‘I spent a year out of school with no help at all. I relied on family and Youngminds...’

TEENAGER Luke Joshua endured almost two years of racist and physical abuse and a further year of waiting before he was finally referred to the specialist he needed.

Luke, now 17, told how the bullying began in school when he was 13, with two culprits singling him out. He complained to the school and was referred to his school counsellor after six months. But the taunts continued.

He said: “They would call me names and some of it was racist. For some reason they had decided to target me.

“Much of it was just threats but they also did physically hurt me.

“The abuse went on for the whole of year seven and eight.

“I reported it to the teachers a few times and my parents reported it too.”

After a year his parents moved him to another school, but then the post-traumatic effects of the bullying manifested.

It took a further year for him to see a post-traumatic stress counsellor.

Luke, who lives with his younger sister, said he “disengaged” from his family and society.

He said he felt “paralysed” and could not go to school.

He said: “Moving from primary to secondary is a hard transition anyway – it’s harder to do it twice.

“The new school was better in terms of the people, but I very soon started to experience the trauma of the old school.

“The new school didn’t understand what I had gone through. I just found I couldn’t face going in. It wasn’t fear of anything happening as it had happened in the old school.

“It started with physical symptoms. My body was awake, and I could hear my parents talking to me, but it felt like I was in a dream. I shut down.

“I felt completely disconnected from society. I realised how mental and physical health are intricately combined. I stayed out of school for a whole year during that time and my parents took me to my GP for help.”

Luke was put on a waiting list to see a specialist with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). After a six month wait he was seen by a specialist for an assessment and a few weeks later he was then seen by a counsellor.

However, after three appointments his counsellor left and he was put back on the waiting list for another six months.

By the time he got to see the second counsellor he was 15.

However, this therapist referred him a third time to a specialist posttraumatic stress counsellor.

Luke had to wait another three months for this.

He said: “It was a really long time. I dread to think that other people have to go through the same thing or worse.

“I was in such a state when I went to the GP.

“My mental health deteriorated even further while I waited to see someone from CAMHS and I spent a whole year out of school with no help at all. I relied on my family and online support withyoungminds, but it wasn’t the specialist help I needed.

“I had never heard of mental health problems before I got this, nor had my parents.”

Luke had 10 weeks of specialist post-traumatic stress therapy, after which he said: “I feel I am in more control, but I have been prescribed medication to help me.”

‘I dread to think

that other people have to go through the same thing or

worse...

LUKE JOSHUA