A TEENAGER is begging for more help from counsellors before she kills herself.

Rebecca Stanford, 16, has taken two overdoses this year and is scared that her one-hour weekly sessions with a therapist may not be enough as she battles suicidal thoughts.

She spoke out in the wake of recent suicides in Weymouth and claims from devastated relatives that not enough is being done to help people with mental issues.

Rebecca, from Littlemoor, has suffered from clinical depression since she was 13 and her scars show where she has used pencil sharpener blades and knives to harm herself.

Rebecca’s problems escalated in July when her mum Debbie came home to find she had swallowed 20 painkillers.

She was taken to accident and emergency in Dorchester and survived.

Rebecca said: “I’ve not had much help at all.

“I tried to hide it for a few years until I took an overdose.

“Then I spoke to a social worker at hospital and they said they would get in touch but I didn’t hear anything until a few months later when I got a letter saying I didn’t need help.

“I’d seen a social worker when I was trying to be positive for my dad but I was still really ill and felt awful.

“I was just hoping I would get help.”

Then three weeks ago a friend called an ambulance when Rebecca took more tablets and left a note saying ‘I’m sorry’. This time she had managed to stop herself from taking so many tablets and was treated by paramedics at home.

The former Wey Valley School pupil then ‘broke down’ in front of her GP and asked to be admitted to hospital. But she was referred for counselling and received calls from a crisis team member every evening for a week.

She now sees a counsellor every week but feels it is not enough.

She said: “I feel like people in this situation need more support than an hour a week.”

Rebecca describes her bad days as being ‘in a black hole’.

She added: “When its really bad you have thoughts running through your head of how you would end your life and how your family would be better off.

“I wouldn’t want to put them through that but sometimes it feels like it would be easier for everyone.

“It’s not a nice place to be at all.”

In her last counselling session she admitted having ‘really bad thoughts’ again but she said her therapist from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service was now unavailable to see her for a week.

“My parents are absolutely terrified at the moment,” she added.

Her father Dave, 58, who works on Weymouth Relief Road, said: “I don’t know what I’m going to find when I come home.

“There must just be so many people out there in the same situation.”

Rebecca describes her mum Debbie, 50, as ‘the best person in the world’.

Mrs Stanford said: “I was in tears again on Monday at the counselling.

“I want to be able to get her out of this but it’s hard.

“It’s the worst experience I’ve ever had.”

Rebecca contacted the Echo after reading of the tragic death of Shaun Nutman, 33.

After his death at home in Chickerell Road, Weymouth, his wife Amanda complained that Shaun’s one hour of counselling per week had not been enough.

Dave Stanford said Shaun’s story ‘shook him to the core’ because he felt he could have been reading about Rebecca.

Mrs Nutman, 31, welcomed Rebecca’s appeal for more help for mental health patients.

She said: “I think it needs to be shouted from the rooftops that there’s not enough information and help.”