did you know that if you're mental* you can't have anything physically wrong with you as well

[yesimmental]

It's all in your head

Mamaj you should do your dissertation on this.mi just wrote my dissertation on the needs of older methadone patients and I came across a lot of research similar to what you propose in terms of primary care for older patients who have co morbid presentation.

YY to IBS!

I have read there is a new diagnosis, if you have physical symptoms, and you worry about them "too much", you can get some kind of MH diagnosis. So say you are getting MS, but you are not diagnosed with MS yet, but the symptoms are upsetting and worrying you "excessively", you could get this new MH diagnosis. If you already have a MH diagnosis perhaps this would be more likely to happen to you.

I'm not clear at all on all this, I haven't read about it properly, I've just seen it in passing, so I may not have got it straight, but if you want to google look up bodily distress syndrome or somatic symptom disorder. There is an article here but am not well enough to read it myself. It says "One in six cancer and coronary disease patients met the criteria for DSM-5 'Somatic Symptom Disorder" another one

If you stumble into A&E, slurring words, unable to hold a pen to fill in the form and are male in your early 30s, you are obviously drunk and will be left to sleep it off alone In a side room. Nothing else can possible cause this, even if it is 9am on a weekday.

I'm not bitter, honest,about arriving at a hospital 2 hours after a call from DH not quite knowing where he was or what was happening, and the taxi driver taking his phone and telling me he was taking him to the hospital, to arrive and nobody knowing where he was. He was fast asleep, on his own. I went and got a doctor and went batshit crazy, and 5 mins later he was being scanned. He was then treated well fur a severe concussion. I got home and there were smashed plates and a fallen over ladder in the kitchen. We deduced he'd been trying to do something and fallen off the ladder and hit his head. We still don't know what he was trying to do though.

Oh and before they diagnosed me I got a lecture about 'having unnecessary radiology can be damaging'

Well if you would find out what's wrong with me it wouldn't be unnecessary would it!

I would have bloody died if it wasn't for a CT. Grumble.

If you're a teenager then you're exaggerating your pain. My 19 year old daughter asked to be helped to a sitting position when the doctor was examining her and was told "For god's sake, you're 19 not 90!"

After a week of writhing in agony, throwing everything up, sores in her mouth, a CT scan showed that her entire lower pelvis was a massive abscess. 2 and a half hours in surgery, ten inch scar.

As a mental health nurse and having been mental myself, my experience of the ignorance about mental health among a lot of general nurses has been truly shocking.
I once spent a 12 hour shift sitting with a lady who was distresed and needed admission but there were no beds in London. So the A&E dept she went to initially aid that she could wait on a medical bed as long as she had a mental health nurse with her. I swear there was a 6 feet exclusion zone around the bed. When I asked for a drink for the patient, the nurse told me to move away from the bed and handed the drink to me for me to hand to the patient ie she kept the furthest distance away that she possibly could.
And, when I asked to go to the loo or get some lunch, they all refused to sit with her as it was "too dangerous" despite the patient being fast asleep. When I told them that I could not do a 12 hour shift without going to the loo, one of the nurses said "OK well if you're really really quick"

I went to visit one of my clients on a surgical ward last week and noticed that he had a hospital wrist band with PROZAC on it. I asked staff about it and they eventually explained that it was a code word to let staff know that the client had a mental health problem.
I asked them why they didn't just put a bell round his neck instead

ghetoo I agree! My brother was having heart pains and couldn't breath, he collapsed. He was better by the time they got to the hospital. The registrar said 'there's no point testing you really because it's not going to be your heart, you can't just come in for minor pains' HE WAS UNCONSCIOUS! Oh and then tried to blame my mum for not feeding him properly because he's very skinny.

He had an ECG because we demanded it and it was irregular. Was meant be referred to a specialist but it still hasn't come :(

Fortunately my 'mental' DF has had asthma, eczema and congenital eye condition all her life. If they blame her depression she is likely to be less than polite and suggest they read her fucking notes.

If they can find them, but that's a different moan.

Yep. I'm mental and I invent both my own and my DDs illnesses. Apparently.

