Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)Hi
In all the NHS hospitals there are posters about treating the staff with respect etc - How about treating the patients with respect? I'm fed up with being treated with insensitivity and a total lack of respect.
I might have OCD but I'm still a human being and I certainly don't deserve the way I'm being treated at the moment.
But thank you to the Centre for Anxiety and Trauma for always treating me with respect and courtesy.
Trudy
Unregistered
I completely agree. Double standards. If you go into a job where you're caring for people then you should do just that, care. We're not customers or clients, we're patients, real people with problems who need help.
Unregistered
P.S. For my appointment next Friday, I made sure not to see the doctor who fobbed me off last time.
Hiya Trudy -
sorry to hear that. Patients should come first place in all situations where respect is needed. Needless to say this.
I am wondering: is it something characteristic of the U.K.? Because, although over here in Holland I encountered various professionals whose level of expertise and knowledge was not up to standard, there is always a basic level of decency.
If you don't mind this question (I hope so): do you make it overtly known to the staff at the NHS hospital that you feel being treated not decent enough? Or do you bottle up your resentment? I don't ask this out of a need for sensationalism. I think you have every right to vent your disillusion about any type of bad treatment. We OCD folks have a tendency to keep anger inside, perhaps for fear of hurting others. But we must not be brooding on such things all day long; they get bigger and bigger in our minds. Better to let off steam once in a while. It's healthy, although for a patient with OCD extra hurdles must be overcome to 'let it out'.
I hope you're doing better at this moment, Trudy.
Best, love, Cuthbert.
Sorry,I got that from the doctor at the hospital, I think just because I was sectioned - the nurses were nice though.
The EIP team are ok though, they are nice and my psychologist is amazing, well she's more than that, she's so awesome 
I've never really had a problem like that.
Why can't people listen and respect our OCD?
I've had to have a different support worker to help me shop today and go to the hospital to see the Crisis team.
First she was 30 minutes late, she'd got lost and ended up at the hospital instead of my place! I explained in detail about my OCD and that before I could leave the house I needed help to bag up the rubbish. (because of my epilepsy and OCD I'm afraid to put the rubbish out with out some one checking that I've not thrown out something important 
I had emptied the fridge of food that had expired, as not been well and not felt like eating. I put it in the bag with the dirty rubbish and she took it out and was going to put it in the fridge. I completely freaked out as she continued to take the stuff out of the rubbish bag. When I asked her to leave she refused saying that she was helping me I had to ring the agency and my team as she was just making my OCD worse, I'm on the verge of a breakdown as it is 
As a result my usual support worker is coming when she's finished her course to try and sort me out as I'm in one hell of a state. Shopping and hospital will have to wait until next week. It's been an awful week and seems to be getting worse
Aside from the OCD and epilepsy it's my house and if I want something thrown away it's my decision.
It really annoys me that when we're working hard to overcome our OCD the so called professionals seem to take great delight in undermining us.
Sorry rant over.
Sad story, Trudy. But not uncommon. Indeed: it is your house and you are the one that decides what will be thrown away.
I recognize something about that different support helper. I experienced roughly the same: people who, by doing things contrary to my wishes, obviously thought that they were doing the right thing. It is a demeaning, belittling attitude: one feels treated like a little child, that has to be 'taught a few rough lessons', it seems, and then will quickly learn 'how the real world works'.
Which, of course, is totally wrong. OCD is not the charactistic of a childish person. It is a real disorder with real neurological features. Compare: you don't give a person with Parkinson's a kick in the *ss to make him walk a bit faster, do you? Yet Parkinson's is a neurological disorder too. By definition: then you don't 'kick' a person with OCD into doing things that he/she doesn't want to do, or isn't able to do.
People with OCD aren't 'stunted in their development', so that they need any kick from anyone. They deserve respect, first and foremost.
Hang on in there, Truddles, we care about you.
Ciao, Cuthbert.
Right on Cuthbert!
You are absolutely correct. We do not need our hand held and are perfectly aware of how irrational we are! haha. But knowing it doesnt make it any easier.
I went to my GP today because I am pretty sure i have a sinus infection...I also hurt my ribs in the back and cannot take a deep breath without pain. I'm pretty sure he thinks that because I have OCD that I am hypochondriacal as well. Which I'm not...I really have sinus pain and headaches! So he just looked past the infection and focused on the ribs. He took an xray and couldnt immediately see anything (which I'm sure added to his theory that I'm nutz)...so now I have to go to the hospital for a bone scan with contrast. I am scared to death of the contrast...they have to inject it.
Anyway..I'm thinking I will need to switch doctors because I left without antibiotics and a feeling like I must be a crazy hypochondriac because he has found nothing wrong with me.
I know for certain I've injured myself...my husband was present when it happened. So was my mom and sister...so I know I'm not imagining it! I hate being treated like a paranoid freak when I may be a paranoid freak but not about these things! haha. People, even doctors, dont understand this disorder...they think it means something weak or crazy. I refuse to be treated with disrespect, so next visit I will boldly ask him if he really does think this way. Otherwise I will find a new doctor because darn it...it hurts to breathe!
Aargh! Sorry to hear you're both having such trouble with daft doctors.
In fact, both of them seem to have fallen into the same silly attitude... "there is no use even looking for a problem, Trudy's food is not mouldy and Andrea's sinuses are not infected, it's just OCD loonies imagining things again!" I hope you both get some "help" that is actually helpful next time!
And welcome back, Truddles. Good to see you again!
