What will the Doc think????

[Desprate Dan]

Hello again,

I have a terrible anxiety about thinking what the doctor thinks about me!!

If you have a worry about your health and it is playing on your mind "IS IT WRONG OR RIGHT TO SEE THE DOC" of course its right, so why do i feel as if i am a nuisance/burden??? Does anyone else feel like this??

The Doctor has never given me any reason to feel this way, and has always been be very freindly and really helpful.. So why do i think like i do??

I have many problems that have been bothering me some for years and some just recent and i need to get them off my chest, For years and years i never visited the doctor until about a year ago when i became really ill with anxiety/depression, now it seems i am never away, which is not true probably once a month and thats because the doc wants to keep a check on me, not my choice..
It seems i go in with a new problem that i havent mentioned before, but its not new its been bothering me for a long time just other problems have been more serious and needed addressing first..

I think what i am trying to say is that all the problems i have suffered in silence with for many years affraid of going to see the doctor about, i now have the confidence in the doctor to speak to him, so it might look like i am just coming up with problem after problem, but you do not get very long with the Doc, so can only really talk about one problem at any one time...

I hope you can understand that..


DAN

[Jaco45er]

Hi Dan

I totally understand fella, I never went near a GP for years then when I got Health Anxiety they nearly gave me my own chair in the waiting room ;)


Think of it this way, 1 in every 4 visits to a GP is to do with mental health issues, it is a very real illness (I say real, I mean ok, we can't see it, but damn do we feel it).

You do not sound like you are at the GP every other day, so I would suggest you are convincing yourself that you are the burden, when in actual fact you are using the service properly and responsibly (not like your calling for an ambulance for a cut finger, now that happens ;)).

I went to the GP a few times in one year, for everything from "is my heart ok?" to "jeeeeze doc, I swear I am cracking up". I then started to get these burden feelings, although every GP (apart from one) were so nice and never gave me reason to feel that way. I think because I wasn't a regular visitor, all of a sudden I felt I was becoming a pain in the ;).

Now one day I woke with a lump on one of my testicles (so easy to type, not easy to talk about in person lol) and I thought, "god no way, I can't go to the docs AGAIN". So I didn't go, I didn't go for a whole 4 weeks out of stupidity, until the fear that it was the big C really was wrecking my life.

In the end I went to the GP, got referred, and after some eventful situations (that's another story) I was diagnosed with a harmless cyst.

So? you may ask why I mentioned this. Well what I am trying to get across is, you are not abusing the service, you have a few worries that absolutely need to be discussed with your GP and I would urge you get them all off your chest and make as many visits as you need to.

I told my GP I had waited 4 weeks because I had made too many visits, and I tell you what, by the time he had finished rollicking me I felt like a naughty school boy in the head masters office ;)

Good luck

Jaco

[Desprate Dan]

Thanks Jaco

Yes i remember you giving me some sound advice in the past, i also had a lump on one of my testicles and it had bothered me since about 14 years old but i was to affraid to see the Doc through sheer embarasment every day i thought will i see my next birthday will i die before next christmas, i carried that on my own for 12 years and didnt tell anyone, thats when you helped encourage me to visit the doctor last year and it was a harmless cyst just like you said Jaco...

Cheers Fella

Dan