In a similar way you're not allowed to be fat and disabled. Disabled people are 'supposed' to be poor frail beings, trapped in little wheelchairs. Or Paralympic athletes playing wheelchair rugby.
Fat? Nah, it's your own fault.

You also are not able to make a complaint wrt mental health treatment without it being connected to your mental health condition. Labelled paranoid, hostile, anti social.

Fascinating research was carried out in the US in the 60s I think. A group of perfectly healthy doctors admitted themselves to psychiatric institutions with invented conditions. Almost immediately their personality traits were medicalised. So perfectly normal nervousness became extreme anxiety, natural mood swings became depressive disorders, anger to injustice labelled as aggression.

Really interesting for lots of reasons.

When I'm a nurse I promise I will never judge anyone like this :( it's awful

Yep I recently went to the drs because I had been fainting and exhausted. I was told I was depressed. Funny how the doctor looked at his computer before telling me that. I have an extensive mh history, but have been very well for around 2years.

It stopped when I started taking an iron supplement (obviously not recommended by the doctor as i was clearly depressed).

Apparently you cannot be anaemic and have mh issues. Even if you have pcos and chronically heavy periods. Nope, it's simply not possible.

I'm extremely lucky to have a fab GP who has known me since childhood, and listens to what I say properly. He's sen both me and my mum breakdown and was our rock. A good GP means all the world

We wanted to get him a gift but can't think what.. Any suggestions?

I laughed when I last went to the doctors - I have stomach issues that I'm forever being told are GERD and IBS but I'm not convinced as I am now barely keeping anything down and the pain in my guts makes me pass out. Anyway, the doctor said 'so you have a history of fibromyalgia don't you' with a knowing nod.

I smiled sweetly and replied that yes I have but it's behaving itself now so what's he going to do about my stomach?

DH has said he is going to come to my next GP appointment to stand up for me

Yy, Calculators. Because it's not like lack of mobility could cause weight gain, is it?

I sometimes wonder if HCPs occupy a warp in the space-time continuum, where for them and them alone, effect comes before cause.

I remember a heartfelt and frustrated thread by a MNer who had had MH treatment as a young teenager, and some years later been sexually assaulted. Her current doctor was adamant the assault must have caused the MH problems. The dates were there in front of him, yet nothing could shift his belief.

Oh, and if the MNer pointed out his error, she must be in denial...

Yes. My brother who has schizophrenia (although has not had an episode in a while and is stable) can't have anaemia. The symptoms he reported was a negative symptom (ignoring the fact that he has in the past had mainly positive and cognitive ones) apparently, not a further medical problem.

*were

And I'm not allowed to be cross. I'm not allowed to be sad. I'm not allowed to want to be annoyed. I'm not allowed to have any emotion which can't be connected to my mental health, as apparently once I was diagnosed, I stopped having normal human feelings. Not the GP, that's a bunch of my relatives. They will attempt to hug me if I even moan a teeny tiny bit about something perfectly ordinary to be mildly annoyed about, like a house party next door keeping me up all night, and ask if I've been taking my fluoxetine.

Apparently my son's behaviour issues were due to experiencing dv as a small boy, attachment issues and my crap parenting. Nothing to do with asd and adhd diagnosis given after 4.5 years, their unfounded and unsubstantiated accusations towards me, and 2 complaints for poor practice then.

And Heaven forfend you should be pregnant and beg ask for a repeat prescription of your anti-depressants. "It's a happy event, a baby, you have no need to be depressed". Said the GP.

I do wish that were true! Then my health anxiety could implode on itself

Same if your on any kind of Medication, nothing else can be actually wrong with you, it's obviously a side effect..

Not quite the same, but...

I had a coil fitted. They told me this coil was fine even if you hadn't had babies. I screamed when it was inserted. I walked around with it half in, half out for ten days. When I demanded it was removed, I also mentioned a temperature I was running. The GP told me flatly it was tonsilitis, even though she had never looked in my throat. If she had looked in my throat she would have seen they had been removed.

I changed GP.