View Full Version : We deserve better
Hi
Not had a brilliant day today but have distracted myself by thinking about why so many people on the forum don't seem to be getting the support they need from gps,psych services and the nhs in general. I work in the nhs and often hear clinicians and commissioners talking disparagingly about " the worried well",. patients who waste their ( I.e the nhs) time!! I challenge this whenever I hear it..a person is worried about their health until they are told they have nothing to worry about..if they are well that's a bonus but we ( the patient) don't go to seek advice because we want to sit in crowded waiting rooms and wait an hour to be seen..we go cos we need " expert" advice.
Health anxiety doesn't mean we don't genuinely have symptoms..it may mean we escalate them in to something major..but surely then we need reassurance,maybe more than the " average" patient ..but we still have a right to that reassurance,and to the tests or whatever it takes to give us that reassurance.
I'm lucky I have a good gp with mental health services within the practise. Gps are generalists..everything from backache to Earache..but what they should do is refer on and not be dismissive.I understand healthcare is expensive but we already pay for it so we should be able to make demands. And if the gp thinks we are just the " worried well" then they should make a referral to someone who might be able to help with the anxiety,not just make us feel like a nuisance!!!
Sorry to go on...just a bit of rant
Ps..there was a sign in the waiting room at psychological therapies today saying 119 people didn't attend their appointments in July...oh eck!!
Well said! Not ranting at all... bottom line is they don't know what to do with "us" :( More and more people are suffering with mental health issues (and it will get worse) but less money is being spent. We already (I believe) have an "epidemic" of people with mental health problems (hardly surprising) and they are just being left to fend for themselves :( It's an absolute disgrace!! Society needs to change...
Agreed..Ive set myself a small project to find out how many of my clinical colleagues have heard of / understand health anxiety..and how many have had any mental health training.
Go for it! Good luck and keep us posted :)
Good for you, we need you to fly the flag for us. Health anxiety is so disabling and all we want is reassurance from a professional, it makes such a difference to be able to talk about our symptoms instead of sitting at home worrying. I would be interested to hear the outcome - best of luck.:yesyes:
i agree well said i think what it is that ppl who dnt suffer anxiety dont really understand it and cant understand why we cant justpull ourselves together or just get over it or get on with it which are three things i cant stand being said. its easy for them if they dont worry and are lucky enuff to be care free. yes reassurance is what we we need and we should be allowed whatever test gives us this no matter what the cost if thats what it takes to make us better we have the rights like everybody else. doctors just need more patience its got to the point where my doc dosent even look at me he just writes and i know what hes thinking not you again.... tsk tsk:mad:
Another thing..seeing as I'm in rant mood. I have stopped making excuses for why I can't attend meetings or might be off work occasionally. I now just tell people I have anxiety and so,for now,there are things i can't do. I know this isn't possible for everyone to do but I kinda thought I work for the nhs ..I should be able to be honest..and be supported. So far so good and I've had a lot of support from colleagues. Mental health still carries such a stigma..which is why I love this site cos we are all so flippin normal!! ( hope that makes sense)
I agree with you totally. Unfortunately health anxiety isn't very well understood; it should be recognised as an illness in itself. There are many health anxiety sufferers who are too frightend to go running to their doctors, and suffer alone, and will only go as a last resort when their anxiety can no longer be contained, so on average I would say they 'waste' less money and time than the average person who visits their doctor regularly and doesn't suffer anxiety. Health anxiety sufferers should be treated with the same respect as any other patient
Good to hear your colleagues are supportive, that's gotta be sooo important!
Was just wondering, do you think that health anxiety is a form of OCD? A coping mechanism maybe? I think mine is related to stuff that happened when I was a child...
I've said this before,but until I found this site I didn't know health anxiety was a condition..I just knew I was anxious about my health! Rosie you are soooo right..the last thing I wanted to do sometimes was go to the docs to have my worst fears confirmed!! I'm goin to keep this thread updated with my "project".. Thanks guys ..it's great to hear so many of us feel the same..I feel a campaign coming on!!x
Hey kibbutz..I don't know...it's complicated isn't it..but there seem to be a lot of us out there.
