How do I learn to trust the professionals?

[Bluey_moon]

I have GAD and a bit of OCD, my obsession at the moment (well has been for some months now), is me having schizophrenia. I have been told by a few professionals that i'm not! How do i learn to believe them in the long term?

[Bluey_moon]

Thank you Mary for your reply! I just don't know! 

[Dwwmills]

Hi Skye.

I think there are two questions being asked here. The first one “How do I trust my health professional?” you have clearly stated. The unstated one “How do I not trust my own judgement on this one?” needs to be answered as well. I think once you have an answer for both of these you’ll be right.

This is something I found very difficult to do myself. We all go through life making decisions and trusting our judgement to get us through so there’s no wonder it’s difficult to then trust someone else’s judgement over your own. I manage this at times by looking at the problem as if it was somebody else’s. In my case a highly skilled professional told me I had GAD. It didn’t feel like it to me but if I heard anyone else get that diagnosis I would believe the professionals opinion over the patient’s. Looking at it from this perspective I decided that for this one thing I was going to accept the professional’s opinion over my own. I didn’t have to believe every other thing the professional told me but for this one thing I accepted they knew what they were talking about. From then on whenever I had doubts I would treat these doubts as anxiety surfacing. I would go away and break down these thoughts and challenge them and replace them with more rational beliefs. I had to ignore my gut feelings and see them as just my anxiety.

Your situation is slightly different as you are trying to see something as not being real where I was doing the reverse. It will still come down to believing your professional health provider over your gut feelings. Have they given you any strategies for tackling this?

Cheers

Dean

[Bluey_moon]

Hi Dean, 

again your advice is invaluable! 

I don't know how to trust myself anymore (sorry I'm crying). I'm just scared and afraid, and everyday I think of something else that I might have forgot to tell them, today I was arguing with my inner voice again, one saying I'm dumb ect. And this morning half dreaming hearing conversation, but it the context of the dream! I want to ring them and ask, is this normal??? But they'll be mad and frustrated, with good reason! So I on line chatted with a BB person but I finished feeling more crazy! 

I have to learn to trust I'm just scared and I don't know how anymore! 

I want to be a good wife and a good mum, but right now I feel like a failure! 

[Bluey_moon]

So I have made a plan.

i wrote down all my "symptoms", and mental health are going to ring me back, then I'm going to tell them everything I percieve and I will accept their final word, no matter what! No more phone calls, no more reassurance seeking! 

[Dwwmills]

Hi Skye.

Sorry things are a bit tough for you at the moment but you don’t have to worry about being a failure. You clearly are a very thoughtful, intelligent and caring person. Anyone reading your posts can see this. You are just suffering from anxiety and some OCD. To your credit you are in there trying to sort things out which shows a lot of courage.

When I realise that my view of the world was not necessarily right I found this unsettling. What got me through was trusting in my underlying attributes as a person not necessarily my thinking abilities at the time. I had to put my trust in the processes I was given by my psychologist (mainly CBT). I didn’t trust this process blindly I assessed it as I went along and varied it in partnership with my psychologist so that it fitted my circumstances.

I think it’s good that you are making a plan to talk to your health care workers. Doing something for me always made things better as doing nothing and feeling trapped made me feel worse.

OCD can make getting thoughts out of your head and changing track quite difficult. My daughter had severe OCD many years ago and I have seen how difficult it can be. I think this may be causing you to look for more symptoms than is really necessary. Your health professionals have had plenty of time to look at you and assess the situation, so trust their judgement. You don’t have schizophrenia. To use an analogy it’s like trying to describe an elephant to somebody. You start by saying it’s a very big four-legged mammal, it has a long trunk, big ears, tasks, is grey and wanders around in herds. Most people by this stage have worked out that it is an elephant. You could go on to describe many other details such as how many toes, what it eats and how it smells but this will make no difference to the end result. It’s still an elephant.

When you talk to your health professionals see if they have some strategies to help deal with the obsessive thoughts.

If this is any consolation I found that the tough times was when I learned the most about my anxiety.

Cheers

Dean

[Bluey_moon]

Dean I don't know what to say except thank you! 

[Bluey_moon]

Btw, I've been told again I don't have "s" word. Just anxiety, OCD and intrusive thoughts! 

[blondguy]

Hi Skye

It looks like Dean and Mary are spot on here. I remember what it was like to 'Try to Figure Out' what the hell was going on with the anxiety.....So I will keep this brief.....The 'S' word......nope....you dont even come close.....but the anxiety yes....you do...and all of those intrusive thoughts the same as we all get...and they are awful...however they do decrease over time after you so sick and tired of them they actually (sometimes) can become boring..seriously

It doesnt mean much right now but please be 'Gentle To Yourself'

Kind Thoughts

Paul

[Bluey_moon]

Thank you everyone for your advice! 

im getting there slowly, the mornings are the worst! 

Today laying on the bed I could hear a women faintly, then I realised my husband was playing music, so I was calm, a few weeks ago I couldn't do that! 

Skye

[Bluey_moon]

You see what I used to do is if I heard any snipet of conversation or voice, usually from outside ect I would panic, even though i coulndt hear anything they were saying. If I could see the source I'd be releived, if I coulsnt I'd be so scared I was hearing things! But I've been told it's part of anxiety and I'm starting to beleive it, my brain is just so sensitive to that sort of thing! Wereas anyone else wouldn't think twice about it!