@Cuddlebear @Kashmina hearing you both re: not feeling well, and wanting to extend some friendly hugs.
I am so glad and proud that you voiced to your GP that you are not coping with the pace and need to slow down a bit @Cuddlebear . It is not always easy to speak up when feeling pressured, so I am so proud to hear you have.
I agree with @Appleblossom that it is important to be able to discuss the need to be able to give honest feedback to the doctors around the effects of medication (be it from new, existing or dosage tapering). If people do not tell the doctor how bad it is, the doctors will not realise. Sometimes it can be scary to tell them exactly how bad and hope not-coping someone is. Fear they will dismiss or not believe . Feelings to cope with if they do not listen and feel unheard.
Earlier in the year I was experiencing very severe anxiety/panic attacks due to an adverse reaction to a brain stimulation treatment. My mother and I knew that it was highly abnormal for me (never had anxiety before despite trauma & depression for decades) and would pass once the treatment wore off. As an experienced psychologist she knew a medication would help me cope with the anxiety feelings and we had already been doing all the thing she would advise her patients. So she came with me to the GP. Ive seen this GP for more than 5 years. He did not want to prescribe me a single (no repeat) script (and i have no history of addiction or medication misuse), it was only because my mother was a trained psychologist and was able to advocate for me and what we had been doing and my symptoms and that it was very severe and not usual for me that he did agree to prescribe it for me.
And guess what? It helped! But because of his hesitance to prescribe i was then very hesitent to use it even at half the prescribed frequency 😅. It helped when i did use it, and I did find a middle ground where i could use less than prescribed but enough to be able to control the anxiety. (It was a "take as needed up to xxx per day", so it was OK to take less than prescribed!)
But i think, if i didnt have my mother as a trained professional advocating for me in realtime in the same room...?
And i believe my doctor had good intention. But sometimes they dont know exactly how bad things are if people "present well" relatively speaking. I know i have received a lack of adequate response a number of times due to this (ive been told by others i should find a diff GP for MH who has an interest in it), but i also recognise its not my GPs intention and when I do push back he does respecr it usually. But im not always in a position to feel able to push back.
Positive for me today --- I took a whole day of sick leave. Normally I try to push myself to do as kuch work as i can still, even though it sets back my recovery from the illness. But today I chose to evaluate it based on "if i work, will my cold/flu get worse for it?" And the answer was yes (due to excessive fatgiue weakening me), and so i took the day off on sick leave. And tomorrow i will ask myself the same question and assess myself again against that standard. 🥰 trying to do what is best for my health this time.