All the best,
Wombat
Thanks for those kind words Wombat, I've seen the crisis team and feel a little more secure, especially as my support worker came and took me and then took me shopping. Wasn't that kind of her as she had just completed a study day? There are people out there that understand us. Though at times they are pretty thin on the ground 
Sorry that you didn't have any joy with the doctor mama. Because of the attitude of some medics we get a rough ride when we're ill as they just assume that as we have OCD it's psychosomatic I know what it's like to be ignored by the doctors and then have your physical health deteriorate. It needs people with OCD to stand up to the doctors, after all we have enough problems and so wouldn't go to the doctor unless there was something wrong. Plus we know full well the attitude that we'll be greeted with.
Cuthbert it's true what you say that some conditions command respect from the doctors and yet others like our's get no respect at all. It's a shame they can't experience the true horrors of OCD even if it was only for a day. How many of them would last the day? I found what I do because of the OCD bad enough without being belittled and humiliated by those who should know better.
I'm sad to hear that other people are having problems with the doctors, but it makes me feel that I'm not the only one being picked on.
Thanks everyone
Trudy
Unregistered
After reading about people's bad experiences, I'm a bit apprehensive about my appointment next Friday. I hope it will go ok, I wont let myself be belittled.
Hi Trudy,
I'm glad you've had a more positive day today and had some proper support that you deserve.
I.ve been to the G.P. today and had to see someone that I have never met before as my G.P.was off sick. When I requested a medication that had been recommended to me on Tuesday by the CMHT, he said that he would give me a small supply but felt that I didn.t need it! Although he could see from the notes from previous visits that i have been really struggling for some time now, I thought it was a bit insensitive of him to say that.
Lucky Brave Bridget was in control today otherwise he would have drowned in my tears.
Anyway Take Care Trudy and I hope your weekend goes well for you.
Bridget
x
Unregistered
Gah, what is it with these doctors?! Sorry about what happened Bridget.
Thanks...I think I will be switching back to my old doctor...he didnt treat me like a looney! 
I am not a hypochondriac! I would know...I know a few...:)
I wonder how we could do that....I think awareness in the medical field would be the place to start...educating doctors...difficult...I've got OCD...I've been studying it intensely for 8 months straight and dealing for years...and I am JUST now getting a good grip on what it is!
Andrea
Thanks to all -
it is such a nice series of encouraging comments! And it's so true that doctors tend to think that we are 'imagining things' that aren't really there. This can be dangerous, inasmuch that they don't pay attention to real physical trouble as they'd do with 'sane' patients, and thus deny us the right treatment for that.
Because I am both a patient and a literature researcher in OCD, I'd say this about it: doctors tend to lag behind current insights in the disorder. Not one week, not one year, but whole decades. They're still heavily influenced by old theories and old therapeutical convictions. Perhaps they think that we are narcissists, borderline psychotics, Muenchhausen-By-Proxy patients, or merely attention seekers.
All of this is sheer nonsense. But these are fancy labels that even first year medicine patients use to impress their friends and acquaintances with. They're popular, in short. The picture of OCD as a neurological disorder is much less fashionable - and yet it needs to become a standard view, if we want to make progress. It will help doctors to see it in the realm of 'real' problems, instead of 'imagined' ones.
Moreover: the medical profession needs to take a good look at itself. More scientific insight is needed there. That would have great benefits: doctors would become less of authority figures, who are always right because of the fact that they are doctors. They would gain authority because of their knowledge; and that is a different thing. I experienced that when I presented them with facts about variations in the brains of patients with OCD, they became irritated, and changed the subject immediately... you may guess the reason for that!
Doctors work too much by the cook book method: patient presents with problem; the doc takes a big book, looks up the type of medication that's advised, and prescribes it.
Unregistered
Hi
Now I have 90% control, I don't either. My doctor treats me like a revered customer and asks if I will come back if I need to. She does everything she can to make up for my past poor treament. Everytime I see her I thank her for getting me into The Bethlem. I no longer fear going to my surgery. I so wish there were more GPs like her in the UK.
Anne
My GP is really nice and I get on well with her, but she has the same problems with the consultants as I do when it comes to sorting out my care. In that respect I feel for her as she must be as frustrated as me.
The therapist I see at the Maudsley has always not only treated me with respect but also listened intelligently and if she's not sure of what I said or meant she asks. That's all I need is for someone to take me seriously unfortunately she can't deal with the physical problems
It's the consultants that I'm having the problems with and it's got to stop. We all deserve to be treated with respect and given the appropriate treatment that we require, be it for physical or psychological problems.
Trudy
Hi,
I have an excellent dr, who will advocate on my behalf I have her email address
and feel very supported by her. I also have my social workers home emal and she
will email me in the evenings to make sure I am alright.
My psychiatrist is also good, the problem i have is that because im area they have devided the teams up axcess, recovery and crises in two months time, i am going have to have a new social worker and maudsley local servoces have all said that they dont know how to help me. i had two weeks off and this has made my ocd worse.
Hey,
As I live in Canada (York, England right now for the term), and I've had difficulties with the mental health field back home.
I tried to admit myself into a hosiptal two years ago, at least three times, I had self-harming thoughts, rapid weight loss, my head spinning with thoughts, fainting, failing my classes, and insomnia, and in the waiting room, they took a woman with a cut on her hand over me because i wasn't a ''serious'' case.
b******s.
Although my OCD is fairly controlled now, i still feel that mental illness is very understood and underestimated.
hope everything goes well
Respect what respect?
Now none of them are treating me with respect. I'm going round in ever decreasing circles and still getting no treatment It would have been quicker to have got a medical degree myself 
My CBT has been stopped and without that I can't access the help for either my epilepsy or the other medical conditions as both require admissions and I can't because of my OCD. So I'm completely stuck
But hey, as the last consultant that I saw informed me, it's only OCD
Rant over
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