waiting for contact from mental health team - should I write things down ?

[ljaynew]

Hi

I'm currently on day 5 of sertraline prescribed by GP for anxiety & depression & waiting for contact from the mental health team

I suffer from severe anxiety & depression
am constantly tired have no motivation or enthusiasm for anything
and if I do find something I like I will 'do it to death' for a while then lose interest completely !
amongst other silly little problems !
plus I have a severely autistic son & 4 'normal' daughters

I have decided to bite the bullet this time (3rd time on meds had cit twice before the sertraline this time ) and try to get some 'proper' help rather than ust letting the meds fix it for a couple of years then falling apart again :(

the trouble is I am also very good at hiding how I really feel & not wanting to 'bother' other people & find it very difficult to open up especially to a stranger ( am not good with people atall :( hubby spoke to the doc for me even tho I was there !)

so my question is - would it be helpful to write down everything that is worrying me, that scares me & that I cannot do or feel now
so that when I finally get an appoinment I wont feel that I need to 'gloss over' everything (especially if the meds have kicked in) to be sure that I get the right kind of help ?

thank you x

[Elle-Kay]

I think that writing things down is always helpful, for one reason or another. I personally find that I forget to mention certain things if I don't write them down, as I get distracted by other routes of conversation.

[Annie0904]

The first time I went to see a psychologist I wrote everything down for her to read in case I couldn't say it. She read it and it was helpful and made it easier to deal with little bits at a time. Don't worry if on some visits you can't say as much as others. On one of my visits I just curled in the chair and cried but at least it gave her insight into how the anxiety was affecting me.

[ljaynew]

thank you
I went ahead & did it & filled a whole sheet of A4 paper :( !
and that just covered the main day to day issues !
didnt touch on any of my issues with sex & letting people close

on the plus side it also set me thinking about things that frightened me and I tried to mentally list those

and as I was doing it I had to smile to myself as the list got longer and I realised some of them were just ridiculous !

louise x

[ChrisScotland]

Yeah, it's a good thing to get your feelings out in the open when it comes to your Anxiety, no matter if you put it in writing.

I'm seeing a Occupational Therapist at the moment and she encourages writing things down quite a lot.

Glad to see you had a little smile about the situation, no matter how hard your situation is.