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?

Some of those posters you are calling idiots are also MH sufferers and have said so.

And clearly their mental illness affects them in a different way.

Are people with mental illnesses one humongous group now?

Everyone's experiences are different. Just because you have a mental illness yourself doesn't mean you have a clue about how it can affect someone else, clearly.

Neither does the OP know how others MH affect them.

It works both ways.

U2 - I agree with your posts.

In fact, being short-tempered is a well-known side effect of depression/stress/anxiety and is a question often asked in diagnosis.

I know they didn't HaveI. But the OP has clearly taken offence to those people who said she was. I'm just pointing out that this perhaps wasn't a good choice of forum for her. And before anyone asks, yes, I have had mental health issues in the past and been suicidal, so I do get that the OP was distressed and upset, and that we can say things we don't mean when in that state, but yes I did gently point out to her that it is a bit unreasonable to decide an issue that she's been struggling with for weeks is suddenly urgent because it's half term and she wants to be seen today so it doesn't interfere with her work.

Anyway. I do hope this thread does go.

Some pretty nasty things been said by many on both 'perspectives' including comments about cancer.

All the best OP. I hope you get the help you need.

As much as all those with chronic MH illnesses aren't the same, neither are "the elderly."

We have to hope we'll all be "the elderly" at some point. The alternative is not desirable.

Loneliness and depression can hit anyone, even "the elderly."

In physical health terms, imagine if you had a cold just before Christmas, and it developed into a chest infection and you left it for weeks when you knew you needed treatment, and then phoned the GP demanding an on the day appointment because you could barely breathe. The first thing they would say is why didn't you come earlier? And yes, I know some people with MH problems struggle to reach out and ask for help, but that wasn't why the OP delayed going to her GP, it was purely because it was inconvenient for her to go before half term.

I absolutely have got a clue. Plenty of experience and I know first hand how hard it is to motivate yourself to go to the GP when you're struggling, but that doesn't give you the right to be so utterly dismissive of other peoples illnesses.

I don't know about you, but when I've been really ill my thought processes get really fucked up and I can't think straight and I might even get angry and that anger might be misdirected in the heat of the moment. I might have a huge panic attack and not even think about what I'm really saying.

You wouldn't do that? Well good for you. The OP did and I'm sure when she is well she wouldn't say what she said about elderly people and she might even regret saying it, but when she said it she was scared, ill and suffering from a lack of sleep. No need to tell her that some of her posts here weren't very nice.

What are you trying to achieve? To let her know some of her posts weren't acceptable in your eyes? Well I'm sure next time she is in the same place she will try to take your wise words into consideration so she doesn't offend someone during a crisis next time she posts.

It just isn't very helpful is it? It's been said now and I personally don't like making people feel even worse when they are suffering with a mental illness and desperate to get help. I would also worry that if someone is on the edge that little things could push them over and make them even worse.

Anyway OP I don't want to carry this on but please start a thread in the MH forum or elsewhere if you need more support and I hope the meds kick in soon.

Oh I agree that elderly people can get depression and anxiety. But people just popping into the surgery for a chat because they are lonely is unacceptable, that's notwhat they are there for. They are there to treat sick people.

The cancer comment was awful I agree, I purposely ignored that one.

All just be nice to one another
op is ill, at breaking point and tbh grown women should know better and be a bit more empathetic

Well this thread has made me massively appreciate my own GPs. It opens at 8am and is often engaged for half an hour solid so I can appreciate how frustrating it is. I remember once I literally rang the second it turned 8 and it was already engaged! Bonkers. But I've always been able to get a same day appointment, sometimes even with my preferred GP but if not I can usually get one within a few days barring things like annual leave. My sister recently has been able to get one for my niece even though it's been late afternoon for the same day. They are quite short notice sometimes, as in you've got to get there in the next hour but we can pre-book appointments, it's a big surgery so there are several doctors. Unfortunately, I'm moving so going to have to leave - I have long term depression so the thought of going elsewhere that might not have such a good service is panicking me a bit.

Anyway, just wanted to say not all NHS GP services are crap and I can understand how scared you felt OP. Remember, MH problems are very common in the elderly too but we all lose perspective sometimes and get ratty.

What jenny said, the nurse can request a prescription from the GP there and then.

Feel for you OP, as I was in a similar position about 4 years ago- it was only when my now DH dragged me to the surgery when I was in the middle of a breakdown and demanded that a GP saw me as an emergency that I got help. It was either them or A&E and poor DH was at his wit's end. Please don't let yourself get to that stage, get to your surgery well before it opens and politely negotiate for an emergency appointment. Take a partner or friend with you if you're not feeling assertive.

Good luck and let us know how you get on

Moglet RTFT.

