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

You can't be diabetic and have an eating disorder. Even though diabetes makes you more likely to get an eating disorder, and an eating disorder will make your diabetes worse. But it's like, the doctors can't conceive of you having the two together. And assume that you're choosing to not control your diabetes, not that you can't control it because the eating disorder got in the way.

Crohnically - are those really the red flags? I've been told all my issues are 'just' because of my surgery, finally seeing a gastro doctor now so guessing endoscopy/colonoscopy are on the list of tests in the near future :(

(sorry, meant to add, I have all of those symptoms)

You can't possibly be fatigued from your cancer treatment, it's been a few weeks since that stopped. I see you have a history of depression. Let me refer you to our useless CBT service that will drop you after you miss two appointments because you're too fatigued to attend. Later on, after you push me to do some tests, I'll be really surprised that your fatigue had an easily solved and very common physical cause.

Crohnically I do get woken up in the night but not other two. I thought bleeding was usually a sign of colitis? All my family members with IBD are either normal weight or overweight, none of them really lost weight with it which I know is unusual. My mum had a very severe case of colitis and she's gained a bit because she can't tolerate so many healthier foods like; fruit, raw veg, bread.

I'm not convinced either way it's IBD but I'm not convinced it's NOT either. I actually have another 2 autoimmune diseases, so I'm on the same drugs that they give IBD patients; methotrexate and humira.

Slightly off on a tangent but I was told I wasn't suffering from any mental heath problems as I was able to maintain eye contact with the doctor???!!!

Meanwhile, to South East Coast Ambulance Service for this weekend's news:

"Cards for people with learning disabilities which explain the holder's condition and how they can be helped have been devised by ambulance chiefs.

People with learning disabilities are more likely to experience 'significant health inequalities', South East Coast Ambulance Service said.

The Aldingbourne Trust, based in West Sussex helped produce the cards.

The ambulance trust said the cards would help their staff treat anyone who needed them."

Here's some information about diagnosis of IBS and when other diagnoses should be considered: www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/CG061NICEGuideline.pdf the first few pages are the most informative as they detail when an IBS diagnosis should not be given and what tests should be done to rule out other diagnoses. Losing weight and blood are mentioned as meaning further investigations should be carried out before diagnosing IBS. And in all cases, blood tests should be done before diagnosing IBS.

The night time waking is not on there, that may have come from the US rather than UK guidelines, I'll try and find out.

Bleeding is usually associated with colitis, however colitis is a term meaning 'inflammation of the colon'. Colitis can therefore be a part of Crohn's, UC, or a part of an infectious illness.

The metho and humira will complicate things for you candy as it could well be keeping IBD in check and could have lead to you having a clear colonoscopy and endoscopy. Did they take biopsies of 'healthy' tissue? As there is another rare type of IBD that leads to a digestive system that looks normal until you examine it under a microscope- microscopic colitis I think it is.

It looks like night waking is mentioned in other countries, just not UK: www.gmchospital.com/newsletter/0812/syndrome.php To be clear, this is pain or urge to go to the toilet that wakes you up not needing to go when you are already awake.

I get that loads and it's what makes me wake at 5-6am and not the 7am I need to get up at for work. I thought it was normal

It's a 'red flag' meaning further investigation is needed, not that you definitely have something wrong with you!

I need to go back to dr about my stomach anyway so I'll mention it to them as and when I Get round to it

Never thought to mention it before as I say, I thought it was normal.

Oh yes, if you're having other problems it's definitely worth mentioning. I thought you were perfectly healthy and just needed the toilet at odd times and were panicked by what I posted.

This was me, with a tooth abcess - horifcally swollen face (it looks much worse without my eyes being redacted)

I hadn't slept for 3 nights due to the pain, but apparently the reason I wasn't sleeping was depression. ( I was at a stable point, and when I am depressed I sleep for hours!)

