AIBU to think doctors of patients with MH issues should also look at the physical health?

[OftenHangry]

I sincerely hope no one affected will take this the wrong way.

I have met number of people with MH issues and realised majority has one thing in common.
Extremely poor diet and lack of physical check ups.
I understand everyone is different and everyone's issues are different but I can't help but think that if doctors concentrated equaly on mental health and physical health, many patients would recover better.
One person with extreme anxiety basically lived on chicken nuggets. That's it. Never touched vegetables. Another one drinks a lot. A lot and our suspicion basically is that the alcohol caused anxiety since she was fine before. Many others were on similar diets lacking the healthy food groups. None took any vitamin supplements. That obviously leads to lack of vitamins and minerals, but they don't know because no doctor ever suggested to have it checked and change diets.
Who had vitamin deficiency knows that it can mess you up pretty well physically and psychologically. I myself ended up in horrible state when I had vitamin deficiency.

AIBU to think that MH care should be mixed with physical care to achieve better results for patients?

Before I was diagnosed with a mental illness they did a proper workup to look for physical causes eg: thyroid (also to make sure it would be okay to give me the drugs) - pretty sure this is standard stuff already happening.

Although that was about twenty years ago, things might have regressed!

@trancepants you would have got so anaemic you would have collapsed and ended up in A&E. Seen it happen to a few women.

@WhyDidIEatThat depends on the age of the HCP as older ones don't tend to look at diet and exercise. I know from personal experience and anecdotally some decide that if it is a man they can ignore them, but if it is a woman they decide it is MH problem or tell them they are making their physical symptoms up.

Bluebug - You might find this podcast interesting if a bit depressing www.stuffmomnevertoldyou.com/podcasts/why-isnt-the-medical-community-taking-womens-pain-seriously.htm

@OftenHangry Your original post sounded blame-y to me, as a sufferer of mental health. I'm not offended, you do you, but it can be harmful. Yes poor diet and vitamin definceny can have an impact physically and mentally, but as I said before, it can also apply the other way round - whereby people with anxiety/depression stop giving a monkeys about caring for themselves. Someone harping on at me about my diet when I was really ill wouldn't have been helpful, or looking at the cause behind it I also needed help with (and thankfully got)

OP you did say for mental health issues there should be "equal" focus on both mental and physical factors. I disagree, as I think the majority of mental illness is not caused by anything relating to diet/fitness, and I'd weight it as perhaps 2 per cent importance on average, not 50 per cent.

This may not be a popular post and I want to prefix it with I’m overweight and walk a fair bit but no ‘proper’ exercise and am diagnosed with severe anxiety, ocd and agoraphobia. At one point I literally couldn’t leave the house and couldn’t be left alone for more than half an hour without a major meltdown and panic attack.

I’ve always wondered to myself if being overweight and having pcos (which is in part due to my weight) has a correlation to my anxiety and depression.

I’ve always thought it would be really interesting to do a poll and see what the actual correlation is.

I personally believe that my mental health issues are in part due to a really crap childhood and issues in early life/ teens BUT I also believe that my weight has had a massive impact too.

I believe so much in the fact I am contributing to my issues that I’m now trying to do something about it with calorie counting and running. As much as I don’t want to admit it (because I hate running and am inherently lazy) running has actually helped my anxiety day to day and is starting to help with my confidence when outside my home. (A lot of my agoraphobia focuses on fainting/collapsing when outside but knowing that I can physically run 1/2, 1 or 2 miles on the treadmill without fainting/collapsing means I can reassure myself that a quick trip round a small shop will be fine)

I have about 4 stone left to loose so I can’t say if loosing all the weight will make most of my anxiety disappear but I do believe it has had enough of an affect in my overall mood that I will keep going with the weight loss.

I do think that some people with anxiety or other mental health issues find that the pleasure they cannot find in day to day life they try to replace with food.
A lot of people with MH issues don’t want to think that being overweight is what, if not causing, exasperating the MH issues. Sometimes because the only pleasure available to them is food, sometimes because it seems so insurmountable to loose a big amount of weight and sometimes because when you feel so low and shitty you just can’t be arsed, you feel it’s unfair you suffer these issues and others don’t and just want someone to come and wave a magic wand for you.

