How do you get Dr to take you seriously??

[Loggie05]

13 whole damn years ive been dealing with the dreaded health anxiety. I know most symptoms are caused by anxiety but i have a couple that aren't.

Firstly is random vaginal bleeding. This started in June 2016 and has gotten slightly better over time. I seen the Dr and she carried out a smear and sent me for an urgent hospital appointment. I went and was told the problem is hormonal and had a coil fitted. Unbeknownst to me i also had biopsies taken from my womb. Smear test and biopsy all came back clear.

Secondly ive had a few episodes of bleeding from the back passage. I haven't yet been to Dr because i done a bowel cancer checker on the nhs website and it said most likely piles/fissure and its safe to wait 4 weeks to see if the bleeding gets better on its own. It hasnt so i will be seeing the gp on Monday.

So my question is how do i get her to take these symptoms seriously? I know she is gonna point out my anxiety but i dont think she realises that not having these problems fixed is really playing havoc with me mentally and physically. I have had two 14 week sessions of cbt. I also take 200mg sertraline and 35mg mirtazipine. However both of these symptoms are causing me great distress. My relationship with my husband is falling apart because i refuse to have sex or any kind of interaction with him that might lead to sex due to the bleeding. I am on constant high alert and going to the extreme of collecting stool samples and looking at it through a magnifying glass i have hidden in the cistern. My behaviour is erratic and not normal. I fear going to the toilet, i fear showering, i fear eating, i fear losing weight, i fear seeing 1 magpie, i fear sleeping in the same bed as my husband, i fear life and i dont know what to do next.

If you got this far thankyou and i hope ive not turned you as crazy as i seem to be turning myself. Xx

[ErinKC]

Be completely honest with your doctor like you were here. Tell her, listen, yes. I have health anxiety, it probably makes me worry more about symptoms than the average person, but it doesn't mean my symptoms aren't real. I am getting treatment for my anxiety, but I also need treatment/answers for these symptoms or I won't be at peace.

Your doctor almost certain does take your seriously, but feeling silly or like they aren't is very common when you have health anxiety. I feel like this often. But anxiety is one of the more common reasons people go to the doctor, so remember you're not the only person she sees that's in your shoes.

[Perpetual]

If you feel your doctor is not taking you seriously then I recommend you to see another one. Physicians study up to 12 years (some longer) and have seen thousands of patients. They can obviously make mistakes, but there comes a point that you will have to accept that what the doctor tells you. Just vaginal or rectal bleeding as a symptom does not have to mean anything significant. I understand the anxiety makes you think of the worst things and the internet does not help with that.
I would not go to Dr. Google for help, but write down what the symptoms are and when you experienced them. Present them to your doctor (or another one) and accept the answer. Try not to be hyper alert of every sensation you have and obsessively looking for signs; you won’t find anything, you will only make yourself feel very stressed.
Good luck with everything, take care

[Loggie05]

Thankyou for replies. Im so sick of feeling like this. Im gonna use the weekend to write everything down, then go see the Dr on Monday morning. The vaginal bleeding was put down to hormones and an ectropian. Here in Scotland they don't treat the ectropian so its just left to keep bleeding and that is what keeps exasperating the symptom. I wish they would just treat it and be done with it so i can move on. Ive even contemplated going private for a hysterectomy. That way i wouldnt have to worry about getting cancer in those organs. Its exhausting being scared of every little thing x

[WiredIncorrectly]

I have found that once you have an "anxiety" diagnosis on your records it's very hard for a doctor to take your concerns seriously as I find they presume our worries are purely over thinking.

My advice is make a complaint to the surgery. Book an appointment with the practice manager, or write them a letter.

One time they kicked me off for missing an appointment because I was too anxious to call and cancel in fear of being "told off", and I couldn't get out of the house. I write a letter to the practice manager and complained about my doctor. She put me back on the surgery list and that GP must have been spoken to because it was shortly after that he agreed to prescribe me medications.

Prior to that he was against giving me meds and was assuming my anxiety was just regular anxiety. He even said once that he has anxiety and if he can manage a stressful job than I could manage with mine. I know his concerns were well placed - he doesn't feel meds are the solution - but that's no help to somebody who needs help right now.

[ankietyjoe]

This is a problem that has to be attacked on two fronts though. You want the Doctor to take you more seriously, but you absolutely have to address your own HA behaviour as well. In fact, what you're doing is far more likely to have an impact on the way you feel than anything the Doctor can do. Checking stools with hidden magnifying glasses for example......that's not normal.

I'm not being overly critical though because anybody with HA does similar things, but even doing self diagnosis on NHS websites is a bad move.

What you are doing is continuing a cycle of anxiety, which can absolutely 100% directly cause the two symptoms you're explaining here, let alone the dozens of others I'm sure you've experienced over the years.

There is no external or third party help that can cure HA, when the person suffering keeps doing the things that promote the HA circle. You need to stop checking, stop googling, stop inspecting your poo keep doing that for months on end. You have spent 13 years practising being really worried about things that haven't killed you, so maybe now it's time to practice not worrying about it any more. It won't happen overnight, but you have to change your behaviour to get better.

[Loggie05]

I totally get its not normal. Man ive even convinced myself im mad at times. Hopefully once i speak to Dr on Monday i will have calmed down a good bit. My Dr is amazing and to be fair to her she must get peeved when she sees my name on her appointment sheet. Fingers crossd the back end bleeding is due to a tear and i can move on with things. X

[Loggie05]

Just an update. Been to see Dr. I have 2 tears at my bum. She had a good check and said all fine down there. Ive to get the anxiety back down to a normalish level and go back in 2 months. She said she will push to get things fixed if they haven't settled down by then. X