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We want to hear from you: please tell us about your experience of the online community.

Hi, my name is Daren68!

Daren68

Hello all, I have suffered with my mental health all my life, hope you are all managing

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chiarieds

Hi @Daren68 - & welcome to the community. Thank you for joining, & your kind wishes. How are you doing?

janer1967

Hi and welcome to the community Feel free to join in or ask any questions

Daren68

chiarieds said:

Hi @Daren68 - & welcome to the community. Thank you for joining, & your kind wishes. How are you doing?

Okish thanks ?

Tori_Scope

Welcome to the community from me too @daren68

It's great to have you on board.

How has your weekend been?

I'm sorry to hear that you've been struggling with your mental health for a long time now. Do you feel you receive enough support to help you manage your mental health?

If you'd like to discuss topics relating to mental health, you might like to visit our mental health and wellbeing category.

We've also been having a discussion about mental health over on our World Mental Health Day post, which you might be interested in taking part in.

Daren68

Hello tori, usual weekend for me but I hope you are having a good one, I struggle every day with my mental health but I don't get too low, in addition to having my mental health issues I also have full body arthritis and spinal problems to contend with. I changed my GP just before lockdown because my previous GP was extremely uncaring and I got very close to doing something unthinkable so left that surgery before I did, I'm so happy that I did because I now have a good GP, I hadn't been able to speak with him until recently but he is actually helping me. So I feel okish. He's dealing with my physical issues first because that is affecting my mental health dramatically. I would love to give anyone else suffering with similar issues so they know they are never alone

Ross_Alumni

Hello @Daren68

Welcome to the community, good to see you join us.

I'm glad that you have a better GP now and are in a better place because of it, however I'm sorry to hear that your previous one wasn't as helpful as you'd have liked. When you say you got close to doing something unthinkable, do you mind me asking what you mean by that?

Daren68

Hello Ross, sorry for the delay in replying., I was either going to kill myself or go for the GP, that particular GP has a track record of not caring about or helping certain patients. It seems that if you are more fortunate financially than he is fantastic but if you aren't he leaves you to rot

Daren68

Sorry to add this, my old GP was extremely condescending, arrogant and always downplayed my conditions. I saw a pain clinic specialist after a year of my GP stopping my anti inflammatory medication saying that it had a reaction with some of my other medications, the pain clinic specialist checked up on this and told me that my GP was talking nonsense, I was on no medication that would have a reaction so put me back on them to help with my pain, my GP then refused to put them back on my prescription, after a long fight I managed to get them put back on. Then I was having problems with my mental health so saw a psychiatrist who put me back on some medication that had helped me a few years earlier and yet again my GP refused to put them on my prescription and yet again I had to fight to get them. My wife had the same GP and was suffering from severe abdominal pain but saw a different GP that day luckily who referred her to the hospital immediately, after several scans they found the cause and asked our GP to refer her back to the hospital for treatment which he didn't do. Our new GP (who is at a different surgery) told my wife that she was supposed to have been referred back to the hospital by our old GP, we didn't find that out from the old surgery. My new GP also told me that the hospital had requested that my old GP refer me to the hospital for an mri because my condition is degenerative in 2016 but he also didn't do that, instead of referring me he kept telling me that my condition was mild (which I know for a fact it isn't). Sorry if that was long winded but I wanted you to know the circumstances which almost pushed me over the edge.

Ross_Alumni

Hello @Daren68

Thank you for responding and clarifying what you meant, I'm sorry to read that you were at that point before the pandemic, and I'm glad you have switched GP and are now getting support.

Do ensure you continue to access your new GP if you ever feel as though your mental health is becoming harder to manage. You can also access the below resources if you ever need to access immediate support:

Samaritans, on 116 123
Shout, by exting "Shout" to 85258
Helpful pages such as this one from Mind about coping techniques

Take care

Tori_Scope

Hi @Daren68

I was just wondering how you've been feeling since we last spoke?

Daren68

Hello Tori, I've been sort of OK thank you, my pain is more under control thanks to my new GP but I have been quite stressed about leaving the house due to covid. My wife almost drags me out for a trip around our local park for some fresh air. How are you? Hope you are well ?