Agree OP. Particularly with people with severe mental health problems.

@OftenHangry
Patients with severe mental disorder die much younger than those without and have higher smoking rates. Obesity also a problem from side effects of meds. It is v hard for this group to stop smoking. A study on an inpatient unit with full time smoking cessation nurse and nicotine replacement found virtually no difference made to smoking rate. Helping this population lose weight is v hard too. The main difference it's made is that patients get statins appropriately and hypertension treated. This group don't tend to go to Gp for check ups/screening etc

As a previous carer for someone with severe mental health problems I know that Drs can be dismissive of physical issues and put it all down to mental health issues. That will be a reason that many give up going to the Dr.

As a previous carer for someone with severe mental health problems I know that Drs can be dismissive of physical issues and put it all down to mental health issues. That will be a reason that many give up going to the Dr.

It's also when you think you are worthless, a waste of space etc, why would you burden the system which is already overburdened. I can seek help during pregnancy because I'm doing it for the baby, I can take my children to appointments but despite knowing they need me to be healthy, I can't bring myself to go if I need something. I'm due a smear, I know I should book once dd is past 12 weeks old, I probably won't because I don't want to waste anyone's time or resources which could be spent on someone worth while.

Oh God daffodils your comment brings back so many sad memories of the person I cared for saying they did not deserve to eat because they were worthless. Please go and book a smear, you are worth caring for.

Ancient Romans advocated this wise (but only to a point) approach that healthy body houses a healthy mind. Even wrote works in favour of some occupations - healthy, outdoor ones, like agriculture - over the other ones (like jewelry making in crumped dark conditions, sitting for hours in a bad posture). But mind you, all these authors were wealthy enough not to work for a living, and probably owned slaves ...

Put them on 60hour week, with expensive long commute and a shouty boss - and they'd be like "give me the pills!"

My adult son has severe ocd.
At the moment he finds it very difficult to prepare food as it has to have the right number of items and not be certain colours.
He will not/cannot allow me to prepare it so I can't help.😨.
He has lost loads of weight but the GP/Crisis team say he needs specialist intervention.
The waiting list to even see the phsychotherapy team let alone be recommended for it is 30 months.
I fear he will be dead by then.

Sorry if it sounded blame-y. It wasn't supposed to.

Some of the experiences in here are absolute eye opener. Thank you all for sharing them. I always understood it's hard to take care of the body when mind is ill, but it's really interesting to read the actual people stories with variety of ilnesses.

I absolutely agree OP. I’ve lost count of the number of times GPs have prescribed anti depressants for me, without bothering to do any bloodwork. I’ve then tried the ADs with all their horrid side effects, felt no better and then gone on to find a physical problem (thyroid, vitamin deficiencies etc) which when corrected have made a world of difference to my mental health.

When I split with DP last year I was in a right state for weeks. Went to the GP and was given ADs again. Also asked to have blood tests and my B12 was low again. Fixed that and felt so much better. Still missed him but not to the point of being unable to function any more.

I also know of someone who worked so hard every day, never took holiday, always stressed. He had a mental breakdown and nobody thought to check his adrenal function to see if he’d burned himself out. Just checked him into a mental hospital where he sadly died from suicide.

Of course in many cases ADs are a life saver but I do think full bloods should be done routinely to rule out anything physical before handing out medication like sweeties.

My mental health causes all manner of physical symptoms but as soon as I work out that it's just anxiety causing them they go within a couple of days. If I went to the doctor every time wanting a blood test I'd be needing a revolving door and a blood transfusion. What I need is someone to talk to so that the anxiety & crap emotional state doesn't get to that point.

I agree with you OP. I'm in no way saying that this is the case for most people, but I suffered from severe PND after my second child. I was really unwell and just avoided being hospitalised. CPN visits. Psychiatrist appointments. I was on ADs for a couple of years. Then I switched GPs (because I moved - not because I had any concerns about my treatment) and had a routine blood test. Was found to be really severely anaemic. Not necessarily the cause of my PND, but definitely not going to have helped my mental state!!

I agree totally that physical health symptoms ignored too often in people with MH issues
I'm secondary care mental health. I've seen many patients with psychiatric symptoms attributed when they've been physically unwell. It's so sad