Yes, I think anxiety, whichever form it takes, can be a form of distracting ourselves from other problems in our lives by substituting it with another. With HA we live in fear of our lives, and nothing could be quite as bad as that, so other problems take a back seat. I also think the reassurance we seek, and finally accept can be addictive. That sense of relief when we feel all is well is a wonderful release from our anxiety, but like any high a low will follow, and so the whole process starts again. It is a difficult cycle to break.
Yes Rosie, in some cases it's the habit of a lifetime! How do you even get started when you've done it forever? :(
hyppiegirl
15-09-11, 19:37
I saw my chart in my doctor's office top line reads has severe anxiety in red letters lol!!!! I used to be so ashamed of it now screw it I am who I am and there is so much more to me than just my anxiety. I have friends that are nurses and I tell them you treat people with anxiety well just like you treat me and they agree.
It is difficult Kibbutz, but the most important thing is to recognise that reassurance fuels the anxiety. I used to self check constantly, hoping to seek a little bit of reassurance - thinking that each time i checked things would feel or look better. Sometimes they did, and sometimes they didn't, and even if they did i would have to check again to make sure, and then of course i would be back to square one because it would seem worse. I found by reducing my self checking the anxiety slowly subsided; I know it is an extremely difficult thing to do - like breaking any addiction or obsession. If you can set yourself realistic targets it can be done. Only allow yourself certain checking times, and stick to them no matter what, even when you feel desperate, just remind yourself that each and every time you check it is actually setting you back. If you have a partner who will check for you i think it helps, as long as they know there is a strict limit on the checking times. Eventually you might be able to reduce it to twice a day - and eventually none at all - really hard i know - like resisting google, which i hope you don't do.
Another thing which i found really helped was not allowing myself to feel the great sense of relief once i allowed myself to believe all was ok; I managed to keep my emotions on an even level; by avoiding the high i think you are less likely to experience the terrible low which can follow.
Like you, I think my HA stems from childhood experiences; i found myself in frightening situations which were out of my control, and i do believe my HA replicates this feeling of fear and isolation. It is possible to take control of HA -it is a struggle at times, and there are times when my HA resurfaces, and I have to put into practice my time limit on checking etc., but it can be done. At the moment I am struggling with breast cancer worry, but am not allowing myself to google or check more than twice a day. I think it helps so much knowing there are other people who can understand our anxiety, and we can each gain a little bit of insight from other peoples' experiences.
Hi,
I can appreciate what you're saying and I'm so thankful to have a wonderful GP. After many, many visits where I was reassured by my GP I finally told him about my HA. He asked me what I wanted him to do about it and I said I wanted CBT. A referral was swiftly made, I was offered stress classes in the intrim until my appointments come through which helped me greatly understand and relate to the symproms of anxiety (who thought adrenaline could do such funny things). I was also referred to an exercise on referral programme where i was able to access the gym with my own health professional to build up my confidence (all of this free even though I work full-time).
I suggest to all who have GP's where they feel they are not listened to or taken seriously, then they give some great thought to changing practices, it's your health, happiness and well-being at stake, you are paying for a NHS service so ensure its money worth spent.
I was unaware of how 'common' HA is and if many patients started shifting practices then questions would need to be asked and possibly more mental health training made compulsary for GP's.
Thats my rant over.
Tracey xxx
Hi Tracey
You are so right..we have right to be happy with our care and to change practioners if we are not.Funnily enough the new mantra of the " new" nhs is patient choice patient first patient led !!