The OP has been

I can see how the OP's desire to wait to go to the doctors at a 'convenient' time is exactly how depression can affect someone's thinking. The sort of things that go through your mind: 'I'm so useless/ I have to put on a face and make sure everyone thinks I'm normal/depression isn't a real illness, it's just because I'm weak.' So you hang on and hang on, because you don't want to inconvenience anyone or risk someone 'seeing past the mask.'

I really hate the current move to say that mental illness is no different to having a physical illness (diabetes is a favourite comparison). It is different. It always will be. It skews your whole perceptions of the world and who you are. So likening depression to a chest infection reflects real ignorance at how physical and mental illnesses differ.

U2 I wasn't trying to achieve anything beyond expressing an opinion. should the OP have read the first few peoples posts who expressed a dislike for her words and then said 'yes ok, I realise what i said was a bit unfair' or such like, then i'd like not have said anything at all, as I'm very aware that MH issues make you snappy and irritable. but she didn't. she continued to be rude and shitty. So, whilst I really do hope the OP gets the help she needs, I also wont apologise for thinking her words were out of order.

Not being able to physically get a GP appointment, even if you are prepared to wait, is one of the most infuriating things. I really take issue with the number of posters who are prepared to jump on the "must be the patient's fault" bandwagon.
esp. with mh issues it's awful - you have to be so organised and determined and persistent to get any medical attention - these are three things that by definition mh patients really struggle to be. It's not ok.

dontrunwithscissors You actually make a very pertinent point.

At the height of some of my episodes (I have recurrent depressive disorder or some such label), I could not bear queues. I mean queues in a supermarket even. The anxiety overwhelmed me. I had similar issues with waiting in GP surgery (in Ireland, and a free for all, where you were waiting maybe an hour).

On one occasion, I think a nurse must have noticed me (think I was crying silently or something - it's mostly a blur), she took me into a room on my own until I could see the GP.

Another GP agreed that I could come in the back door and wait in their kitchen as I could not face people (different surgery, I had moved house).

When you're out of the woods, you can see clearly. But when you're in the thick of depression, you are incapable of normal thinking (or at least I was).

Different mental health conditions can affect you in different ways. But I guarantee you one thing: being given a bollocking when you're at your lowest is not helpful.

It skews your whole perceptions of the world and who you are

Physical illness does that too, in some cases. Chronic pain, or temporary extreme pain can do that, for example. I don't think there's that much difference in the range of possible effects of either mental or physical illness: pain can disturb your sleep and massively affect your mood and mental well-being; depression can have a physical effect. And so on.

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. It is a distortion to the 'self' itself. Getting angry with someone in a mental health crisis because they are speaking or acting irrationally, or because they are epically self focused and 'selfish' are totally not getting how mental health crises can affect people. They are the symptoms!! You might as well get angry with someone for saying they can't walk because their leg is broken. They can't make it not broken, ie walk normally, because their current non-walking state is annoying you. In the same way, someone in a mental health crisis may be utterly unable to 'be normal' in the sense of retaining their capacity for empathy and compassion for others, because the loss of these capacities is the illness itself.

Minty, I'm glad you got seen, and I really hope the Prozac kicks in at speed. You said you know that you'll feel worse before you get better, so hang in there and you'll get yourself back soon. Keep focused on the fact that it will get better.

On the basis that anxiety/depression is the biggest killer in certain age groups (which the OP may belong to) I totally stand by my cancer comment. It is as serious as cancer and it deserves to be treated on a par with cancer.

I can't imagine why people think it isn't a fair comparison.

The fact you get fast tracked treatment for even a hint of a cancer related symptom (I got 2 hospital based diagnostic tests within 6 days recently) while you wait 6 months for a CBT referral is evidence of a major disparity in care levels not a disparity in severity.

I think it was the fact you said 'You should tell them you have cancer' icebeing...that's not the same ae saying MH are as serious as cancer (Which I agree with you on), but the fact you were implying the OP should lie about a serious disease.

You are back tracking iceberg. That isn't what you said at all.

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.

Having had both myself. I actually agree with Foginthehills and can see where they are coming from.

It goes back to no two people's experiences of either sorts of illness are the same.

'It is as serious as cancer and it deserves to be treated on a par with cancer.'

Oh, you mean like the paediatric cancer my child got that was treated with drugs decades old that weakened her organs to the point where the treatment played a significant role in her death, age 9, as research is so poorly funded into paed cancers? Or the lack of proton therapy units in the UK so children are still being treated with therapies that not infrequently permanently disabled them?

'The fact you get fast tracked treatment for even a hint of a cancer related symptom (I got 2 hospital based diagnostic tests within 6 days recently)'

A fact, eh? I can name off a dozen children's names, that I know personally and several more whose parents I know who are dead because they weren't 'fast tracked' for shit, in fact they were fobbed off for months and sometimes longer.

So really, what a disgusting comment you made and an even more disgusting comparison.

Yes, treatment for many diseases is diabolical.