So this is a bot of a serious post, but I thought I would write this just in case it can help one person that reads this. The reason I went to see my doctor about going for therapy was because I have comfort ate since a really young age but never knew it was classed as an eating disorder until I started looking further into it and trying to find ways to stop so that I could start losing weight.
Once I had found out that I was suffering from an eating disorder I decided to book an appointment to see a doctor, this appointment wasn't that helpful as I already had a brief idea of what triggered my comfort eating the doctor said I was already halfway there and therapy was for people that didn't know what triggers it. So I came away from that appointment thinking that I would either have to just find a way of living the rest of my life comfort eating or try to get over it myself although I had been suffering from this for 15 years already and I knew it wasn't going to change anytime soon. This appointment did dishearten me from going to see a different doctor to get their opinion as I thought I would just get the same answer as before, but my family told me to go back, this time I went to see a different doctor and told him what the problem was and how long I had been suffering with this for, the doctor then asked me what I thought would help me and that is when we agreed on therapy.
So from there I rang the number I was given for self referral and booked an appointment with a therapist for an initial assessment. The day of my appointment I was really nervous it was somewhere I had never been before and I didn't know if having an eating disorder was the only thing I was going to need therapy for. I made sure I got to my appointment with plenty of time to spare and so I could collect my nerves before my appointment. Once I started my appointment I knew I was going to get upset as I needed to give the therapist a brief background on what I thought was triggering my comfort eating, during this appointment I found out that I also suffer from minor anxiety and minor depression. Once the therapist had assessed my situation properly she told me all the options that were available for me and we both agreed that CBT would be the best treatment for me the only thing the therapist wasn't sure about was whether I needed high intensity or low intensity CBT. So I had to wait until the following week to find out, it turned out that I need high intensity CBT but the problem being the waiting list for NHS therapists is a minimum of 4 months.
Whilst I am waiting to start therapy the NHS run three seminars that are available to go to for those who are on the waiting list so I can start helping myself before therapy and make the most of therapy when I start it.
This may or may not help anyone but if you feel as though you possibly need therapy or just some advice on something don't be afraid to go talk to a doctor about it.
Thanks for reading,
Lou
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