Struggling with anxiety

[LucyLou]

Having a hard time with anxiety right now. My therapist advised me to speak to Dr as an emergency appt but there is never anything available, they say to call at 8am on the morning....so I work myself up and I do that but can't get through, so I emailed instead but they won't do appts over email. Thing is, having to make these calls every morning is making anxiety even worse! I don't know what it is, I just find it difficult and I'm going to set it off again, when I have to call tomorrow morning hate being this way
My therapist has said if I can't do it, she'll sort it for me but that's the equivalent of getting my mum to call in sick for me, it seems ridiculous

 

[Midnightmoon]

Having a hard time with anxiety right now. My therapist advised me to speak to Dr as an emergency appt but there is never anything available, they say to call at 8am on the morning....so I work myself up and I do that but can't get through, so I emailed instead but they won't do appts over email. Thing is, having to make these calls every morning is making anxiety even worse! I don't know what it is, I just find it difficult and I'm going to set it off again, when I have to call tomorrow morning hate being this way
My therapist has said if I can't do it, she'll sort it for me but that's the equivalent of getting my mum to call in sick for me, it seems ridiculous

Do you have the NHS app? Lots of GP surgeries have the option to book an appointment online, which might be more accessible to you?

Or is it easier to go to the surgery and ask at reception for the next available appointment? Sometimes being able to speak to a human being face to face is less frightening than waiting on hold for ages...

 

[LucyLou]

They said the next appt is 14th Oct and that just seems like too far away. I have the NHS app but can't make appts through it with my surgery

 

[Midnightmoon]

They said the next appt is 14th Oct and that just seems like too far away. I have the NHS app but can't make appts through it with my surgery

That's annoying re the app.

Is it worth taking the 14th Oct appointment and then seeing if your T can escalate it to ASAP?

 

[arfie]

total empathy, lucylou. my own anxiety is a self-perpetuating cycle. i consider myself, "a recovering chaos junkie." once that first shot of anxiety hormones hit my bloodstream, the shots just keep on coming and my drug dealer quite literally lives in my head, ready, able and willing to escalate me further down whatever proverbial rabbit holes happen to be available.

My therapist has said if I can't do it, she'll sort it for me but that's the equivalent of getting my mum to call in sick for me, it seems ridiculous

one of the more shocking discoveries of my own recovery was that no one makes it far on their own. have you ever looked at how much support is required to create a super star? it was not physically possible for elvis to work a soundboard while he was titillating us with his bouncy singing style. great world leaders have sizeable support teams making their style more dazzling. it's okay to lean on others, lucylou, whether your supporters remind you of mum, or knot.

 

[Friday]

My therapist has said if I can't do it, she'll sort it for me but that's the equivalent of getting my mum to call in sick for me, it seems ridiculous

If it helps at all, most doctors would find that the idea of them doing their job, advocating for their patients, & consulting with peers equivalent to “note from mom” …insulting?

AKA … it’s not. And nothing to be embarrassed about.

Patient access & peer/colleague access are wildly different things.

You have someone willing/able to use their access to reach your team & get shit done. That’s a GOOD thing.

It’s also something (having worked med admin whilst in school) that is soooo much easier on staff, when other offices are calling in to get their patients seen, than dealing directly with patients. There is professional quick-speak, professional courtesy, and an entirely different tier that other professionals calling in grant the staff (both admin & medical) access to… which clears space in the other patient tiers, rather than crowding. As there are time slots set aside, that go unused. Being able to pull people out one queue, to fill the empty slots? Makes EVERYTHING work more smoothly.