• 🇬🇧󠁿 🇸🇪 🇿🇦 🇮🇪 🇬🇭 🇩🇪 🇪🇺
    European & African
    Drug Discussion

    Welcome Guest!
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
  • EADD Moderators: Pissed_and_messed | Shinji Ikari

7 years medical training.... Really??

They have targets they have to meet to give you an appointment in 24hrs but you have to say its and emergency otherwise it doesn't fall into that statistic. mine always ask the question " is it an emergency?" I betting most do, my normal appointments are booked as I leave so if I'm ringing for one it's because I have an immediate problem, so always say yes and they will try and ask you about what the problem is and just refuse to discuss it with them. Then they just give you an appointment that day or the next, works for me every time but I usually get Mrs atm to ring for me as they wind me up so much;)
 
A friend of mine has admitted self harming to a fairly serious extent to her GP but all they came out with was typical "Sleep properly" "eat heathily" and "get more excercise".

How much of a danger does someone have to be to themself before the NHS can justify spending the money on someone for them to talk to?

GPs in my experience seem to be willing to give out citalopram to anyone and everybody now like they used to give stickers and lollypops to kids.
 
Foreigner said:
Have I ever met a GP like that? Practically all the GPs I've met are like that. You have to understand the way they are trained. They are trained to look for X symptoms, and then follow the treatment protocol which is almost always the same. Their job is simply to correlate symptoms to a drug prescription protocol; their pharmacy training is not all that advanced, not like a pharmacist.

If you want to know detailed knowledge on drugs, talk to a pharmacist, not a GP. GPs are following what their big blue book says. The only thing that is difficult about their profession is forming the diagnosis correctly because the drug protocol will be based on that; however, in my experience, the diagnosis is usually not accurate either.
Click to expand...

That would be OK but IME most can;t even do that I'll carry on using the example I gave, as I am now much better educated on that condition, Clobetasol propionate is not an advised treatment for acute Psoriasis and certainly not in the amounts I was using it and for the extended period nit to mention the well documented problems of rebound if it is suddenly withdrawn, the psoriasis alone could have killed me, heart attack being the most common issue, rare but a real risk in acute cases, let alone the adrenal gland problem.

I swear I could just sit there with the internet in front of me and make a better job of it than most of them, hmmmm not sure about having access to write my own scrips though...probably not a good career move for me;)
 
Munroe said:
GPs in my experience seem to be willing to give out citalopram to anyone and everybody now like they used to give stickers and lollypops to kids.
Click to expand...

It's the mental straitjacket without the need for actual human involvement. It's about efficiency and profitability.
 
Dread calm said:
Ok I've gotta find a new GP, my current one is a danger to people. Just been prescribed some codeine for my back and this is a direct quote, she said "Be careful with these pills because they contain a rather large dose of opium". I'm pretty sure just saying this is an opiate and can be addictive would've done. This is the same Dr who refused to taper me off temazepam as she said Benzo withdrawals were purely psychological.

Anyone else ever experienced such nonsense from a clearly misinformed gp??
Click to expand...

Yeah, the dude I was seeing for anger management etc. when I was about 18 talked to my GP and got my SSRI script canceled because I missed an appointment with him due to me living with a friend at the other end of the country at the time, told GP I'd been uncooperative and didn't actually need them. My next appointment with him I told him that the withdrawals were doing me in and he said there's no such thing as SSRI withdrawal and then laughed at me when I said I'd run off to my mate's cos I couldn't deal with my grandma's fairly recent death, said it had been ages and I needed to move on. It had been four months and it had hit me hard. Told him he was, in no uncertain terms, a cunt, walked out and left my dad to deal with him whereupon apparently the cunt did a quick 180 and played the concerned therapist. Should have filed a complaint but I was glad to be shot of him.

Edit: Bonus fun, I had problems with carpal tunnel in my early 20s and didn't really want an op so went for cortisone injections. Couldn't see my normal hand doctor one day so saw my GP, he said he could do the injection. Anyways he looked it up online, got the needle, hit my median nerve and in an instant my wrist felt like it had been blown off and everything went black. GJ, doc!
 
@ Breowan

Thanks for posting your obviously one of the good ones;)

I did mention that my friend who is a nurse in a major London hospital says much the same about the whole medical profession, I mentioned her view of a 60 / 40 split. Her view is that you need to give shit about people to work in that profession and some simply do not .

There may well be a similar split of builders with only 40% giving a shot of they do a decent job but the impact on people's lives is not as great, surely medicine is a job that you should choose because you want to help people and you do give shit, but IME Doctors GPs in particular perform badly against pretty much every other profession I deal with. I don't know why but I've had many terrible experiences with truly dreadful GPs and very few with specialists and that's more by percentage.

