Just been to GP - saw "hypochondriasis" on notes...

[TolpuddleFarter]

Been to see GP about some side effects I have had from a medication I was on.

Looked at the computer to see "hypochondriasis (3)" on my notes, which obviously is three times where it has been flagged that I am a hypochondriac.

Does this mean from now on I will struggle to get taken seriously?

Surely this is just the medical term for health anxiety, which you have admitted you have and have discussed with your GP? So entirely relevant to be on your notes, even, as others have said, just to treat you with respect knowing you have a particular condition.

I've been surprised by a couple of things noted on my medical record since we've started having access to them on the app. Recently I've had some gynaeological investigations - I'm assuming this is the standard language from some sort of drop box exercise, but apparently I 'refused' a chaperone and 'denied' that I was pregant - neither of which reflected the conversation and make me sound unecessarily combatative and like I'm downright lying in the latter circumstance!

My main reason for being upset about the "hypochondriasis" is because the twitching isn't being taken as seriously as I would like. There are medications I could try for it. Because what I need is to have two or three days good rest, and see if the twitching subsides. I don't think the lack of sleep is helping at all, and that is contributing to the anxiety cycle. Instead, I have to live with it being compounded.

I know people who rattle with drugs. I have taken fluoxetine three times in my life, have the odd anti biotic (once every few years for a UTI) and now am on propranolol. Would it really hurt to have been prescribed something to help me over this hump?

Lots of points people have made. Regarding exercise, that is a hard one for me because when I have been my most anxious I have been exercising like a mad thing (mainly because I am convinced I am going to get cancer or diabetes so exercise to counteract it.) So exercise does have some negative emotions round it for me. But I did do half an hour this afternoon.

My shock about the hypochondriasis label is also that I don't go the doctors that often, so it was the dominant thing on my list - it stands out! So anyone viewing my notes will be drawn to that straight away.

Thank you to whoever recommended Claire Weekes - I am going to give that a go. I do think my nervous system is supercharged at the moment, and does need calming.

My health anxiety or hypochondria probably comes from a place of growing up in an environment where I felt unsafe. I guess it's some way of exerted my control over my life when things become overwhelming. Thank you to the people on this thread who have shown me some compassion.

This has been the most popular thread I've ever started!

That's really horrible thing to read about yourself.

I'd contact them and ask to put a note on there if you're worried it's going to effect your care.

One doctor put on my notes 'worried well'. I had to google what it was and I thought okay, that's pretty accurate so fair enough.

This year I went to the doctors and said I think I'm suffering with PTSD after my youngest DS's NICU admittance and the whole way it happened and he said 'it'll get better in time' 🙃. Never seen that doctor at our surgery before!

Putting "hypochondriac" on your notes is accurate though, by your own admission. That doesn't mean that the GP isn't treating you fairly or compassionately.

Twitching is a horrible thing in that there seem to be few drugs that actually help. Sorry you’re going through this OP, but hopefully some of the self-help tips you’ve received here will make a difference.

I think NFN would be a worse thing to see.

😁😁😁😁😁

They used to write 'FFF' as well, I'm told. Indicative of likely gallstones. Fat, fair, and forty.

This made me wonder: are patients able to apply to find out what is on their medical records, i.e. what their doctors write about them?

Yeah well when I accessed my notes, I saw that in the really embarrassing appointment about pelvic floor issues where I burst into tears at the stress of it all, he wrote "inappropriate behaviour", which is quite bizarre. I've given up reading the notes.

I hear family planning use "NTG".

Normal <insert town name> girl.

Isn’t the fact you are acknowledged as a hypochondriac and the issue of being treated fairly and compassionately 2 different things?

Have you felt treated unfairly or without compassion?

You say you’re a hypochondriac. Surely it’s useful for any GP or other health professional who sees you to know this vital bit of information…it gives useful context. You might complain if they didn’t include it in your notes.

Isn't it normal to jerk going off to sleep though? Why medicalise something which is normal?

I wasn't quite sure if WinchSparkle80 was making an etymological joke or asking a genuine question, but thought I'd better answer straight, since it was pretty early in the thread and didn't want the discussion to get too sidetracked onto abdominal complaints 😅

But yeah, there's more than one reason to object to hypochondria/hypochondriasis as a term — partly that in general parlance it's almost entirely used as a patronising, dismissive, or even derogatory term, which makes it upsetting to receive as a diagnosis, but also that it literally just means "below-the-ribcaginess" (or more exactly, "below-the-gristliness/cartilaginess, but being used to mean the cartilage in your sternum), because of the historical idea that particular kinds of mental disorder would originate in particular organs. As inaccurate/unhelpful/outdated/vestigial medical terms go, it's up there with hysteria IMO — could probably do with being retired even if it didn't cause unnecessary offence or upset when people see a well-known insult apparently being applied to them by doctors. But there are a lot of shitty medical terms, medical careers are long, and systems resist change, so it's going to take a long time to work through all the crappy old terminology, I suppose. And then there's the "euphemism treadmill" problem to tackle, where a neutral term becomes an insult, so a new neutral term is introduced, which is then also turned into an insult.

