"Little understanding of Mental Health"

I was initially seen by a student doctor (who was very nice) for a repeat prescription of anti-depressants. She then brought in a male GP (who I will not name) to discuss the matter further with me. He was EXTREMELY ignorant about mental health and anti-depressants. He said that anti-depressants were "numbing" my emotions. This is NOT how anti-depressants work. They increase the Serotonin in your brain which helps positive emotions to last for longer which then, in turn, makes you better able to manage negative emotions. I still feel negative emotions but they do not spiral out of control. He then repeatedly told me that I was putting a "patch" over my problems and not addressing the "root cause" of my problems. I am well aware of the cause of my problems. I suffer from extremely low moods before menstruation and have suffered from chronic back pain following a very big operation to fix a curvature in my spine. Anti-depressants practically take away both of these issues. I have tried to come off them several times and these symptoms always reappear. The GP had not looked at my notes and I had never met him before and yet he proceeded to tell me that I had not done any "self-reflection" and needed to have "honest conversations with myself". I explained that I have been in intensive psychotherapy for four years (I am training to be a therapist myself) which is a talking therapy primarily concerned which thinking about the root cause of things. He appeared to dismiss this and repeated that I need to "look at the root cause of things" without having listened to me. He then, rather shockingly, proceeded to tell me that by taking anti-depressants I am likely to be "emotionally underdeveloped" when I am older. Again, THERE IS NO EVIDENCE to support this claim. In fact I am not quite sure what it means. This is purely a subjective description of someone. For example, the confrontational and close-minded way that this GP was conducting himself appeared to me as “emotionally underdeveloped” but that would, of course, be merely my opinion and as I do not know him I cannot really judge whether he is emotionally developed or not. It is a great shame that he could not grant me the same courtesy.

To keep telling someone that they are “not being honest” and not “self-reflecting” about the cause of their problems when they do not know you is extremely worrying to see in a GP. The “root cause” of by low moods could be, and is for many people, abuse or neglect or trauma. I have, fortunately, not suffered from these things but -if I had- to have a man who I have never met before standing over me telling me that I simply need to address such very complex issues as though is extremely easy to address and recover from these things could have been extremely distressing.

I hope the student Dr who witnessed this exchanged does not learn by this GP's example, or rather, hopefully she will learn from this experience how not to interact with patients.