I have a female friend who lives in the UK. she is 23 and anemic. She told me she stopped taking iron supplements about 6 years ago and tries to get all her daily Iron needs via a regular diet.
She told me how depressed and tired she always feels. And about how when she was younger she used to chew ice and currently, doesn’t chew ice but sometimes likes to chew hard candy. These are symptoms of pica, which denotes iron deficiency. Iron deficiency also causes fatigue & depression.
I am guessing (but since i am not a doctor, not recommending taking any iron supplements to anyone) she may be iron deficient and this is helping create her fatigue & depression, but how do i go about trying to get her to have her blood tested for iron levels so she can check to see if that is the problem? Also, what kinds of tests would she need? would they be invasive and expensive (she lives in the UK, like i said so i assume the state will pay for most medical needs), or quick simple blood draws?
She feels all her problems are psychological, which they may be but i’d rather just know for my own good and for hers whether her anemia is helping to cause this. But she says she wants to deal with her problems psychologically, not biologically.
So what would you recommend? I don’t want to badger her. maybe i should just let her know that if she decides she wants to look at her depression & fatigue from a biologoical standpoint, that she should go to a doctor and have some blood tests done to determine iron levels to see if that is a factor.
Well, the test for iron deficience takes about 15 seconds from begining to end - the prick your finger and drop your blood in a vial of mystery liquid (sorry, I don’t remember what it is) - if it sinks you’re A-OK - if it doesn’t, you have low iron.
Canadian Blood Services does this everytime a person donates blood. Trust me - it’s really quite painless.
However, if she won’t get the test, she won’t get the test. Personally, I think her objection is absurd - I was anaemic for years - I now take an iron supplement - who cares? I like a veggie diet and it’s easer for me to just supplement with a pill.
However, it is her right to be absurd, and you probably won’t be doing yourself any favors if you decide to make her happyness your pet project. If she refuses to get the help (biological or psychological - you didn’t mention if she was seeing a counselor), then you worrying about it won’t do either of you any good.
As an FYI, if she is anaemic, no therapist worth their salt will treat her for depression until she gets that problem licked. It’s what’s called an underlying condtion and fixing/treating those is always the first step with mental illness.
Agreed with alice - no reputable therapist will treat her unless the possible physical causes have been looked at. Therapy might help her with other issues, but it won’t fix anything truly physical.
It’s silly that she wants to go the psychological route - does she think that if her diet is deficient in Vitamin C, a therapist can help prevent rickets? She might well simply be “malnourished.”
alice is right about how non-complicated the test is, too. A nurse at my last job dragged me off to have the test done when she heard I was tired; she suspected my vegetarianism had something to do with it. Finger stick, quick check, presto. I tested within normal limits.