Doctors palming/shrugging you off??

[vicki1980]

I take it like myself many of you on this site have health anxieties? and sometimes the symptoms can be so very real and severe, so you end up at the Doctors quite a lot.

Could i ask how many of you come out feeling like you have just been palmed/shrugged off? and you leave with yet another prescription for some medication or other. I sometimes feel this just feeds the root cause of anxiety. Do doctors need better understanding of mental health issues? Yes i know the way the nhs is we are little more than a number these days. But a little more understanding by doctors might go a long way.

Maybe it's just me, after all i am a little sceptical these days!!

[roxy90]

Me! plenty of times I felt like I was palmed off, shrugged off, they're not taking me seriously and I'm going to die because of it. What I eventually realised that the doctors cannot do anything if there is nothing wrong in the first place x

[vicki1980]

Hi Roxy, that's really interesting thankyou. So in effect you helped yourself out of it? Did the symptoms etc just dull after that then? That is certainly food for thought.

[valleybear]

Roxy 90 is correct, however I think that Drs tend not to have the time to sit with you and get some understanding of why you are feeling this way, and to try and get to crux of the problem, even and especially if it is one of anxiety/depression etc. I found that it was helpful to book a double appointment (some Drs have this option) and then there was more time to have discussion . X

[vicki1980]

Yes that's true, most dr's it's just a ten minute slot for each patient, i have even heard some are just a 5 minute slot. Either way the patient and the NHS is losing out because you just end up with patients going back over and over.

Catch 22 really.

[HoneyLove]

Roxy 90 is correct, however I think that Drs tend not to have the time to sit with you and get some understanding of why you are feeling this way, and to try and get to crux of the problem, even and especially if it is one of anxiety/depression etc.

Exactly, GPs have very limited time to talk to a patient and they will do the best they can for us in that time. My GP has been kind enough to take extra time with me if it's genuinely needed, but she doesn't waste time where it's not necessary. I trust her judgement on this stuff, you've got to do that too.

If you'd like to work to the root of your issue then therapy is the best way forward, it's designed for you to explore your issues and help you understand what's going on.

[roxy90]

Sorry if I seemed like I was criticising you, I wasn't genuinely. I have been and done that, I saw no less than 15 different doctors through GPS, walk in centre, OOH GP, A+E etc because I believed I was being fobbed off. It's an awful feeling, but it was explained to me by one very nice doctor that their job is to examine whoever is in front of them for signs of physical illness and diagnose based on that. She said that unfortunately if they find no psychical cause of the pain there is nothing they can do, no treatment will help if there is nothing to treat.

I understood that, that they weren't just fobbing me off but there was no illness/disease they could treat. I cut down my doctors visits a hell of a lot, as my symptoms started to fade as I started to not worry x

I agree with everyone else, book a double appointment and see if there is any type of therapy/CBT that you can use, it is much more useful than a GP when it comes to things like anxiety x

[vicki1980]

No Roxy, i didn't think you were criticising me. No i ask as i thought that really is good food for thought, a common sense answer, and if it worked then all the better.

[roxy90]

That's okay then :) I remember many a time I've come home from a doctors visit wondering why they're fobbing me off, wondering why they won't just listen and do something. I wondered how on earth can I be having these very real very bad symptoms and there be nothing causing them. It's like mental torture thinking there is something wrong with you but cant get the medial professionals to see it.

But if the professionals can't find it, its because it's not there to find. I struggled with it for a while, but I eventually stopped going as I began to know what they were going to say before I went in the room!

[unsure_about_this]

sorry for bumping this thread up. but I have felt like this with abdominal pain I have had. I have had a tests and scans done and nothing serious have been found.

I do feel because of my age of being fobbed off by the GPs I have seen however the GPS who sent me for tests. It could be because I have scared myself to death reading plenty of articles online.