To be annoyed at GP attributing physical health problems to mental/emotional state

[Betty789]

I have ongoing unresolved health issues.

Might be long covid, or an autoimmune issue...lots of investigation going on.

It is very frustrating, and it's causing me no end of stress and worry as I don't know what's wrong and I'm worried I won't be able to keep working.

Whenever I have a bad spell, or am in for tests, the GP always makes a comment about my emotional state. Today I was in for bloods and was explaining my concerns about seeming to catch so many more bugs now, which impact on my ongoing condition. I wondered if there was some reason my immune system was low, and she waffled something me being susceptible to catching things with my "physical and emotional stress".

I also noticed in my notes that she had put me down as being "distressed" at some point.

What I am, is incredibly pissed off that i have experienced this spell of ill health which is currently unexplained and with no end in sight! Prior to becoming ill I was not stressed or distressed in any way, and I don't understand how this has somehow become part of my "case"!

AIBU to think it is unhelpful to have this emphasis on my (presumed) emotional state in my notes? I really just want to find out what's wrong with me!

It took DP several years to be diagnosed with a debilitating autoimmune condition because it was repeatedly dismissed as being all in his head. He saw that one of the GP's had scribbled 'seems very anxious' on the inside cover of his file (before the days of everything being computerised.) Well of course he was anxious. Nobody was taking him seriously. And the stress of worrying made the condition worse. It didn't cause it. And, what's more, the same thing happened to him AGAIN with another autoimmune condition (albeit a rarer, harder to diagnose condition.) One GP said 'Don't worry. Nobody has ever died of these symptoms.' Oh, that's ok then. So patronising. He was told to go to bed earlier at night and to stop focusing on his symptoms!

I'm so sorry everyone has had these experiences. My GP is female, which I'd always thought was good, no problem with prescribing HRT for example. So I'm baffled and annoyed as to why I now seem to be suffering mainly from "emotional distress". Interestingly there has been no suggestion for treatment for this! I just have to rest and give it time. Ffs

How did people finally get their diagnoses?

The mind isn't separate from your body. Mental anguish causes physical symptoms. Both need treating. This is why Western medicine isn't enough for lots of people, they need holistic support too. Yoga, meditation, things that help you focus away from the pain.

Well yes, but more often than not, your mental state is not causing your physical symptoms. You feel stressed and miserable BECAUSE you physically feel rotten, and it is even more stressful when your GP doesn't take your physical symptoms seriously.

Oh op during Covid I became unwell with bouts of vertigo and numbness in my face and arm. Gp diagnosed migraine. It got so bad I ended up in hospital a few times as it presented like a stroke and I couldn't speak. Gp and then hospital a+e decided I was a neurotic time waster.

One morning I woke up unable to empty my bladder. I tried everything with no luck and so went to a different hospital to be seen. I had a catheter fitted and this time the doctors took me seriously. I was admitted and diagnosed with MS dats later after an MRI and lumbar puncture.

I'd been left for 7 years with what they insisted was migraines and then later as it progressed they said a functional neurological disorder. I'm now permanently disabled.

My DH on the other hand went to our gp with a numb tingling thumb and was immediately referred for a scan.

I had to have therapy in the end from the years of stress and worry

Yes, I went through something similar before finally eventually being diagnosed with Hashimoto's. In my case I couldn't get a diagnosis until it turned out my TSH level was so low I was days away from going into a coma. I had a small baby at the time and the (male) GP just didn't believe I could possibly be having the symptoms I was complaining about and still functioning. And then it happened again when my TSH levels were considered ok but, as it turned out, my T3 was low. Unfortunately, it took private specialists to get it sorted.

I hope you get some answers, OP. It's so distressing to be dismissed when you know there's something wrong. And I agree, it doesn't happen to men in the same way.

