Do you tell your doctor about mental or emotional issues that you have, or do you keep them completely separate?
I’ve found that the second I tell a GP about anxiety or depression, I can see the diagnostic blinders go on, and any symptoms you have are immediately written off as being mental in nature. I once had mono that one doctor wouldn’t even test for because he just kept saying, “You’re just depressed. It’s your depression.” The simple fact is M.D.'s are trained in medicine and simply don’t understand psychology and mental health. I figure if I have insurance and I’m paying the Doctor, he doesn’t need to know about other issues, even if it means more work for him to rule out physical things.
It’s ridiculous not to tell you doctor about every symptom you’re suffering. Sometimes anxiety and depression can have a physiological cause, such as hormones (thyroid too low? depression. thyroid too high? - anxiety) or even medication you might be taking.
However, that said, any doctor who dismissed my symptoms and waved them away as “all in my head” without running any proper tests, wouldn’t be my doctor anymore.
I won’t say that your experience doesn’t happen. I wish it didn’t.
As a therapist, though, if you tell me you’re anxious or depressed, I’m going to ask you whether you’ve spoken with your doctor about this. If you haven’t, I may not be willing to see you. Too many physical problems have psychological signs and symptoms (a.k.a. “psychological masquerade”), and until I know that a physical cause has been ruled out, I’m not going to treat somebody psychologically. Depression and anxiety are non-specific symptoms of many medical problems, some serious.
A good book, though I haven’t reviewed this edition yet.
I am conflicted with this too. I have had the same problem. I actually have quite a record of psychological problems in my past and it’s been very frustrating trying to keep them from becoming the focus of general practitioner visits. I suffer severe stomach problems, and almost every doctor I’ve ever seen who knows that I have PTSD has written it off as anxiety. Until now. Even though I was up front with the doctor about having once been hospitalized for depression, she took me seriously. I ended up in the Emergency Room with severe stomach pain and I could not hold down solid food for two weeks. I finally have medical professionals willing to consider that there might actually be something wrong with my guts!
I guess the best thing is to make them aware of it, but keep it as minimal as possible. I am not going into my entire psychological history with a GP-- most GPs know NOTHING about psychological health and I have a profound mistrust for their expertise in this area. But they do need to know in the least what you’re being treated for in the present, particularly if you are medicated. For my doctor it was enough for her to know that I wasn’t medicated any more. Once she’d determined that she was ready to move on.
In Australia you have no choice. A GP (General Practitioner) is always the first port-of-call if you want or need specialist care, whether it be for a dermatologist or a psychiatrist. However, you don’t necessarily need to go into a lot of detail about symptoms or severity…just a request for a referral is enough for most GP’s.
That being said, it’s important I think for your main Doc to have an appreciation of your psych issues and how they might impact on your physical condition…things like meds and their interactions with other meds is vital info for your GP to be aware of.
It’s also good to know whether you’re a diagnosed hypochondriac!
Hell, I even tell my oncologist about my mental health. Not in great and lengthy detail or anything, but he asks, and I answer.
Basically I just make an effort so that all of my healthcare workers are on the same page with me. I have great doctors, they’re all very interested in a “whole person” approach and there is always a short discussion at the beginning of the visit about how life is treating me in general. They don’t use that info to dismiss concerns, they use it to inform the way they examine/test/treat me.
Shopping around for a good doc sucks. I used to have a really bad GP, who was just dismissive of me as a matter of course. I lucked out on the second try, although that was from a referral from someone I knew, too.
Actually, just noticed you’re also in Chicago. You want my doc? I’m pretty sure she’s not closed to new patients at this point.
I agree with Shayna. There are just too many physical issues that can cause psychological symptoms not to disclose them. I’m not a doctor, and Dr. B. is, so I tell her. She takes that into account when deciding if tests of some sort are required.
