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Need help on navigating healthcare for anxiety diagnosis

MranxieteeNew Contributor18 July 2024, 2:54 pm AEST

Need help on navigating healthcare for anxiety diagnosis

Hi there, apologies if this is the wrong area for this.

I'm 39 year old male, born in UK and living in Perth for 20+ years. It's come to my family and I's attention that I may be suffering from very bad anxiety which seems to be getting progressively worse. Taking a toll on certain aspects of my life (socially and parental).

I'm interested in any advice on how to navigate through the different healthcare systems to get to the correct place for a real diagnosis.

What I mean by this, is what is the process? Do I simply go to a local GP and get meds? I visited a doctor a few months ago but it just felt like an uninterested man with a clipboard who simply prescribed me some pretty heavy anti-anxieties which i did not end up taking as I'd like to at least have more conversations with whoever before going straight to hard meds. I'm a dad to a toddler and have a fulltime cooperate job so don't want to be cloudy in the head as I need to be as high functioning as possible. (also as an FYI I'm lucky and have a very supportive wife)

Do i visit a doctor and ask for a referral to speak to someone? Who would that person be to speak too? A psych or a therapist? Is there a difference?

Hopefully someone can shed a bit of a light on the right path to take to get a diagnosis along with some 'researched' treatment (what's actually beneficial for my condition and not just plow me with drugs)

Thanks in advance, happy to answer any questions. Hopefully I haven't asked too many 🙂

2 replies

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In response to: Need help on navigating healthcare for anxiety diagnosis

EugeneContributor18 July 2024, 3:32 pm AEST

Re: Need help on navigating healthcare for anxiety diagnosis

First stop doctor. You need to find the right one and that can be so hard . I know this from experience. Female doctors seem better. A referral to talk to someone yes . Ask for this straight away don’t just do the meds

In response to: Need help on navigating healthcare for anxiety diagnosis

Ru-beeModerator18 July 2024, 3:56 pm AEST

Re: Need help on navigating healthcare for anxiety diagnosis

Hello @Mranxietee and welcome to the forums!

These are great questions and very valid as it can be so hard to know where to go when you first seek this kind of support.

I generally recommend the first step being speaking to a GP about starting a mental health care plan. When booking an appointment it can be great to look for a GP who has an interest in mental health so that you can hopefully avoid the same experience with an uninterested person.

With a mental health care plan you are able to have up to 10 subsidised sessions (often given out in 6 or 4 session lots) with a phycologist per year, where Medicare covers a portion of the payment and you pay the remaining gap fee, helping to bring down the session costs. You can read more about MHCPs here.

If you'd like to skip the GP it is always possible to go straight to a psychologist, you generally do not need a referral to see one, though in this case you wouldn't be eligible for subsidised sessions.

In terms of the difference between a psychologist or a therapist; therapist is more of an umbrella term and could mean a number of different roles, such as a counsellor, psychotherapist, psychologist, psychiatrist. If you're after the differences between a counsellor and psychologist: the most basic distinction is that a counsellor generally will provide support for more mild-moderate presentations, while a psychologist is able to take on more moderate and complex presentations.

The current most popular psychological treatment for anxiety is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), though another popular one that comes to mind is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). These have both been quite thoroughly researched, but it can always be a good idea to look into different treatment options and consider what feels best for you because there are lots of options out there.

I know that's quite a lot of information! Feel free to shoot through any more questions, I'm sure the community here has plenty wisdom and experiences to share as well

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