There is a story about Personal Independence Payments and mental health conditions here which alleges that Theresa May feels that disability support should be for the "really disabled" and not for people with anxiety taking drugs at home. This hit a nerve with me, not least because I've had experience of the sharp end of primary care for mental health problems but also because I spend some of my working life trying to get access to appropriate services for people with mental health problems. Depression and anxiety are definitely not seen as requiring as much support as physical conditions despite the impact of depression and anxiety on the lives of sufferers. Depression and anxiety are very easy for governments to ignore because the depressed and anxious don't kick up a fuss in the same way that those with physical issues quite rightly do. The ignorance on display made me angry so I decided to write to my MP. I wrote the following letter in a single sitting and did very little editing, mostly because I was too angry to want to reread it. It's probably littered with errors but I felt strongly that I ought to do something, however nugatory, to challenge this despicable status quo.
Dear Sir,
As a constituent I felt that I needed to write you a short message concerning the comments reported as being made by George Freeman and Theresa May regarding PIP payments awarded to people living with anxiety. Despite Mr Freeman's reported claim that he an the prime minister "totally" understand anxiety I am concerned that the way they have phrased their comments suggests something rather different. I feel that the timbre of their comments indicates an underlying sense that mental health conditions do not constitute a "real disability". I would hope that you understand that mental health conditions, especially anxiety can have devastating and far reaching consequences.
I have suffered from depression and anxiety all my adult life. I also have a condition called dysthymia which presents as a constant low grade depression, a sense of weariness and ennui that pervades every aspect of my day to day living. I am someone who holds a degree from the University of Cambridge as well as two postgraduate degrees in psychology, most recently a masters degree in forensic psychology from Coventry university and I found that it is my condition rather than my education which has determined the pattern of my life. I am extremely fortunate to have parents who are well off and a strong network of emotional support. I am able to work part time and my husband earns enough that I have never needed PIP. However, as someone who works with vulnerable people in the community I am very aware that not everyone is as fortunate as myself.
I wanted to illustrate how strongly anxiety has, at times, influenced my day to day life during periods when I have been particularly unwell.
In the mid 2000s while I was living in Cambridge I once had to flee from a red balloon that looked like it was following me when I went to the shops. The panic it engendered was sufficiently powerful that I was not able to go to the shops for several days afterwards. Can you imagine what it is like to have everyday objects provoke a paroxysm of existential horror? My heart was hammering and I remember the cold prickly sensation of adrenaline running through my system. Around the same time I had to leave my job working in a bank due to my ill health. During the period immediately following that decision and for several years afterwards I found it hard, or sometimes impossible, to walk past a branch of that bank, the sense of rising panic was simply too strong. It required me to avoid certain locales in the centre of Cambridge which made it very difficult at times to move around the town. It made it almost impossible to go anywhere new since there was always the risk that I might run into a branch of the bank unexpectedly. I could not say for sure what it was that I was afraid of but I devoted a great deal of time to imagining situations in which I might suddenly happen across something that reminded me of a place of work for which I had been deeply unsuitable. I think on some level I imagined that the shock of it might provoke a heart attack or the complete collapse of rational mind. When you have the sense that the smallest thing might be enough to precipitate some absolute disintegration it encourages you to set limits on your experience. The most recent bout of anxiety occurred around 18 months ago. This time I experienced agoraphobia so severe that I was unable to leave the house for 3 months. I was lucky. My husband was able to do things like pick up food & collect my prescriptions. Had I been living alone things would have been very difficult. I was essentially a prisoner of my own neuroses, the cruellest gaoler I have known.
I share these stories because I want you, and by extension the government in which you serve, to understand that things which occur in the mind have real and tangible consequences in the real world. It may be hard for those of us with loving families to understand but there are people who literally have no one to support them through the maelstrom of mental illness. While I don't wish to comment on individual cases it seems to me that there will be people suffering from anxiety for whom PIP would be entirely appropriate in order to enable them to mitigate their condition. Examples might include hiring a PA to help with some administrative aspects of modern living or to act as an intermediary, having a hairdresser come to their house, taking a taxi to important appointments in order to avoid public transport. I would urge you to challenge your colleagues within the Conservative party when you hear them suggesting that only physical disability can constitute a serious impairment on the full participation in civic life. I would ask you to be an advocate for the vulnerable in society and provide constructive criticism of your colleagues where you see them willing to allow the vulnerable to bear the burden of public policy.
Kind regards,
