Looking after your mental health
A false allegation may leave you feeling very distressed or even suicidal as a result of having your life upended. It can seem as if the whole forces of the state have lined themselves in your direction whilst supporting a vicious person’s attempts to frame you. Some people loose night after night of sleep worrying about what they can do to defend themselves. Others are unable to carry on working. And a small number of us have killed themselves. Make sure you’re not one of them, so look after your mental health whilst you’re going through this.
Anxiety
Most people will feel gut-wrenching fear and anxiety with what will often be their first contact with the police. Doubly so if you know you’ve been falsely accused. Relatives likewise – if you care for someone, you may well experience all the same worries. That is a normal response to what you have been through. However it can become pathological. If your feelings of anxiety become out of control, or are present all the time, that can mean you should seek some help.
Depression
If you think you’re depressed then you probably are. Go and see your GP. If you don’t know whether you’re depressed then follow this link to the NHS’s advice about the tell-tale signs and how to treat it. Tell your GP what’s happened to you. They may well be able to prescribe some medication to help you cope until it’s blown over: treatment of short-term anxiety, sleeplessness and depression is simple, it’s effective and it may well prevent you from harming yourself and feeling overwhelmed by the injustice of what you’re going through.
Unless you give your doctor reason to believe that you have committed a criminal offence, they must not volunteer information you tell them. You should be aware however that in a case as serious as this, your medical notes are potentially disclosable to the police investigation if they can make a case that it is in the public interest to do so.
