where these things that had happened to me over time, which probably weren’t that unusual – probably things that happened to most people, but I didn’t really have a way of coping with them. So, I kind of collected this bag of rocks as I describe it as, which became too heavy.”
Following a trip to a festival with his friends where Simon took what he believed to be a legal high, Simon began experiencing symptoms of psychosis. “Something snapped and I came back and I was very paranoid. I thought there were cameras in the house. I thought that the television was talking to me. Music was written directly for me.”
This led Simon to have contact with Combined Healthcare’s crisis care and early intervention teams. “It was the early intervention team really that gave me the diagnosis of psychosis.”
“It gave me something to start to work with. So, I could understand and resonate with things that I read. I didn’t feel as low or as alone because I knew there were other people who had these experiences.”
A decade on from his experience of psychosis as a young adult, Simon sought support from a counsellor to help him better understand the circumstances around this difficult period of his life. This led to a brief stay as an inpatient at Harplands Hospital.
Following his discharge, Simon became interested in learning more about psychology and his own mental health. “After being in Harplands, I started to take an interest in psychology, philosophy, spirituality and these ideas started to become stronger really and started to grow.”
“I spent a lot of time reading and researching and sort of preparing, and I kind of got my story in order so that I could talk about my experiences and kind of polish them up to make them presentable and useful.”
This interest in how his experiences could help others led Simon to apply for a job as a Peer Support Worker at Combined Healthcare. “So, I’ve been doing that now for the last five years or so. I think when it comes to mental health, psychosis in particular, every story is completely unique. It is different and it feels different and people can feel alone in that. But what I’ve learned working for the team is that there are undercurrents. There are symptoms and themes that emerge in different ways. So, people don’t need to feel alone in that experience because the seeds of it are the same, but it grows into different ways that make people unique. I think there’s a lot of good support out there for people. But the support is not a not a cure – or it is a cure, but it’s not a magical cure where people can fix you – you have to fix yourself, but they’re there to support you in doing so.”
Simon is now a Peer Support Worker at Combined Healthcare, sharing his story with other service users, to inspire and support them in their own journeys. You can watch the full video version of Simon’s Story, here.
