Wellbeing Advisor appointment...help!

[ScarletSpeedster]

Hey guys.

So, after a tough year with my anxiety/panic/agoraphobia/OCD getting progressively worse, and my general nervousness and unease about everything growing, I have finally been given an appointment to meet and talk to an advisor on what should happen to help me deal with/get better with my problems. Basically I am a wreck of a person at the moment.

BUT, I am terrified to speak about them to someone! I am a very internal person - which is actually probably why I suffer so badly from all of the aforementioned issues. I hardly ever speak about my own emotions and problems, not even to my parents. Well, not unless something completely breaks me in the moment i.e. health anxiety worries etc.

They have given me a form to fill out before I go, all asking to rate how you feel (anxious, scared, depressed, low etc.), how your condition interferes with socialising or when you're by yourself, and so on

What can I expect from this meeting/appointment? What will they ask and do? Any experiences or information would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks!

[Arietis]

Following because I just made an appointment myself which is in 2 weeks time!

[ScarletSpeedster]

Mine is in two weeks time also. It feels like a long wait when something is finally done to help!

Hope all goes well with yours :)

[lbhardy_]

I'm not sure if your situation is through a university like mine was but i'm assuming it will be something similar.
They are basically there for you to talk and give you advise. I actually preferred my advisor compared to my counsellor because a counsellor cannot advise you and so i felt like i was having to spill all my feelings to someone that couldn't really give me an answer as such.

I understand the difficulty in expressing your feelings, i was exactly the same and my advisor told me she had never met someone that was so closed and had such a huge wall built up in front of her.
All i can say is you have to remind yourself why you are going. For me, i was in a really difficult time and although i hated the idea of talking, or to discover something i didn't necessarily want to find out about myself, i knew that it was almost a last resort for me, that surely it could only get better from me going.
In my eyes, i believe now that the best way is to talk and even cry if you need to and as hard as it is, it can make you feel so much better afterwards. They can help you understand why you feel how you do and give reason when for example, a friend can only really listen. If it doesn't make you feel better - from my experience it is because you are still not expressing something.
To make me feel better, I always remember that 1) it is their job! you are not the only person they see feeling how you feel so you are not 'not normal', 2) that means they know exactly how to help you as best as they can 3) there is never the fear of them telling another person what you have discussed as they simply aren't allowed and 4) if there is anything you do not want to discuss, you don't have to! and they should tell you that in your first meeting.

If you are lucky, you will form a good relationship with them like i have - i kind of see my advisor as a friend i can say anything to and she won't judge and will give me advice that i know is professional and so, reliable.
They should always make you feel comfortable and hopefully like you are in a more informal environment then you actually are. If you do not feel like this, you are able to change advisors if you contact the appropriate person because it is so important to feel comfortable with discussing how you feel and you obviously won't do that if you don't connect with someone.

Generally though, in your first meeting they will just want to get to know a bit about you and should go through what services they provide, confidentiality etc.
Of course they won't force you to talk about things you are not comfortable with but remember that most of the time if you feel uncomfortable it is because it is a problem for you and the only way to be able to improve/cope with/get of rid of this is to get help, which is why i assume you are going, and so the more you talk, the more they can help!

Good luck! Any step to getting help is an achievement so you should already be proud of yourself:)

[MyNameIsTerry]

The forms you have been given will be the standard anxiety, depression, social scale, self harm, etc. Please don't be offended by the self harm part, they ask you to note those so they can pick out the people who are a risk to themselves & others and it's to give them specific support, nothing more. GAD-7 is one you have probably got.

At an assessment you can expect they will ask you to explain how you feel, what bothers you and probably what you want to achieve (if it's solution based).

It would be a good idea to write some more things down. Those standard scored scales catch very little about you, they are just measures that they will track over time as you fill more in. It helps them see easily if you score yourself worse so they can talk to you about why that is happening.

Even bullet points will help you on the day. But try to capture what is bothering you. Write down your symptoms, your thoughts, etc. Basically the kind of things you may right on here. It can save a bit of time if you get this out of the way in the earlier sessions.

Please don't worry, they see people like us all day long. They are trained to help you talk about things. They will ask you questions to help them assess you as it's not all about the standard scales and they will ask questions to understand more about what you tell them since they will want to ensure they capture the issues properly.

Good luck! Don't worry about if you cry or panic, they are used to all that.