Needs, my daughter developed typhilitis, an incredibly painful and life-threatening gut infection following conditioning chemo for stem cell transplant and was writhing around on dihydrocodeine when the both, patronising 'pain nurse' patted my hand and simmered, 'Why don't we keep on with the dihydrocodeine and hot pads and see how things go.' My answer was, because that is not enough, and then I went for the consultant, who administered the first bolus of morphine whilst the other doctor rang anaesthesia. My child was on PCA ketamine by about 11 PM that night.

Not so bad on the "cant have anything else with depression" but have been told im "stuck in catch 22 with pain. Pain makes depression worse and depression makes your pain worse". I do like that my gp understands that, but not the most helpful advice. I guess sort of luckily, the worst of my mh problems are off record, just the vague depression and anxiety, no suicide attempts, disordered eating or self harm. Although i did have 14 years of fainting written of as anxiety, and it was only on diagnosis of hms (at 28 years old, having had other issues since birth) that i realised it was that causing it. That still isnt official though. I do imagine though, that whenever im trying to explain hms/eds to a hcp, all they are thinking is HYPOCHONDRIAC. Thats, somewhat ironically, probably in my head though, i have no proof it is true.

The worst thing at the moment is, i havent got it in me to fight for proper diagnoses, getting to the gp for a normal appointment is hard enough, and only then if someone can take me. Gp gets a half hearted explanation from me, probably with half of what i meant to say forgotten, so how can she help me when i cant help myself.

I was referred to cmht after a manic episode. Had to see the nurse before i could see a psychiatrist. The nurse was a twat, he wrote off everything i had been referred for (by the gp, i didnt refer myself!) as "oh, everyone does that" and then said "well of course youre depressed if youre dealing with this health problem". The health problem came at age 26, I've had ongoing depression since about 14. I'm not normally one for complaining about nurses (i have good friends who are nurses, haha) but this was a bad experience with one, when imo i should have been seeing a doctor.
Yet another problem with the gatekeepers in the nhs.

By the way, when dh was referred to cmht, he got to see two psychiatrists. No previous mh issues and male (no beard though). Wonder which it was that got him the special treatment...?

Dh has just corrected me, it was three psychiatrists!!

Oh I agree with the pp who said with depression you can't possibly be sad, worried, angry for entirely normal reasons - the only explanation is you're messed up. Equally, when you have depression suddenly no one around you ever does anything wrong, or that will piss you off, or acts unreasonably - you are the messed up one and everyone else's shit stinks of roses.

I agree on students only being I'll due to drinking. Ffs, I've been in the library 15 hours a day, going home to eat then sleep. I am not out drinking, my depression is real! It's about more than washing up!

Worst example of this I've come across was in our local paper. A young girl (about 19 or so) had gone to her GP because of her bad head pain - who immediately diagnosed meningitis and sent her to A&E for treatment.

Just so happened that she also happened to have cystic fibrosis (I think - a while since I read the story, but something of that ilk) so needed to go to A&E on a fairly regular basis for treatment for problems relating to that, so her notes had CF written in very large letters across the top.

The doctors and nurses didn't look at her GP's admission note, or listen to her saying about her head pain and the rash that was getting bigger and bigger on her. Whenever she asked for help and treatment they kept saying that her CF didn't seem to be too bad and they were busy so they would be with her later. Well yes, that would be because she wasn't in there for problems with her CF. She tried calling her mum and she rang in (but wasn't able to go in) to ask them to look at her dd, but again they told her to stop worrying, they knew how to control her CF.

She had been in there for hours and was pretty much unconscious when they finally got to her - although they gave her antibiotics then, she died soon after whereas the GP thought that if they had given them to her when she arrived - as they would have done for any other 'no other problems' patient with a note like that from the GP - he was pretty sure that she would have been OK (obviously you can never tell with something like menigitis - but you can say she would have had a damn sight better chance if she had had the antibiotics when she arrived).