Your gp sounds fab..and I'm so glad I've got a good one! And also excellent caring front of house staff
Xx
Hi Rosie, it's strange, but until you mentioned that you had a breast cancer phobia, I'm not even sure I fully acknowledged how intense my "checking" was. I had my first mammogram the other week and was totally convinced that the result would come back saying I had cancer. It was negative! I was slightly confused :( How COULD it be negative? But for the time being I've stopped checking at least :) It seems my brain is flooded with one health anxiety after another, not just my own but my son and partner too :( I was even in group psychotherapy for 14 months, and they didn't pick up on any of this... interestingly though there was a guy in the group who had horrendous ocd, and they traced his back to sexual abuse at his boarding school, and his grandmother's sudden death when he was away from home.
It all runs very deep, and is not easy to "reach" x
Good news to hear your mammogram came back negative - waiting for test results is absolute torture; I am usually climbing the walls after a day or so. You must hold on to that result and trust you have nothing to worry about.
I used to lurch from one anxiety to the next; fortunately i have managed to get out of that loop. I have episodes which aren't quite so intense, and am able to take a step back from it, and think things through more rationally. Understanding where the anxiety comes from can help us to make some sense of it, but it is still very difficult to find rational thoughts when you are caught up in that feeling of dread.
As you say it all runs very deep, but it really does help to share experiences, and realise you are not struggling alone with this condition. Until i found this site, I had no idea there were others who suffered in the same way - it saddens me too, because all this worrying is such a waste of life. There is a saying - perhaps from a song - i am not sure - but i find it quite poignant 'He who is afraid of dying never learns to live'. x
I have just stared working in the mental health service and i just want to say that it is a shame people dont get the support they want/need. However dont blame the workers blame the government as they are making loads of changes some good some bad and not all the workers agree with it.
There are more referrals coming through for people with mental health issues and they are being referred to other agencies if they don't meet the criteria which is has and continues to change with higher thresholds to meet and unfortunately there is often a waiting list to be seen for these services.
There are services out there its just knowing how and where to access them.
Hi lid
I absolutely agree with you..I hope my post didn't read as a criticism of mental health services..it is exactly as you say,the services are there,but for many the gp is the first port of call and patients rely on them for signposting to appropriate support. I work in sexual health and like you say the commissioners are constantly changing the thresholds
Apologies again if what I said sounded critical of mental health provision..I'm a user of those services and have no complaints.
wotnews you were not critisising anyone you were saying how you felt and it understandable the systems rubbish. Everyones entitled to say how they feel and thats important tc
angelwings7
18-09-11, 18:24
Hi
I just wanted to say thank you for posting this. Understandably the NHS are under a lot of pressure at the moment and we all understand that the blame can not be placed on any particular individual.
The problem that I have faced personally, and I am sure others reading will agree, is that my GP does not seem to have any understanding of anxiety, at all. In fact I think I probably suggested anxiety to her, as some form of explanation of my symptoms.
(Over the past 5 years I have had the feeling of lumps in my throat, fears of cancer/MS/lupus, pins and needles, shortness of breath, blurry vision(feel drunk), fatigue, trembling, achy fingers/toes/arms and legs, constant worry/checking etc)
I have visited my GP with various symptoms over the past 2 years, having had many blood tests the ANA came up positive, so was referred for neurological tests, concluded to be normal. If I had never had this result come up positive I would find it much easier to tell myself my symptoms are all anxiety related and nothing to worry about.
On my last visit my GP told me that ANA can show up in normal healthy patients and could be nothing at all to worry about and as the specialist found nothing wrong with my nerves there was basically no further investigation. She said that she believed my anxiety was more of a concern to her, however when I asked what I can do about it she suggested CBT and then added "but it's 9-5 so there would be no point referring you as you would be at work" That was it, so I am now left trying to deal with it alone.
If I could afford or had the time to see somebody to help I would but why should I? I feel as though CBT or counselling is almost viewed as a luxury as if you have a mental health problem you should be able to treat yourself by just telling yourself to stop worrying?!
I would love for this to change so that one day I could try to understand why and how the HA switch turned itself on and how to switch it off.
Until then I only have this forum for reassurance...
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