If you need help
If you need urgent help for your mental health
Get help from 111 online or call 111 and select the mental health option.
Call 999 or go to A & E now if your life is at risk. For example, you have seriously injured yourself or taken an overdose.
A mental health emergency should be taken as seriously as a physical one. You will not be wasting anyone’s time.
Call the emergency services if someone’s life is at risk.
Watchful waiting
If you have mild symptoms of PTSD, or you have had symptoms for less than 4 weeks, an approach called watchful waiting may be recommended.
Watchful waiting involves carefully monitoring your symptoms to see whether they improve or get worse.
It’s sometimes recommended because 2 in every 3 people who develop problems after a traumatic experience get better within a few weeks without treatment.
If watchful waiting is recommended, you should have a follow-up appointment within 1 month.
I just needed the time to allow it all to digest.
A survivor
How to know if you need further help
- If you feel persistently that you want to take your own life.
If after a month or so:
- You can’t function at home or work.
- You are swamped with anxiety.
- Eating too much or not enough.
- Emotions that overwhelm your ability to cope for a long time.
- You feel angry or low in mood.
- Having strange or unusual ideas.
- Being irritable, overly critical or controlling of people (and yourself).
- Are having unusual relationship problems.
- Have trouble sleeping with severe nightmares or still have memories of what happened plaguing your mind which feels like reliving the event.
- Feel numb or disconnected.
- Mistrusting of other people.
- Hearing or seeing things that other people may not be.
- Blame yourself or feel ashamed.
- Your concentration is causing risks to safety.
- Developing obsessions or rituals that make you feel safer even though they seem excessive to others or take up a lot of time.
- Your drug or alcohol use is out of control.
Two months after the incident someone from the Manchester Resilience Hub rang me to ask how I was doing and I burst into tears, I was crying a lot.
A survivor.
There are some groups of people who are at higher
risk of experiencing longer term problems:
- First responders dealing with fallout of the incident.
- Other personnel dealing with the aftermath of the incident.
- Witnesses or bystanders.
- People with a history of mental health difficulties.
- People with a history of personal trauma.
- People with limited social support.
- People with learning disabilities or cognitive impairments.
- Pregnant mothers.
- People who could identify closely with the person or situation.
Details of how to access psychological therapies are available from NHS Talking Changes (opens in a new tab)
Since the Manchester bombings I was seen within two weeks, just talking helped.
A survivor.
Some things to think about
- It may useful here to reflect further about how you are feeling. Do you feel preoccupied by past events or maybe you are starting to look ahead, maybe you feel somewhere in between?
- What, if any, steps do you need to take now?