I have nothing to suggest other than every doctor should be made to learn this song…and must sing it daily before being allowed near a female patient! (if the link doesn’t work google ’Female Body’ by Faridah…it’s all over the internets 🤣)

https://www.tiktok.com/@ilovefarideh/video/7377063270911462661?lang=en

I think yoga and meditation etc can be helpful AFTER you have a diagnosis. But if you are concerned about a collection of progressively worsening symptoms that nobody is taking seriously, it's like a vicious circle where stress makes the symptoms worse and the worsening symptoms in turn cause more stress. Some conditions need a lot more than painkillers and certainly a lot more than yoga to be managed and to halt progress of the disease and further deterioration.

Emotional / psychological factors are a big factor in a lot of physical health conditions, and it would be remiss of the GP not to ask you about it. It doesn’t mean they think you’re making it up. (Even if they came to the conclusion that your illness might have a psychological cause, that still wouldn’t mean they thought you were imagining your symptoms; it would simply mean that your perfectly real physical symptoms could triggered by stress.)

If I went to the doctor and said I kept getting, say, stomach cramps, one of the things they would (or certainly should) ask about was whether I was anxious or stressed a lot. If they then ruled out other causes and came to the conclusion that my stomach cramps were triggered by my emotional state, that wouldn’t mean they thought I was ‘imagining it’ but simply that the cause of my genuine physical pain was my brain responding to stress.

It’s also useful to include in your medical notes that you seemed distressed at an appointment because then if you see another doctor they will have some understanding of how you’re being emotionally impacted by your condition and how it’s affecting your life and mental health.

Yes, but that's assuming when you tell your GP that every muscle in your body is cramping and twitching to the point it's impossible to sleep they don't respond with, 'how much is your DH working'?

After months of trying to get them to take diffuse symptoms seriously, the implication that you're attention seeking because not getting enough in your marriage might be more emotionally distressing than your 'condition'. As I recall I was distressed at that appointment, but it was because I was feeling fobbed off.

Not dismissing mind-body connections, but in my experience, doctors don't much like things that elude easy diagnosis and can be quick to reach for the emotional in those cases.

I was diagnosed with "panic attacks" after sudden onset of being out of breath and sweating going up one flight of stairs - refused it as a diagnosis and got asked "well what do you think it is?", got grudgingly referred to A&E.
Turns out massive blood clots both lungs with a DVT, she didn't even listen to my breathing.

A GP acquaintance moved to Dubai and was shocked at the difference in medical care. She actually said she feels awful about the way she treated patients on the NHS, how she felt she was right at the time, as it was how she was trained, but now feels she was just gaslighting patients, especially women. She's moved back to the UK now but is in a related profession, she couldn't face working for the NHS again.
We have the NHS on a pedestal, but often it doesn't deserve to be there.

My daughter who is grown now has some self harm scars from a brief dreadful period in her early teens. The scars are over 10yrs old, she's well now and yet any doctor who sees them immediately labels her.

Because I have depression and anxiety on my medical record it seems if I've ever gone to the gp about something unless it's straightforward it's put down to that. It's horrible and quite scary tbh when I worry if something is ever seriously wrong with me I won't be taken seriously.

Also got a few autoimmune conditions that have taken ages to be diagnosed.

I'm not well atm with certain symptoms but I'm not going to the gp to be made to feel like a time waster again. Obviously if it gets unbearable I would but I just don't have any faith it will be investigated.

So frustrating.

My GP has never actually once asked me if I am suffering stress / depression. She knows I lost my mum a couple of years ago and seems to want to attribute everything to that. Without sounding callous, I am really fine with regards to this bereavement. And like a pp said, have been working, enjoying family life, exercising and feeling really good. Then hit out of the blue with whatever this turns out to be!

Thanks, I did get answers in the end, but no thanks to that particular GP.

And I'm sorry you went through so much and had to go private before you got the diagnosis and treatment you needed.

My partner has had periods of anxiety and experiences more physical symptoms when he's having an anxiety episode. The two are definitely interlinked and should both be taken into account to help you receive the correct treatment.

@menopausalmare I totally agree, but I don't suffer from anxiety, or depression.
I suffer from being extremely hacked off that my physical health is in tatters!
And I don't want any distraction from trying to find out what is wrong with me and if it can be fixed!

