The mental health journey
Stage 1: Recognising you have a problem
1 in 4 people in this country with a mental health problem will not seek help. This figure is much higher in poorer areas (about double). This is due to people:
- not seeing their problems as due to stress
- thinking that no-one can or will help them
- feeling ashamed of having stress
Stage 2: Seeking help for the problem
As many as 1 in 2 people going to their GP with a stress problem are missed or misdiagnosed. This may be because they tell the GP about physical symptoms such as feeling tired, having headaches, not eating. This may lead the GP to think in terms of an illness rather than stress.
GPs can detect mental health problems more quickly if people tell the GP mental health symptoms such as feeling, sad, can't relax, etc.
You don't have a lot of time with your GP so it is important to tell him/her the core signs of, e.g. feeling sad, crying, and tense, etc. This will help the GP get to the root of the problem more quickly and to offer the right kind of help.
It seems likely that GPs will soon detect a pattern if people are coming back time and again complaining of the same problems. But if you feel stress is a problem for you, make sure you say this clearly to the GP to get the two of you on the same wavelength.
It is thought that perhaps over half of all unexplained physical symptoms seen by GPS may be a sign of a stress problem. Common signs include: stomach pains, chest pains, dizziness, shortness of breath and headache.
Stage 3: Receiving help
GPs say that:
- one person out of three sees them purely for a mental health problem
- seven out of every ten people they see have mental health as part of their problem.
- around 90% of those with as stress problem will not go beyond their GP. A study showed that, over an eleven year period, about half these people continued to have problems on and off.
- most people who do go to their GP do not receive any clear treatment. Of those who do, the most common form of help is anti-depressant medication
Stage 4: Being referred to a specialist
Once you know about stress, the sooner you can start doing something about it. The big thing is to learn ways to fight back. Look though this site - learn more about the problems; learn more about how they affect you and learn ways of dealing with them.
We hope this site will help you but always remember it is a horses for courses approach - if you feel this site doesn't help you, don't give up hope - you maybe just need a different approach. So look around and find what suits you and go for it.