I got ans initial meeting with a CBT counsellor within a month or so but then got referred out to and addiction centre to get me off the booze before they would treat me, then it was CBT by phone after about agreeing the date I would be 4 weeks alcohol free, that wasn't working so I had t wait about 3 months for F2F, all the counsellors and addiction service people I dealt with were top notch. I'm not picky I can live with a few rough edges but GPs have a deserved bad reputation IMO and many need the sack.
 
Mailmonkey said:
Can we bitch about consultants and surgeons in here too :(
Click to expand...

Like I've just said I must have been lucky my experience at hospitals has been generally much better than with GPs, not perfect by any means but definitely overall the quality of treatment in all aspects has been better. That said I had a some horrible experiences when me and Mrs atm were trying to have our first child, I'm happy to leave my dignity at the door but believe me the "sample" lady was not a nice person at all and the whole experience was fekin awful. In the end they refused us IVF anyway and we had to go private so it was all for nothing and their diagnosis turned out to be utter shite.
 
Breowan said:
Yes, but thought better of it. Probably best to remain a lurker.
Click to expand...

See you can't even get an appointment online ...what if I said it was an emergency;), good to know yo can be bothered to take the time to look about a bit, my last addiction counsellor asked me to spend a bit of extra time with him a while back to talk to him about RCs .

Anyhow we can all PM you now for free consultations:)
 
Foreigner said:
It's the mental straitjacket without the need for actual human involvement. It's about efficiency and profitability.
Click to expand...

They do seem to hand it out as if it's a wonder drug that'll fix most mental health issues.

I take it it's more widely prescribed nowadays because the patent has expired or something making it cheaper?
 
ssri's are this quick fire answer to everything, even when it clearly isn't depression related. I was having panic attacks through stress a few years back and that's all they'd give me. I told them to shove it up their arse and bought some diaz online. Useless!
 
Its odd that SSRI's are the first port of call for depression. I vaguely remember a news story about a guy from eastern europe (maybe sweden) who had ridiculously low levels of serotonin but never complained of depression in his life.


I'll edit this post if i can find a source.
 
Foreigner said:
It's the mental straitjacket without the need for actual human involvement. It's about efficiency and profitability.
Click to expand...

It was the first SSRI in a long line I tried, it is the standard first line treatment these days it seems but SSRIs don't agree with me at all. I think to be faor we can;t blame GPs for this its what they are told to do although I agree it is over prescribed given the evidence suggests it only shows signs of being effective in those with moderate to acute depression.

I had high hopes for SSRIs due to my previous epic abuse of MDXX but I mentally and physically do not tolerate them a all, there is clearly more to depression in at least many cases than just a lack of serotonin or they would be much more effective.

"Mental Straitjacket" I'm not convinced about that, if we were talking about an anti psychotic like Chlorpromazine, which I have been on then I would tend to agree but IME and I'm now on and SNRI, they narrow your spectrum of emotion and that can be quite valuable if you are experiencing acute depression. I've tried to go medication free and I just started getting dragged back into the abyss. Now I have had CBT and got some other shit sorted so I plan to come back off them again, in the fullness of time.

It can be very easy to slate the use of ADs but given the limited resources they can be a good stop gap, in some cases. I agree not all but for me they have provided some stability from which I have started to address the underlying problems but it was only through my persistence that I found one that gave acceptable results, I tried 7 in all, not counting anti-psychotic and benzos.
 
Last edited:
I first went to my GP, when I was 18, with anxiety and panic attacks. Didn't have a clue what was wrong with me, I just believed I was seriously ill. It was only anxiety, but no one put my mind at ease. Had brain scans and all sorts, and they came back fine. I wasn't prescribed anything for over two years. Then, I was scripted beta blockers, first, which helped a little with the physical symptoms, but ultimately didn't help. I had a citalopram script thrown at me, and was told I could take one to stop a panic attack! I wanted to punch the mis-informed bitch that tried that on. I've heard so much shite from GPs.

Anyway, after like 7 years of next to no help, I finally got pregabalin and diaz on script. My anxiety is now much more tolerable, and life is much better. See a different doctor, until one speaks some sense. Some of them are utter cunts. Some of them are stupid. Some of them are both. However, a small minority will connect with you, and really help.

The best of luck.
 
badandwicked said:
I wasn't really paying attention but there was something on the news last night about doctors refusing to prescribe opiates to those in desperate need, like horrific pain due to Motor Neurone or terminal cancer.
Click to expand...

there was something on newsnight last night, I wasn't paying attention either though, lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top