Anxiety Appointment Anxiety

[davidgillon]

 My problems with anxiety seem to have finally passed the threshold at which I'm more anxious about not doing something, than I am about doing something about them - the final straw being that I'm finding it impossible to send out submissions of the #Pitchwars novel to agents, or even effectively research them.

So I've got a doctor's appointment booked for tomorrow, at which the intention was to raise this and say I need help, but unfortunately I think I'm going to have to use it for something else (I've picked  up a physical infection that isn't getting any better, plus we're supposed to be doing a drug review) but I'll mention what my intention was and arrange a further appointment.

So the intention is to talk about the anxiety and:
Emphasise that I think it's secondary to being neurodiverse - and that may be a discussion all on its own as I don't think they realise I am.
That I think it's gotten worse post bullying by Evil Aerospace / Atos / DWP and constantly being on trial for being disabled.
That it's stopping me applying for benefits I should be entitled to/following up on things like wheelchair assessments the surgery have asked me to do, renewing Blue Badge etc.
That trying to deal with finances is causing panic attacks
That I'm catastrophizing over pretty much everything.
And so on.

I'm mostly thinking aloud here, both to organise myself and make it more difficult to back out, but if anyone has any thoughts on things that should be mentioned under ' and so on', or on strategies to take or avoid, then chiming in would be very welcome.

Comments

[sovay]

but if anyone has any thoughts on things that should be mentioned under 'and so on', or on strategies to take or avoid, then chiming in would be very welcome.

I don't know you well enough to give actual advice, but the approach of listing the ways in which the anxiety is interfering with your life seems like a sensible and explicit one to me—you have goals and your brain is not letting you meet them.

Also, if an outside reality check is useful, it looks as though the anxiety is interfering massively with your life and therefore, yes, someone should do something about it.

[davidgillon]

Also, if an outside reality check is useful, it looks as though the anxiety is interfering massively with your life and therefore, yes, someone should do something about it.

Thank you, that really helped. (And yes, I should have done something ages ago, but anxiety...).

[rachelmanija]

That all sounds good to me. I would also mention if there's something that has helped with your anxiety in the past, or if there are normal, first-line interventions that you have never tried. That is, have you ever tried anti-anxiety medication or CBT and if so, was it helpful?

[davidgillon]

Good points. It didn't actually come up (see update post), but still good points ;)

[rachelmanija]

I don't see an update post - I might not be on a filter?

ETA: Never mind, I see it.

[davidgillon]

I suspect you read the 'see the update' before I actually wrote it! Apologies for the confusion, I was getting a bit ahead of myself ;)

[kaberett]

Luck.

[davidgillon]

Thanks!

[davidgillon]

Well, the appointment didn't go quite as expected, but it went well.

My infected toe decided to be particularly gross this morning, so I decided that, as expected, I had to make that the priority issue of the appointment at the cost of the anxiety issues.

I then got thrown a curveball at the appointment as we have a completely new GP with the practise, as Dr Tandon (who was very much in the 'Your leg fell off? Well buck up!' school of doctoring) has finally retired. I'd hoped my Friday appointment meant I was getting young, dynamic, genuinely helpful Dr Singh, as she usually does Fridays, and I did, just not the Dr Singh I was expecting - we now have two of them.

I mentioned the plan had been to talk anxiety, but now thought we should concentrate on my toe, and that I was supposed to be doing a prescription review as well, so we started off with my toe.

She took one look, winced and said 'I think we'll start with the strong antibiotics'. If that doesn't help apparently things will get messy....

We moved on to the prescription review, and decided I'll try and come back down to the lower strength painkillers. The higher strength ones were supposed to be a temporary measure until I had the gallbladder surgery, but I forgot! Lot of helpful advide on ways to alleviate the drop in dosage and a second prescription of the appointment.

Rather than push me out the door (she was running at least 20 minutes late) she then did a bit of a getting to know you session, asked me what I did to keep myself busy, and as soon as I mentioned writing, and that I finding anxiety was making submissions almost impossible, she remembered the anxiety and insisted on dealing with it there and then. She didn't even ask for any more details, just wrote down, from memory, telephone numbers for three local psychotherapists, and two websites that might be helpful and said to give one of the psychotherapists a try to see how it goes as she prefers to start there rather than with drugs.

So overall, really impressed, though now I have to work up the nerve to ring one of the numbers she gave me....

[lilysea]

Good luck! ^_^

Anxiety is horrible.

[davidgillon]

Thanks, it went pretty well.