Hello, I am new here, and I have come here to see how others have dealt with "my" problem. I say "my" problem because I see that this thread is describing it very much the same as my real problem.

I live in England, ... Here we have to wait a very long time, many, many months, before we can get the help we need in these circumstances; I have been trying since September 2004. Another letter arrived today just to tell me that a delay is expected due to the full appointments list. They say will let me know when I am going to go on the list, then, and only then, they will send me another letter to give me an appointment date which will be a month following the entry onto the list! Follow so far? Yes, they know how to keep people in suspension, sure enough.

I need counselling for my problem. To admit this is a great step, and a painful one, and I have been kept waiting this long after first seeing my own doctor in Sept 04 to get help. I find it exhausting, to say the very least.

Gene, I have had the same upbringing as you. My mother was a tyrant. She beat us all up, even my brothers, often using threatening behaviour wielding a bread knife. Yes. We all suffered. And, none of us are in touch, nor ever have been, to this day. It is far too late to gather our thoughts, together, on the subject of our mother. She has affected me all through my life, even though I left home at 19 yrs old; what she did was intolerable, and there was no help in those days, over 50 years ago.

Anyway, I need to tell a counsellor all this and more, so thanks for this website forum, which I will continue to browse.