So pissed off. Just had phone consultation with GP regarding ongoing MH issues. Uninterested and zero bedside manner

[Breeeeeeathe]

Hi,

To attempt to cut a long story short, I have pretty much always suffered with anxiety and depression, but it fluctuates. My anxiety is through the roof right now! I worry about 10 different things at the same time. Racing heart, really dark thoughts, sleeping difficulties (sometimes in the form of ZERO sleep) and just this constant feeling of utter dread.

Anyway, just had a phone consultation with a GP who basically just did lots of sighing, whilst repeating questions, I.e, DOB, location etc. Absolutely no empathetic manner. Cold, impersonal and just told me that there was no point in referring me for talking therapies again if I had them before and they were unsuccessful. When I suggested it could have been the wrong match for me, she just abruptly said "so do you want me to refer you or not?". Then just read out a long piece of NHS information at the speed of sound, like when an ad is trying to shoehorn in the terms and conditions.

It honestly took me a lot to reach out this time and I feel utterly alone and really quite angry actually.

Not sure why I'm posting. I'm afraid it might just be a rant.

Thanks for reading anyway.

Could you self refer to your local single point of access (SPA) team. Usually mental health teams receive their referrals through this avenue from GPs however you are able to self refer. They will have a chat with you about your perceived needs and what you want to achieve and then will be signposted/referred for an appropriate service depending on this chat. Whether that is a local crisis team or talking therapies or other type of assistance.
A quick Google should give you this number in your area.

Just to add that SPA employees are mental health trained professionals so have a much bigger understanding of this in comparison to general practitioners (GPs)
So hopefully discussing your mental health with them would be easier as they will have more understanding of what they are dealing with.

I'm a mental health nurse that works within this area so I'm of the opinion that GPs are often useless 🙄

That's totally crap. There are lots of reasons why the gp may have been like this to do with drowning in an impossible workload etc (or they might just be a terrible gp) but none of that makes a difference to you, the patient, who was ultimately let down when feeling desperate and vulnerable.

Is there another gp at the practice you could see? I'd even be tempted to make a follow up with this one and actually say you felt quite hurt and deflated by your previous encounter and are struggling more now. See if that gets through to them a bit? But that's only if you felt up to it.

The PPs suggestion of self-refering sounds great if that can work where you are.

Sending some solidarity

@Twistyripple thanks very much.

@Pirrin I appreciate what you're saying, but honestly, I really don't think she cared. Yes, I'm making another appointment and requesting a doctor who has been very helpful with other issues in the past and has a very warm and caring demeanor, which really helps when you're feeling like this. Only problem with that is I will no doubt have to wait longer for an appointment.

We had this and got nowhere. We changed Gp