Is the stress of trying to see a GP making anyone else’s anxiety worse?

[KelvinWayne]

I don’t even know how to explain this properly, but I think the process of trying to get help is now worse for my anxiety than the actual health issue.
Calling at 8am.
Forms that open and close in minutes.
Being told “try again tomorrow”.
Waiting days for a call that lasts five minutes and leaves me more confused than before.
I’ve noticed I’m starting to put things off that I probably shouldn’t, purely because I don’t have the energy to fight the system anymore. Even when it’s not an emergency, sometimes you just need reassurance, clarity, or to talk things through before your mind runs away with it.
Is anyone else feeling like this?
How are people coping when they do need advice but can’t face the whole GP appointment circus again?
Genuinely asking — not looking for arguments, just real experiences.

I actually like the online system better, I get anxious and find it easier to explain in writing, so they have read that before they call.

I need so much help but I can’t access it. The whole system seems to be set up to prevent me ever seeing anyone.

Are you saying that all they give you is a 5 minute telephone appointment to discuss your health issue? (Not in UK so trying to get a picture)

Yes, at my surgery you have to put in an online form. Then you might get a call the next day, except you don't know when, and you're usually at work in an open plan office having to have your doctor's consultation in front of 20 or 30 colleague s all of whom are pretending to be busy while listening intently, or if not at work, then driving to or from work. If you miss the call, you have to fill in another online form the next day and the whole circus starts again.

Sometimes, the online form decides to give you an actual appointment. This might be a phone appointment for a few weeks' time, or rarely, it might be an in-person appointment. Again, you work, and you don't get much choice in when the appointment might be, so no chance to pick a time either before or after work. You therefore have to tell your manager you need time off, and said manager inevitably wants to know why you need to see the doctor. But they ask without asking - "nothing serious I hope?" etc etc.

Awful.

10 years ago or so though, I remember you could make appointments over an automated phone system. Except the appointments got released in the middle of the night, so I would have to set my alarm for 2am, then call the doctors, and that way, I'd manage to get an appointment - usually for my child back then.

Whoah that is crazy!!
Hoping things improve in the UK. We have a GP shortage here too but it doesn't seem as dysfunctional as in the UK (not everywhere in the country at least, where I live its normal to have to wait a bit getting your call through but you always get seen within the week, unless its not time sensitive.

They’re all different. My GP is fantastic - I fill in a form and they text me with appointment options. If it’s an emergency it’s that day or the next day. But obviously it depends on the GP surgery. Usually it’s in person but sometimes it’s a call for 10 minutes. That’s just things like a repeat script or checking if I need to come in for x or y.

I hope this isn’t insensitive but I’ve never found the nhs, GPs or therapists to be any use in anything like this anyways, I have life long anxiety and insomnia, eating disorders etc, and to be honest have given up. I manage it myself the best way I can, read and research. Ultimately I know it all comes from within and it’s all in my power to control. And since reframing it as mine and realising anxiety is a normal part of my life, I am happier and stronger. I have had better responses from 5 minutes talking to chat gtp than any health professional in the nhs. And I say this as someone with a PhD so I am not a complete idiot! I hope you find what works for you, but there’s no magic pill. The best things I have done is to stop drinking, meditation (even just for 5 minutes in bed at night) and retrain my brain to say positive things only (that takes time, but it’s phenomenal- I used to say the worst things imaginable to myself). Good luck!

Yes this was me last year. Tried for first time to get appointment at the surgery I've been at for a few years. You have to phone at 8. There is no other way. After several days trying and feeling stressed and helpless I gave up and booked a private GP appointment for the next day. £150 for half an hour plus I had to pay for the perscription privately too £25.

The GP was a NHS GP who did NHS in the morning and had his own private surgery in the afternoon.

I just can't cope with not being able to get an appointment when I need one (which is not very often at all).

I got taken early so probably got 35 mins for my money. I asked him about a few things just because we had time left over after he had diagnosed and written perscriptions. It was very weird to have so much time with a GP and not be under pressure. I left feeling like I had got good value for money.

So I've added a new line into next years budget spreadsheet Private GP/Perscriptions £500 which I reckon will cover me for 2/3 appointments (the twenty minute appointments are £120 plus private perscriptions).

Tis only a matter of time before we are all doing it! I very rarely go to the doctors so I probably won't need that much in each year but at least now I am prepared for it!

It is not just the appointments. I find it so hard to navigate healthcare providers. Securing repeat mediations is hard too. I realised last week that this is why I hoard my meds and am doing the same for my kids as they start their ADHD meds journeys…

the phoning at 8am is so stressful. i usually get an appointment ok if i phone from wednesday onwards but having to do the dance at 8am is stressful. we have no other way to get an appointment.