Though, having written all that (sorry, that veered way off from being a reply to you, Charlotten), I think it's probably fairly irrelevant, since it seems like OP would have had similar concerns even if the screen had read "health anxiety" — I think she's worried about more of an epistemic problem of not being taken seriously, rather than a semantic problem around word choice.

It’s best not to access your notes online if you don’t like seeing what’s written. There is a disclaimer saying you might see reference to conditions or test results not discussed by the GP with you.

Sounds like tha pp doesn’t help you. Perhaps delete it.

You go to the GP. They will assess you and include any unusual responses from you in the notes. This is them doing their job.

Don’t worry or feel judged. They’ve seen it all before. Your behaviours and anxieties about health won’t be that unusual. It’s important medics know about them. Honestly, they see every human response there is and yours is just one of very many they see in a week. After you leave, they don’t dwell on it at all or discuss it in detail with their colleagues…they have far more important things to do.

Try to recognise that your response to these things is a bit skewed and unbalanced. I know it’s difficult, but try to get some perspective and appreciate the GPS are trying to help you, not slander you.

It's not that the medical words themselves are stigmatising. But them becoming used as terms of abuse in a cultural sense.

Spasticity for example. A medical term for muscle spasms often seen in cerebral palsy.

Which is why the society for sufferers of CP was originally called the spastic society. When 'spastic' became a playground term of abuse with associated facial and body mocking, the society changed it's name to 'Scope'. And then the facial and body mocking became 'nuhhhhh, you scopey'

Same as terms like moron, imbecile, cretin etc became terms of abuse for someone being stupid or doing something stupid or being intellectually challenged.

Then the medical terms became mental handicap or mental retardation and they became terms of abuse.

So then the terms became learning disabilities or intellectual disabilities so the terms of abuse became LD or ID and so then the medical terms became special needs.

So now the terms of abuse are 'special' 'special ed' 'spesh' or ' spesh school, spesh room, spesh bus, sunshine bus for the spesh kids'.

Perhaps you should educate yourself and not perceive victimisation or abuse when that didn't happen and attempt to accuse posters of being mean when they're stating facts.

Words matter, yes. But all the words used as terms of abuse culturally originally had medical use and definition which were then abused by society. So the medical community came up with different words to mean the same thing.

Hypochondriac means nothing different to health anxiety other than one had culturally become less sympathetic than the other.

Have you tried magnesium for the twitching?

This. It's the medical term for health anxiety, which you have. And how is it not fair or compassionate to document on your medical notes a condition which you have? It's only society which has put a negative spin on the term 'hypochondriac', but in your case it's true (and it must be very debilitating!)

Susan Jeffers book "Feel the fear and do it anyway" helped me hugely decades ago. I'm still not perfect but do know when to kick fear up the backside and push through regardless.

So you're on propanolol for the anxiety. The fluoxetine was causing the jerking so they've taken you off them, so the jerking should stop and then you can sleep, and they've advised exercise to help you with getting off to sleep if that's even an issue any more. I'm missing what you need another prescription for? It does sound like you want to be prescribed something as part of the process - because your health anxiety will be more satisfied by that result - rather than you need to be prescribed something for the current issues. It sounds like they felt prescribing something could in fact prolong the jerking so you're better off trying fewer meds in this case rather than more. That's how it reads to me anyway, the way you've set it out here.

And as for the notes, well, you've said you are a hypochrondriac and that is clearly part of what's going on here, in amongst the other issues, so it's being rightly factored in, but it doesn't sound like they're not taking you seriously as you're getting several appointments in a week and being listened to and medicated/advised. It's such a complicated thing to manage so I feel for you and for GPs trying to navigate the mix of mental and physical health issues. Hopefully you can exercise and get some sleep and not spiral into anxiety.

Worth saying, sometimes health anxiety threads on here can make people worse as it can feed the anxiety so do take a break from it if it's not helpful.

@CoolSchool

Um, yes, despite your superior lecturing tone, I am extremely well educated and you are more or less making my point for me. I am not even remotely perceiving victimisation or abuse. I am pointing out that language evolves and diagnostic terminology does and should change to reflect that evolution.

Based on your argument, moron, cretin, imbecile, etc. should still be perfectly valid diagnostic language. Is that your belief? How do you feel about hysteria?

Additionally, labelling something hypochondriasis does not account for the differences between somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder. Information that would be much more useful to a medic than an outdated, catchall word.

They shouldn’t be writing or diagnosing you with things without discussion

Ummm, but that's a GP's job? to diagnose ...

I can understand obesity and age being linked to gallstones but the fair bit has always baffled me. don't see what blonde hair or fair skin have to do with gallstones risk

Oh love, you're dripping in patronising and you feeling you have to point out how educated you are is making me feel a bit sick.

We get it. Get on with your day now in the warm feeling that you are so much better than many people.

But literally everyone knows hypochondriac means the same as health anxiety. Including Dr's and everyone in the medical profession.

Have a lovely evening.

Do doctors really use that one though or is that medical urban legend?

I feel sorry for GPs if patients object to accurate recording in their notes! They need to be precise and accurate, and clear to any other professionals who need to see them. Hence accurate diagnoses ("hypochondria"), avoidance of euphemisms (such as the awful "passed away"), use of as few words as possible and avoidance of all sentimentality and twee phrases. Medical records are not there as cosy comfort blankets to make patients feel better.