Pain in your head .

[Akuamama1956]

Dear all , how will you feel when your doctor tells you "your pain is due to your depression in other words in your head".

When you have been in pain and still in pain for at least 17years . which I believe its clearly documented in my records .

Woow! So disappointing and dis- hearten to hear that from where you expected you will reccive support to go thorough these tough situation.

Hmm God help us .

Anyone experience such ? What did you do or action did you take ?

Will be please to know.

Thank

[CHEZZAD68]

I think another lazy GP fobbing someone off again.

I would not accept it, ask to see another GP and push for a referral to get to the bottom of it.

[Akuamama1956 in reply to CHEZZAD68]

Thanks my dear u will do that I pray someone eventually listens to me .I am grateful .God bless you

[miccika1]

Yes. It happened to me. I simply changed my rheumatologist. I did have to search since where I live a lot of them do t take new patients but the one that was available was a better one and im still with him

[Akuamama1956 in reply to miccika1]

Thanks you

[MichelleHarris]

Change your gaslighting GP x

[Roarah]

I am sorry you think your doctor was being rude however I see it as him making a differential diagnosis along with your lupus. Depression is a real disease more import to treat than any other disease including lupus for depression causes greater than 40000 us deaths vs 2000 US SLE related deaths per year!

May I ask have you ever considered psychological treatment to help you live with chronic pain? Lupus and depression are both very linked. Living with a chronic illness often causes depression and trauma is often the precursor to lupus and this vicious cycle does exasperate the symptoms of fatigue, brain fog and aches and pains. It is proven that treating both depression or anxiety and your lupus together results in very measurable quality of life improvements. The symptoms of anxiety and depression are almost identical to what many here consider flares.

If your regular lupus treatment is failing to improve your symptoms searching for a possible other cause is not a bad idea. Depression is an actual real disease it is not believed to be “ just in your head” by doctors. It is not a lazy diagnosis to get rid of patients. It is not gaslighting. It is not only a real disease it is more fatal than lupus as proven by our yearly suicide rates. Depression causes more work absences and disability claims than lupus as well. It is a horrible disease.

I get so disgusted and personally insulted by the comments many make about depression being an insulting diagnosis for a doctor to make and the idea that depression is not something to be treated or addressed. Depression is just as valid a diagnosis and as serious a disease as lupus. Treating depression is proven to elevate brain fog, fatigue and chronic pain. Rather than blame a doctor for suggesting it as an insult take it as a possible diagnosis and one that once you begin to treat your life might actually greatly improve and your chronic pain might finally be relieved.

Would you be disgusted if a doctor said I think cancer is the cause of your pain so let’s investigate and then possibly treat it to improve your life? No, so why do so many here become so upset when a professional offers a differential and valid possible diagnosis of depression?

The doctor in the icu who was treating my stroke was insightful enough to see I was suffering more from anxiety than from the actual damage incurred by the stroke and made a diagnosis of anxiety and strongly urged me to seek treatment for this psychological disease. I feel this doctor saved my life for two years after starting treatment I feel better than I had at twenty. I am happier, no longer suffer constant pain, fatigue nor brain fog and all my former positive antibodies have become non detectable.

Again depression is just another possible differential diagnosis as important to explore in its validity as would it be to explore a cancer or autoimmune disease as a cause of your physical pain.

As a patient diagnosed with lupus, APS and generalized anxiety disorder I can tell you I would rather have JUST lupus or APS than the GAD. My psychological disease has been the hardest of my diseases to live with and the most damaging. Luckily after finally being diagnosed and subsequently treated for GAD in my forties I am now living a wonderful life.

I wish the doctor who diagnosed me in my 20s with lupus had been kind enough to point out she noticed how anxious I was and suggested treatment. I had severe anxiety left untreated since childhood. She had to have seen it and should have brought it up. I feel she was negligent by not bringing it up and often wonder if my stroke could have been avoided if I had treated both my anxiety along with my kidney involved lupus issues.

Even if you plan to ignore this doctor’s suggestions please be mindful of how insulting it is for those of us with psychological illnesses when someone feels such a disease is “only in our head” or not a valid diagnosis . These attitudes are not only false , hurtful and damaging they are ignorant for it is very well known in the medical field that depression and anxiety are actually diseases involving inflammation just as is lupus.

Good luck.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[KayHimm in reply to Roarah]

That is true. Ignoring psychological issues or missing a psychological link to physical illness is as negligent as missing a physical diagnosis.

Good you expressed the other side of this problem.

[Akuamama1956 in reply to KayHimm]

Thanks

[Akuamama1956 in reply to Roarah]

Hello Roarah thanks for your views and comment . Just so u know that I have been treated and still on treatment for depression already. So i am in no way dismissing d fact that depression exist and must be treated. It was persistent pain of bk, joints etc that brought about the depression but now it seems the actual pains I have even in flare ups is taken to be: "in my head " which is not d case .

When a patient tells you "I am in pain " you need to believe her " as pain is what the patient says it is "

especially when all my back, sacrum area etc are all burnt raw sore, due to constant application of hot water bottles just to help give some relieve hmm. Aside all the meds I have been on for years .

I agree, depression can cause pain but it was my persistent pain that started d depression after some years of pain .

So attention must be paid to the pain in my case to help avoid depressive flares as I am already on treatment for depression as said earlier.

My ppersistent pain is real . its not in my head as assumed currently which doesn't really help the patient .

All the same I am grateful for all d points your raised .

Thanks.