When you don't believe your GP

[Beth28]

I have an long standing problem, that I will not go into. Generally I trust my GP but recently I don't believe that he believes me or my symptoms. I believe as I go to see him almost bi-monthly I am a hypochondriac, I probably am. I have an old friend who is a GP and she says that GP prefer people they don't see as they feel they are genuinely ill.
My symptoms have gotten worse over the last six months. He has refered me to 2 specialists/departments that I know have nothing to do with my illness. I actually like my GP but I feel he is getting exhausted and fed up with me. He was seriously ill himself earlier this year maybe he thinks I should be grateful. I know can ask for a second opinion but I really don't want to upset the applecart.
I know of quite a few people that have been misdiagnosed in my life and three were fatal. GP are exactly that - general practitioners and they are human. They come up with a vague diagnosis in 10 mins. Add fed up to the equation then what?
I have known someone that went to a party and dancing and passed away from that dreaded illness less than 4 weeks later. So misdiagnosis is real in my life.
I am convinced that he delays my tests. Because he feels there will not be anything wrong. My mother and I had the same scan she has locums in her surgery so everything is done slowly. I have my GP. Her appointment came 3 weeks before mine. We live in the same area.

It is getting to the point I want to prove the GP wrong. How sick is that?

Sorry for the long thing but what do I change?

[skippy66]

It would be great if there was a machine that could scan your entire body each morning for signs of any kind of illness, disease or problem. But the fact is there isn't. There is risk in life and you must accept that before you can start to win the battle over health anxiety.

Could you have been misdiagnosed? Yes. Could any of us have the early stages of some rare cancer? Yes. Could Barack Obama develop a rare form of cancer today? Yes. Could anyone simply drop dead today? Yes.

You have to look at the statistics in a rational way. The chances are very high that you don't have anything wrong with you. But even if you do, you can't do much about it. It's quite a difficult thing to accept as I know what place you're in right now - you're trying to grasp total control of your life when you just need to sit back and enjoy the ride. See it as an aeroplane journey - you can sit back and relax 'come what may' or you can be panicky throughout, wondering if every little bit of turbulence will be fatal and wanting to pilot the plane yourself.

Trust your GP - they are far better trained than you. Accept that misdiagnosis IS possible, but very, very unlikely.

[katesa]

I would ask why your GP would refer you to two different specialists if he was just writing you off as a hypochondriac.

Your mothers scan being before yours is probably because she is older.

GP's get it wrong. They are human. I've lived with the consequences of one such misdiagnosis.

But in the last year alone, the GP's of myself and my family have been absolutely spot on. My GP even referred and eventually got me diagnosed me with MS even though I went in worried about a completely different illness and didn't point out my symptoms to her.

So on balance, GP's get it right about 10000 times more than we do.

That said, if you don't trust your GP, rightly or wrongly, then you should get another.

[cpe1978]

I think the question is somewhat akin to - how do you know that the bus driving past isn't going to blow a tyre and plough you down. The reality is that you don't and I dare say that road accidents are more common than tragic misdiagnosis.

At some point like everything in life you have to take a leap of faith and enjoy life.

[unsure_about_this]

Hi

I am going through my fear of not trusting GPs, I have seen every GP at the practice I am registered to. My fear is bowel cancer etc. I have had been to specialist just to proof there was nothing serious wrong with me, because I did not believe IBS was the cause of my abdominal pain. Nothing has been serious been found, may need keyhole in the future.

Even though I have had two CBT sessions so far one interesting comment/statement was made how sure can we be that there is something wrong with us or nothing wrong with us, I don't whether he was saying this to help think logical.

[LF87]

Oh hell.
This is THE worst post I could possibly read. I have difficulty trusting my doctor also.
The part about the person dancing and then 4 weeks later passing away is particularly terrifying.
Panic mode now :(

[skippy66]

The part about the person dancing and then 4 weeks later passing away is particularly terrifying.
Panic mode now :(

You have to learn not to tie-in completely unrelated stuff to your own health.

It's akin to me saying:

"Oh god - someone died in a car crash today because their brakes failed. I'm now terrified that the brakes on my car might fail.
Panic mode now :("

It's completely illogical.

[LF87]

You're right skippy! I need to pipe down.

[skippy66]

I wasn't having a go, just trying to help you.

[LF87]

I know :) I genuinely do need to pipe down! I read something like that and suddenly it applies to me, even though I've seen two doctors about my current worry. Thanks for your reply x

[katesa]

I know :) I genuinely do need to pipe down! I read something like that and suddenly it applies to me, even though I've seen two doctors about my current worry. Thanks for your reply x

I mean this in a nice way but the hardest thing I had to do when beginning my journey towards ha recovery wasn't to stop reassurance seeking or test chasing (though they were hard!).

It was learning that all the nhs health campaigns and sad stories in the papers weren't aimed at me, that people didn't die tragically as "signs" for me. Basically, I had to learn that the world doesn't revolve around me and that life isn't the Katie show.

It should be though. And I'm still fooling my husband in to thinking it is :winks:

[cpe1978]

There is a lot of truth in this. We all know that shit things happen from time to time, rarely but they do. And of course it is the tragedy that papers and others want to write about.

The challenge is how we learn to live with the miniscule possibility that something tragic might happen as without that acceptance I don't think you can ever be cured of health anxiety and this is the crux of why reassurance seeking ultimately is an exercise in futility.