"My treatment for depression and anxiety"

I am a health professional and, following a significant setback at work for which I blamed myself, I became profoundly depressed and anxious. This had an adverse affect on my other health problem, and I became unfit for work.

My always excellent GP, Dr Maxwell of West Kilbride, referred me promptly to mental health services. There was a glitch as my referral somehow got lost in the system but as soon as this was brought to the attention of the service I was phoned by Dr Hart, Consultant Psychiatrist, who saw me the same day. Dr Hart is a doctor of rare intelligence and perceptiveness and the consultation was very helpful. Unfortunately he was leaving North Ayrshire the following day which is, in my opinion, a great loss to the local community. He referred me for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy which I had over several months from Caroline, CPN.

Caroline's help has been invaluable and she has been extremely patient with me, despite me accidentally missing an appointment, much to my mortification. She has helped me to restore a sense of perspective and equipped me with the tools to deal with the inevitable setbacks which occur in my day to day work. It is this team effort of Dr Maxwell and practice staff, Dr Hart, Caroline and Paula in admin ( who was very kind to me when I messed up my appointment and got me a new one) which has brought me back to my normal self and enabled me to return to the coal face of clinical work so that I can in turn help my own patients again.

It is a strange experience exchanging the role of clinician for patient and everyone above and their respective teams have supported me every step of the way. I wish to congratulate and thank them all.