"Most really good but no of trust in patients'..."

I am one of those people that research everything, sometimes a little bit obsessive about understanding my symptoms. I went through a period of very severe anxiety, and have tried propranolol but it literally had no effect at all. My GP would not prescribe diazepam because people build tolerances over time. But I had done my research and found a number of people questioning it's addictiveness when used therapeutically rather than recreationally. But the GP wasn't having any of it. I get that without having to live with crippling anxiety it may not make sense or perhaps many patients abuse it to fall asleep at night or whatever.

So I ended up going private and got the medication repeatedly for about a year. In that time I went from 1mg to 2mg. Then stopped. I felt no withdrawal or even any need to take it again except for panic attacks.

Lately I have had a lot of inflamation in my joints. So again I did my research on possible causes (B12 deficiency, diabetes, arthritis are likely causes). I also read about foods that contribute to inflamation and a couple of nutrionists mentioned some nuts, particularly almonds, can exacerbate this type of pain. Let me say I love snacking on nuts, and yes, mostly almonds! I still don't have a diagnosis as I guess there was nothing in my blood test otherwise they would have called me and let me know. But I've been trying eliminating various things from my diet and it has helped. But I can tell you the GP 100% did believe that foods could contribute to joint pain.

I'm an intelligent and well-educated person. I did a degree which required a lot of research, so I feel fairly comfortable in libraries, both online and physical, looking up articles. It was very disheartening that the GP 1) wouldn't believe me that people suffering from severe anxiety don't crave benzodiazepines once the symptoms subside or 2) some foods can contribute / trigger joint pain. You sort of come away feeling belittled and hating yourself for spending so much time reading and researching your symptoms and being intelligent in general. I don't know if there are people who lie or if GPs have knee-jerk reactions to self-diagnosis, but both times I left feeling utterly invalidated and depressed.

Beyond the inherent disbelief of patients' opinions, I do have to say everyone there is very friendly and helpful and patient. If you're not one for trying to offer insight, it is genuinely a first-rate surgery.