<\/p>\n
\nComment by Julie\u00a0on 02 Aug 2009 at 3:51 am<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been depressed for some time now. \u00a0I can\u2019t afford to see a therapist and my regular doctor has ignored my symptoms and let me down. \u00a0He thinks it\u2019s temporary and will disappear once my situation improves. \u00a0I think he\u2019s wrong. \u00a0It took me a lot of years to trust my doctor\u2019s advice. \u00a0I feel alone and fear worse is coming. \u00a0Did you ever feel like me? \u00a0What did you do? \u00a0When I read you story it gave me hope not much hope but some. \u00a0At least enough to write you for advice.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Dear Julie,<\/span><\/p>\n
I’m sorry to hear you’ve been feeling depressed. \u00a0I understand those feelings well. \u00a0I’ve felt the same many times. \u00a0Maybe your family doctor is not hearing that you are truly depressed because he\u00a0does not\u00a0thoroughly understand what you are trying to share with him. \u00a0Sometimes primary care doctors are more focused on the physical symptoms than the emotional, yet emotional issues can cause so many physical symptoms.<\/span><\/p>\n
There was a time when one of my doctors didn’t seem to understand me. \u00a0I believed he dismissed most of what\u00a0I said because he knew I was depressed. \u00a0He hoped that by my next visit my symptoms would go away. \u00a0If they didn’t, he would start ordering tests. \u00a0Maybe a\u00a0second opinion will help you?<\/span><\/p>\n
I don’t believe your family doctor wants to ignore you or let you down. \u00a0If I were you, I would make a list and point out your concerns, and share more of what is happening to you. \u00a0Please don’t wait for your doctor to guess the problem. \u00a0That may never happen. \u00a0Doctors may be well educated, but they are human and can’t read thoughts. \u00a0A doctor may suspect a problem, but it’s not his job to say so.<\/span><\/p>\n
Thank you for sharing your story. \u00a0I’m not a doctor and can’t give professional advice, but in my opinion, you should try to talk to your doctor again, but this time write your concerns down and be prepared. \u00a0I believe once your doctor sees that you’re making a serious effort, he will listen intently. \u00a0Perhaps if he is unable to help, he will refer you to someone with the professional skills that can help you.<\/span><\/p>\n
Wishing you all my best!<\/span><\/p>\n
Karen<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Comment by Julie\u00a0on 02 Aug 2009 at 3:51 am I\u2019ve been depressed for some time now. \u00a0I can\u2019t afford to see a therapist and my regular doctor has ignored my symptoms and let me down. \u00a0He thinks it\u2019s temporary and will disappear once my situation improves. \u00a0I think he\u2019s wrong. \u00a0It took me a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-answers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1230,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions\/1230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}