GP made me feel so pathetic today. Anyone else?

[Era89]

Have numerous things going on and feeling extremely overwhelmed. Came off setraline in march and have been doing great. Since xmas day I've not been feeling well due to pressure from my job, extra course at uni (assignments due in 9 days) and my aunt who i was am so close to has been given a terminal cancer diagnosis and has days to live. So i thought id visit my GP (moved home 3 years ago) so has only met me a few times. I explained my situation and his solution was to ride it out. However i feel really bad. Like my anxiety is so bad i don't know how I'm going to cope with anything. So i challenged him and asked for diazepam. Ive never asked for diazepam before and he made me feel so small, like i was an addict, like everything i told him was a lie and all i wanted was drugs. He eventually prescribed it after i said it was a treatment for GAD . He even said "i see you have stopped crying now you have what you want". My anxiety is now worse and i feel like a piece of shit. Has anyone else experienced this from their GP? My old one was so understanding. She recognised it and diagnosed it and referred me to CBT. Now i don't even want to take it and i feel worse than ever!!

[PunkyFish]

Have numerous things going on and feeling extremely overwhelmed. Came off setraline in march and have been doing great. Since xmas day I've not been feeling well due to pressure from my job, extra course at uni (assignments due in 9 days) and my aunt who i was am so close to has been given a terminal cancer diagnosis and has days to live. So i thought id visit my GP (moved home 3 years ago) so has only met me a few times. I explained my situation and his solution was to ride it out. However i feel really bad. Like my anxiety is so bad i don't know how I'm going to cope with anything. So i challenged him and asked for diazepam. Ive never asked for diazepam before and he made me feel so small, like i was an addict, like everything i told him was a lie and all i wanted was drugs. He eventually prescribed it after i said it was a treatment for GAD . He even said "i see you have stopped crying now you have what you want". My anxiety is now worse and i feel like a piece of shit. Has anyone else experienced this from their GP? My old one was so understanding. She recognised it and diagnosed it and referred me to CBT. Now i don't even want to take it and i feel worse than ever!!

Hi

A few months ago my job and life became stressful and my anxiety flared up really bad again after the past few years of it being not to bad. It took me three visits to my doctors with two different GP's over the course of two months to get perscribed an antidepressant. The first GP I went to made me feel worse and did not really understand where I was comming from (despite being previously diagnosed with GAD a few years ago). I walked out of my doctors feeling even more anxious! and like you was told to simply ride it out and it would get better in time (which it didn't).

My anxiety got worse and worse so I went back to my doctors but to a different GP who was brillient. She sat down with me and listened to me about the way that I felt and was so understanding. She also put me on my current medication which has been a god send for my anxiety. I think some GP's are reluctant to prescribe certain medications and tend to recommend treatments such as CBT instead whereas other GP's will prescribe medication for anxiety. Depending on which GP you have, no GP has the right to make you feel the way your GP made you feel. A GP should be there to offer you help and advice whether it's in the form of general advice, medication or therapy of some form. If you do have to go back to your doctors try and get an appointment with a different GP.

Not all GP's are bad!

[NoraB]

I went to one of the GPs at my practice the other week and I was particularly bad with anxiety. I was having a panic attack while I was in with her. Did she help me through it by encouraging me to breathe through it? Did she offer me any form of comfort at all? No. She carried on typing, totally ignoring the hyperventilating wreck sat beside her. It's not as if she could say she didn't know as I told her I was having one. Surprise surprise, I came away with medication.

I can't help but think a lot of GPs would benefit from a crash course in people skills.

[Era89]

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I am a nurse myself and i have a pretty good idea about what should be prescribed in certain situations, and i think bringing my own expertise into the consultation pissed him off. It must have seemed like i was being manipulative. We clash as individuals. However he should be able to keep it professional and he didn't. Thank you I will go see another GP next week as still not feeling ok. Im sorry to hear you guys have been failed by GPs who have not shown empathy or understanding
during such a difficult time

[lifeofbrian]

I feel your pain, I have suffered much with the NHS, some good people, but they are getting few and far between.

UK medical staff are a very privileged bunch. I like how hospitals and surgeries have signs telling us to not be rude to them yet they can act however they feel towards us, when we are their bosses. I have noticed a steady decline over the years from all NHS staff.