Reading through these replies, it’s honestly upsetting how familiar this all sounds. It’s not even always the actual health problem that’s the worst part, it’s the stress of trying to get help in the first place. Calling at 8am, forms that go nowhere, waiting days for a call that lasts five minutes and leaves you more confused than before.
What really comes through is how many people feel their anxiety or mental health has actually got worse just from dealing with the system, even when the issue itself isn’t urgent. Having to choose between waiting and spiralling, or paying privately just to be heard, shouldn’t be normal.
I don’t have some magic fix, but I do want to say you’re not imagining this and you’re definitely not alone. If anyone has found a calmer or more straightforward way to get reassurance or proper advice, it would probably help a lot of people here to hear it.

I totally sympathise and fully understand where you are coming from. My mums GP in NW England is not good, very stressful getting an appointment, they lose paperwork and my mum who is 88 has not managed to get a GP appointment for nearly 2 years. The online appointment requests open at midnight and gotten by 1am they have gone. It has been making me ill with stress trying to get her medical needs assessed. Though it has improved lately, but they still lose paperwork which required me to go back and get copies it all takes time, with no one answering the phone.

I phone my GP receptionists and tell them I can not navigate their online system, they deal with me over the phone.
I'm sure there are very many people that have been left by the way side with these new booking systems, they are not completely user friendly or inclusive at all.
I have only have a NHS psychiatrist because I paid to see a private one for a year and then he retired sent a referral to my GP.

In some ways yes, in others no.

I have recently discovered that I can get antibiotics from a pharmacist without a prescription (I get UTIs , a lot)
This has reassured me as GP apointments are like gold dust.
I am trying to get them prescribed for me as a preventative measure, but been told my request is not a priority at the moment. This method will be more cost effective

Had a few panic attacks trying to get an appointment when it really mattered - e.g. having an asthma attack and couldn't find my inhaler. Ended up with 111 sending an ambulance. All I needed was GP to write a new prescription...

If you’re having an asthma attack and haven’t got an inhaler, then you need emergency care, which is not a GP. Community Pharmacies can administer salbutamol in these instances. A GP can’t just abandon all the patients waiting to organise a script for you just like that. GPs are not an emergency service.
All pharmacists are now leaving university with an Independant Prescriber qualification. As time goes by and they are able to build on their areas of competence, this will give more availability in the system. This is in addition to the current Pharmacy First system, which doesn't require the pharmacist to be a prescriber, but works on a Patient Group Directive system.
I’m a pharmacy technician who has worked in primary care for about 13 years.

Have you tried self referring to your local Talking Therapies online or calling?

Local pharmacy they couldn't do anything. I did call them. And my surgery. 111 arrange a doctor to call you before they send the ambulance, that doctor agreed I didn't need one, and booked me an appointment at my surgery. The surgery saw I'd had an appointment booked by the 111 doctor and cancelled it. I called them back being "eh, what?", and ... ended up having paramedics around.

My asthma is mild and my perscriptions had expired. I'd stopped being called in for asthma check ups because it had been so long. But I also had a cold, had been pregnant and now wasn't, and it seems that things had changed.

Now back on daily steroids, but I think you'll find that you're information is out of date. They don't even give out reliever inhalers anymore...

If you have sa
lbutamol
on repeat they should be able to see that in your SCR and give you an emergency supply. That’s current procedure. And if you walked into a pharmacy actually having an asthma attack no
Pharmacist is going to leave you there to die!

Our online system works really well.

You tell them what the problem is and they give you a Face to face or telephone appointment.

Can't you just order your repeat meds on your NHS app?

My GP I can phone or fill out an online form where I can request telephone or in person appointment or I think I could walk in and the receptionist would sort an appointment. I do have to wait a few days, maybe a week or so if it’s not urgent. I do find getting prescriptions tricky, our local pharmacy doesn’t open on the weekends and I can’t seem to stop the GP sending them my prescriptions, but other than that they’re good.

If you go to the pharmacy that you want to use and ask them to
nominate themselves as your pharmacy, your prescriptions will go to them without your surgery having to do anything else.

Thank you!

I've read through all these replies, it’s honestly a bit heartbreaking how familiar this sounds for so many people. It doesn’t feel like people are asking for too much, just basic care and someone to actually listen without rushing them or passing them around.
What really comes through is how exhausting the whole process is. Calling at set times, filling forms, waiting days for a short call, and still coming away with more stress than answers. That alone can make anxiety or health issues feel so much worse.
I don’t have a perfect answer, but I’ve seen that sometimes speaking to a clinician outside the usual GP system, just to get clarity and reassurance, can help people feel less stuck while they wait for things to move forward properly.
If nothing else, this thread makes it clear you’re not imagining it and you’re definitely not alone in feeling like this.