There's a major research in Australia at the moment, and I'm sure the NHS is also looking into the way women's symptoms are downplayed, ignored by Doctors and associated staff, often being put down to emotion, hormones overweight etc.
Yes obviously these things could ve affecting us BUT you also need to listen to gge patient and explore other possibilities!

In Australia it was found that for certain illneses/conditions hhat both male and females can have, it would take a women 4 YEARS longer than a male to get the diagnosis because they had to put up with crappy treatment , as stated above, by their doctors. Something most men will never experience!

I have two chronic, serious diagnoses that flare up sometimes. If I need additional treatment or a drug review, my GP will emphasise that it's affecting my quality of life/mental health (I have no mental health issues, they are autoimmune).

I think it can help push things along, doesn't mean she thinks it's the underlying cause. Being chronically ill does make you emotional and stressed, she isn't dismissing your symptoms just explaining the consequences of being ill in this way.

Why don't you play them at their own game and bring up depression before you even start saying before I even start? I was worried that you would put it down to MH rather than physical.

I sympathise. I am chronically ill with something that causes extreme fatigue, joint pain, chest pain and so on. I’ve seen many GPs and they just cannot resist sneaking in “seemed anxious” or “quite distressed” into my notes. I was diagnosed with severe anxiety over 20 years ago. This resolved within a year with treatment and has rarely recurred yet still it’s all they seem capable of seeing on my notes.

The gaslighting is awful. I’ve spent thousands on hypnotherapy and EMDR because I started to believe them that I was doing it to myself. However, I now KNOW that they are wrong: a few weeks ago I had an unrelated medical procedure that I’d read was going to make me feel exhausted and like shit for 2-7 days. I had a lot going on on my life and genuinely WAS very stressed and anxious due to this and the procedure. I felt crappy for 2 days after the procedure as expected but then suddenly realised over the next couple of days that I felt far better than I usually do until I woke up on the 5th day post procedure feeling absolutely fantastic. I then had 4 more days of feeling back to my old self with none of the physical problems I’ve had for the last few years. It was incredible and I was so happy! Unfortunately it didn’t last and I have been in an enormous flare since, but my point is that I was expecting to feel awful and I was genuinely anxious and stressed (when I usually am not) and for some reason I felt completely well. Surely if it’s in my head or if I’m doing it to myself I would have felt worse than ever for that week.

Previous GPs: 'Has it occurred to you that you might be thinking that you're in pain because you're depressed?'

Well, I did consider it briefly, but when I took into consideration that my ESR and C-Reactive Protein are both significantly elevated following a break in biologic medication due to a failure of the private contractor's logistics system and I have more scales on my scalp than you'd find on the average mirror carp, I concluded that the Psoriatic Arthritis is significantly more likely to be the cause of considerable pain at the joint entheses than my feeling a bit sorry for myself.

Junior doctors: 'The thing is that as you get older, we can mistake being unhappy for being in pain. Why exactly is it that you think you've got arthritis?'

Well, the diagnosis from the <world renowned expert> that's in my notes was a bit of a clue, along with the decades long history of inflammation, joint pain, tendon damage, visible skin plaques, pitted nails and multiple scans showing active disease in my shoulder, hip, ankle, foot and spine. Perhaps you would like to phone them up and ask them why they think I've got it?

'How about we prescribe something that'll deal with the pain and help you sleep?'

How about you put the prescription for antidepressants down, as I've been here before and I really do not react well to them, due to, you know, not being depressed, and refer me for physiotherapy?

A&E Nurse as the doctor was about to walk in: 'The NHS doesn't do anything about sore feet, it's normal to have pains at your age, you'd be better off going home and asking your GP to refer you for an exercise programme for the elderly, they'll take younger people as well'

I hope they do for this <gingerly lifts up leg to show the ankle and foot currently the size of a football having tripped over in the gym> Oh, hello, doctor, yes, yes, I have really buggered this up, haven't I?

I am in same position really. Bad joint and bone pain and weight loss which I feel there is something physical causing this . I have high inflammation but I don’t know if my mental health is causing this. I am down as am losing Mum slowly to Dementia .

To be fair, my DH died last year, and the stress affected my physical health massively. It can have an impact, Body and mind are linked.🙂