At my last few visits to 3 different GP's, they just sit their and laugh at me, I had one GP at my old surgery shout at me for asking her a simple question, as I walked back in to the waiting room you could tell that everyone heard it.

I went to my GP the other week, feeling physically bad, "it's anxiety" she said, But I've been much less anxious lately I said, "I don't think you have" said my GP. Not only can my GP's look inside me and tell me things like, "you definitely have acid reflux" and from another GP, "you definitely don't have acid reflux", but this doctor can tell that I've been more anxious when my mind tells me that I'm less anxious.

I saw a doctor there a couple of years back, with a sore throat, I could hardly talk. She just sat there and said "it's anxiety". I made another appointment right away and told that doctor that was not good enough, he referred me to a specialist who said that my vocal chords where inflamed and not vibrating properly, so the GP was full of it.

Now it seems though, now my file says "Health Anxiety" they never have to treat me for anything else again. They gave me a nice leaflet on health anxiety which basically starts by saying I'm wasting my doctors time.

I remember when my father was on his death bed after catching an infection in hospital in a hernia operation, I went to ask the nurses for something, they were all standing around chatting at the desk, about 6 of them, they all turned to look at me with such disgust for daring to ask for something for my father which their carelessness nearly cost him his life. That was the battle hospital in Reading, they closed it down, I wonder why.

I wont even mention how my mother died after she went in for tests......you read that correctly, after she went in for tests, they somehow managed to put her into a coma and she died a week later, I was 14.

The fact is, the NHS is a broken system, you get what you pay for, and because the GP is not paid directly from the patient, they can treat us however they like.

My rant may not make you feel much better, but it may help you deal with the fact that the NHS staff can act however they see fit, and if they are mean people, then they don't have to hide it from you. They always have that sign that makes them feel like they're the victims, and us patients should be kissing the superbug infested ground they walk on.


p.s. I must add one ray of hope to this. In my last hospital stay, the staff were very nice, almost all were lovely and helpful. This hospital was rated the worst in the nation a few years back, it's now number two in the nation (last time I checked a year or two ago). The same as most modern privileged people, some NHS staff just need a good kick up the bum.

[Cherryade]

I can understand the stance of the doctor when he said to give it time. It has just been less than a week since Christmas and most of us feel bad at this time of year. different if you have been feeling bad for months. As you have been doing so well in recent months, I would just put it down to a blip and know it would pass.

[unsure_about_this]

I have seen a number of gps at the pratice I have attended during the years some dont stop at the pratice longer enough and move on to other pratices.

One of the GP has asked me whether I want to try tablets or try another form of therapy, I am trying to get this,

My file possibly says I have health anxiety for the amount of times I have been in, the number of tests I have had, I do admit I have a health condition NF, but my worries tend to fall on the big c as every symptom I get I tend to jump to it is more likely cancer, than something more sensible which is not serious.

[Wilburis]

Hi

I have changed GP surgeries 2 times in a year.

I always tell my GPs that I know I do suffer with GAD but still dont feel they take me seriously.

One GP told me anxiety is learned. OK, but please help me.

I managed to read a bit of the letter he sent to the NHS psych, "she comes in to the surgery frequently complained of anxiety and dizziness....."

Yes, please help me.

Even with a letter from a private psych telling my GP to prescie me Lorazepam, the GP would only give me a months supply.

Then what do I do?

Good luck xx

[old fred]

I have had anxiety for over 50 years and had very little help from GPs in this time.I have only had 2 GPs in this time the first until my 40s whose answer to anxiety was "grow a pair my man" it did not exist in his book.My second a lady will listen to you and say it will go away in a few days so I stopped trying to get help from them.
In all other ways both treat other illness in an excellent way getting tests and hospital appointments quicker than any other GPs in area.
I think I am lucky in that I have SA/GAD and not HA so do not need to visit perhaps as often.

[Hopeyet]

I went to my GP for something last year - I can't even remember what it was now - and I was seen by the nurse practitioner who's first comment was "it says in your notes you asked to be referred for health anxiety last time you were here..."

I've had my fair share of psychosomatic symptoms, but I very rarely actually visit the doctor. It seemed like she'd written me off before I'd even described the issue.

On the whole, the actual GPs have been quite good, but this nurse practitioner had the bedside manner of Pol Pot.