Hi everyone.

[Giu018]

Hi Mike.
I don't believe I will ever manage to open up to a dr. Im also reluctant to the idea of taking meds. Even paracetamol for my headaches I hardly use them.

[Drew]

Hi Gui, You’ve made a great start by joining DWD and facing your depression. I’ve found the forum a great help and a way of expressing my problems anonymously. There are people out there who will listen and understand without judging you, if you can, let them help.

[Giu018]

Thank you everyone for all your welcoming messages. It makes me feel special and privileged. Is so lovely to meet you all.

Flo, thank you for your suggestion of writing everything down, to be honest, I haven't thought about it as I always believed the doctors would just ignore the letters; as I always believe they are busy with their workload and many patients every day. So I always assume they don't have much time. But I will take it in consideration and start writing something each day, when is a long paragraph that makes sense, I will do something with it.

Flo... I am the husband
My wife doesn't really support me from this point of view. I tried to talk to her about it many years ago, but we didn't understand each other. Ending up arguing and being accused of attention seeking or making up excuses; she was also getting annoyed to hear me being repetitive about talking over and over the same issues too often and for prolonged times.

[Paula]

If you make an appointment with your gp and hand your notes into reception to ask if the gp can have it to look at before your appointment, that can help. Also, it might be worth explaining in the note that you’re not keen on medication to ensure the gp knows to talk about all your options.

WRT your wife, take a look at the Time to Change website https://www.time-to-change.org.uk as there’s good tips on how to talk about your mental health with friends and family