Husband so low advice needed

[Pinklady81]

Hello

My husband just come in after an afternoon of drinking which I know won’t help , he just sat and sobbed his eyes out. I’ve never seen him like this before and he said he’s had enough. He’s been to the GP who recommended CBT which he doesn’t want to do as had before and he found it not helpful. He’s had bloods done but he’s so tired all the time, not sleeping, anxious. It is work related and he says he can’t do his job when in fact he can but he’s a perfectionist . I’ve cried myself as feel so helpless what can I do?

He needs to go back to the Gp, possibly anti depressants and referral to counsellor. If he was already prescribed CBT, then clearly he had a history of anxiety/depression.
CBT is actually an excellent way of training the mind to become less anxious. As this hasn’t worked previously he needs to try alternatives. And medication may well be needed so that he is in the right frame of mind to access therapy.

Also alcohol is a massive depressant, so at the moment he needs to cut back on that,

Order a blood test for low t from a clinic not the nhs. If anything you can rule it out.

All bloods come back normal

Depression/anxiety. Needs an SSRI like sertraline asap and referral to different sort of talking therapy.

We’ve been to the GP today and they’ve prescribed Sertraline 50mg increase dosage after 2 weeks

That’s good. Is he going to take it? You should be aware that it can cause symptoms to worsen for a couple of weeks, before it starts working. If it gets worse, that doesn’t mean the medication won’t help, he just needs to keep taking it. If it’s not working after a 6 weeks/a couple of months, then he should go back to the GP.

I have also had CBT on the NHS (several times) and I found it soul destroyingly awful. I have a degree in psychology, I know all the evidence behind it, I’m sure it works when done properly. But I wouldn’t do it again on the NHS either.

Just to add that Sertraline really helped a family member when they were extremely low, but as PP has said, things can get worse before they start to improve. Increasing the dosage had the same effect. It was so worth it for them in the end though.
Maybe your husband would find a more general type of counselling helpful? He would probably have to pay for that though, I’d imagine.
Look after yourself too, it’s not easy to watch someone you love going through this.

@ShesTheAlbatross thank you yes the GP explained he may dip before he gets better and we know this from past experience. CBT referral take a while before you even get allocated a counsellor in our area and after his recent decline I thought we needed to move quicker than this