To be fuming that I can't get a GP's appointment this morning?

[MintyChapstick]

I'm so angry and upset.

Since before Christmas I have felt that my mental health has been declining. Feeling panicky, wired, on edge and its now got to the point where I am no longer sleeping properly. Keeping waking up very early even on the weekend, with this overwhelming feeling of doom and terrior. I have been medicated before, I know this will make me feel better but I cant get a fucking GP'sappointment, they only have one doctor in the surgery you see despite covering a massive area and you can longer book an appointment in advance.

There is no drop in service like there is in other surgeries, you have to ring on the morning and get an appointment like that. I rang at 8.30 on the dot the surgery was still closed, a minute later I tried again engaged, I finally managed to get through at 8.36 and all the appointments had gone. How is it possible for every single appointment between 9am and 1pm when they close for lunch to have gone in six minutes?

I had psyched myself up to see a doctor this morning, I could have started my medication today and it would have been in my system by next week when I go back to work. I know from the last time that it makes you worse before it makes you better. I've been in tears all morning, I need my medication! The receptionist was nice, but sort of non plussed, I guess it's not hear fault but I don't believe there are no appointments. In fact I can just picture the fucking waiting room now, elderly people who are there several times a week with bunions and in growing toe nails (we all know the sort) clogging it up whilst people who are really unwel can't get seen.

How they fuck is this right?

Having said all that about ageism, I don't disagree that depression is a horrendous illness and to be taken as seriously as physical illness. A close friend of mine had a extreme recurrence recently, it crept up, wasn't foreseen by those around her every day and thankfully she was seen immediately.

Doctor's surgery Top Trumps could be never ending.

Can you afford to see a private doctor?

Some studies suggest the most popular anti-depressents don't actually have any effect at all - it's just the psychological effect of feeling you've actually "done something about it".

Which studies wombat? My understanding is that ADs don't necessarily have much effect on mild depression, but on average, the more severe the depression the better they work.

I suffer with chronic pain and disabilty. Since last Summer my GP has been seeing me for a "chat", every 4 weeks, now it's every 8 weeks. No doubt people would argue that my appointment would be better used for someone else, but she has asked to see me. At first I didn't see the point, but things have been picked up along the way and the appointments have been useful.

It's really nobody else's business why people, however old they are, are seeing the GP.

So glad others have like me dismissed the notion that 'the elderly' (such a nuisance they all are) do not get priority for an appointment so they 'can have a chat'. They do not and never have.

I'm shocked at some of the rampant ageism here

really? I only read is from an admittedly very distraught OP. most people have called her on this

We have problems getting our elderly relatives to make appointments. My Mil refuses point blank to ever go

GPs do get extra payment in their pocket for diagnosing conditions which they are much more likely to find in elderly people. Alzheimers, for example. Very lucrative.

Having been both seriously physically ill, and so seriously depressed that I was on an acute ward for three months, I have to disagree with the poster above. Whilst physical pain can be horrendous and make you angry, irritable or even zonked out on meds, serious mental illness is vastly different

Another time to say 'We're all different ...'

For me the experience of severe physical pain chronic for 18 months (4 hourly strong medication for that time - not much sleep etc etc) led to a bout of MH illness. Almost a breakdown in fact.

Ive been there quite a few times. I phoned the surgery one day - quite ill - and was offered an appointment A WEEK LATER!!

HOWEVER - I've got round it now. Ask for an EMERGENCY appointment or say you will need a Doctors home visit!! They tell me I'll have to wait, which is fine. I've waited at the surgery nearly two hours, but I did see a Doctor. I took a good book with me to read while I waited.

did - so the elderly who suffer the cruelty of alzheimers are to blame for those fortunate enough to be younger and therefore do not suffer from this being unable to get a GPs appointment.
victim blaming and ageism.

Everybody has to get old !

Your imagination is wild , Mollie123.

but the fact you were implying the OP should lie about a serious disease.

Acknowledged! I didn't actual mean to imply this at all - simply to point up the huge disparity in treatment priority between two both potentially fatal conditions.

I realise it came in the middle of serious suggestions for action the OP should take and hence caused upset.

Thats good news minty

I'm glad that you had a good night, and that you're feeling alert and refreshed, Minty

Perhaps, now, you might like to reflect on your words, and think about why so many of us found them offensive?

And rather than accusing other posters of bullying, perhaps you'd like to think about apologising for the way you posted?

Sadly not everyone does get to get old! Life isn't fair like that.

That's good news Minty, glad you're all bright and breezy now. Any reflection on your comments at all yet??????

Oh yes..now she is feeling a tiny bit better, it must be time to stick the boot in again! Otherwise she might actually start to get some self-confidence and recovery together and we cannot have that!

This thread is so sad. The best and worst of humanity in one place. Hope op is ok.

Oh yes..now she is feeling a tiny bit better, it must be time to stick the boot in again! Otherwise she might actually start to get some self-confidence and recovery together and we cannot have that!

No one said that. Don't be dramatic. The OP did say some nasty things.

Perhaps, now, you might like to reflect on your words, and think about why so many of us found them offensive?

meh, she was having a MH breakdown- can we ever cut people some slack? and seriously, who fucking CARES? is getting a dig in that important to you

sanctimonious MUCH!

In terms of people missing appointments, I used to feel like some on here about that. But in the last two years I have had a lot of health problems, a lot of GP and hospital appointments, and I have missed some. I have been so ill I get mixed up about what day it is, or even what week it is. I do write them down, but if you think it is a different day today, that does not help. So sometimes there are medical reasons for this. Charging me would make no difference, I would just have to pay. I had never missed an appointment before this.

I agree with IceBeing and stop.

How are you today Minty?

No one said that. Don't be dramatic. The OP did say some nasty things.

Just to add.

So have others on here. The cancer comment was particularly disgusting imo.