My GP won't listen

[Christine14au]

Hi my name is Christine and I am new to this forum. I have suffered from major depression for about 9 months now. I have a lot of health issues which seems to never end. I have tried to commit suicide twice.

The first time I felt like commiting suicide I told my colorectal surgeon. He was very nice and told me to ring him if I need his help. It took me two days of not eating or sleeping to work up the courage to ask for his help.

When I did ring my surgeon he helped me by contacting my gp. My gp thought it was funny in the way that I tried to kill myself and I had to ask him to prescribe me antidepressants. The first thing he told me that I scared my surgeon and still feel guilty about this..

I never received any counselling until now and I have changed gp's. I now have trust issues and only trust my surgeon.

I need his support again but I don't know how to ask him face to face. I have emailed him asking for his support but haven't got an answer. How do I ask him without feeling needy?

beyondblue’s clinically-trained moderators often work offline (invisible to you) on issues relating to suicide or self-harm. At the same time, general supportive comments from the community are encouraged. If you have concerns around suicide or self-harm, please phone our support service on 1300 22 4636.

[JessF]

Hi Christine, I don't think your surgeon is the best person to be approaching. He helped you the first time because that's what good decent human beings do when they're faced with someone in a crisis but he can't be an ongoing support for you because he isnt qualified to do so.  No need to feel guilty about this, he was there for you when you needed someone the first time, but now you recognise you need some more support, you just need to go to the right place for it.  Your current GP doesnt sound very supportive, so no wonder you're going back to the last person you felt comfortable talking to. I would suggest you try another GP, maybe ring the bb line and ask for a recommendation for someone in your area or use the directory on the website here?  And talk to us here on the forum too.

[christine55]

Christine, I don't know where you live but you can phone the mental health help line at 131465. They will direct your call to one of the community mental health teams who will phone you, add you to their case list, and see you. Often they will see you the same day, or make an appointment for you to go to their centre. They may visit you at home as well. Two workers will arrive if they visit you at home and will be able to include some further mental health assistance. The service is excellent and is there specifically for people such as yourself who need ongoing support and management of depression, to prevent suicide.

Please don't hesitate to use this forum as well.

[ilovetoread73_]

Hi Christine, sorry to hear about your lack of assistance from the surgeon and your GP.  They should be embarassed.  The GP is a joke in laughing.  Ring the Mental Health Helpline or go to the APS website and look for a practitioner who fits your needs.  These are a good place to start.  GP's are like a treasure hunt.  Once you find a good one you don't let go.  Most of them don't know more than how to treat you for a set of certain illnesses and also if you don't fit into that box they would rather you go away.  They will even forget you in the waiting room and pretend they didn't know you were on the list of patients.  I had 5 years of trying to get treatment for 2 sleep disorders I have. I had to take my husband to be taken serious.  I found in my experience that some bias and also poor medical knowledge was definitely a huge barrier to get me the treatment and diagnosis I needed.  One sent me away and I felt like committing suicide.  Many people don't realise that your brain needs restorative sleep.  not just sleep.  That was a long time in the past and I found a great GP who referred me to a wonderful Sleep Specialist.  This was the last stop for me before giving up on the whole thing.  Find the right GP and practitioner for you.  If they treat you badly my advice is to find someone else.  In my opinion surgeons are great doctors but bedside manners they seem to lack.  I think it must be to do with keeping themselves sane.  Best of luck.

[Monoglot]

Finding a good GP is so important and can also be so time consuming. I have finally found a great practice and I'm so happy, they listen and they are attentive! Shouldn't be that hard for a Doctor should it? 

Good luck!