Will therapy cure my fear of going out?

Q WHENEVER I arrange to go anywhere I get very nervous – my stomach churns up and I feel quite nauseous. Can you recommend any tablets that would help? A ALTHOUGH we all occasionally suffer from anxiety or nerves, some people suffer to such an extent that it’s classed as a mental health condition. At this level, symptoms, sadly, tend to interfere with everyday life.

There can be physical symptoms too, such as stomach pains, a racing heart, shortness of breath and nausea.

The good news is there are clear guidelines for treating anxiety, and the first focus of treatment would be therapy. Anxiety responds very well to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), during which sufferers learn to change their behaviour and actions in response to certain thoughts. Weekly sessions can take place over a few months, and can be arranged via a GP.

In many areas now there are facilities to do this via an online chat, one-to-one with a therapist, which may work well if going out is a problem.

Medicine is also used to treat specific anxieties. If anxiety occurs only on specific occasions, it may be worth considering a tablet that you take only when needed.

One option is a prescription for a beta-blocker, such as propranolol. Here, a tablet is taken when the sufferer expects to feel anxious or when it has started. By calming down the heart rate, the symptoms can be halted.

For people who suffer symptoms more frequently, a daily tablet might be a better approach. Serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a group of drugs that are antidepressants. One used often is escitalopram, as it is known to work well to reduce the physical and psychological symptoms of anxiety. Q AFTER suffering severe pain under my breast, I tried to get a GP appointment, only to be told there wasn’t a slot available for more than six weeks. Is this the norm? A SURGERIES are certainly very busy these days – there is a GP shortage and we also have far more demands on our time than ever before. This is because many chronic diseases, such as asthma and diabetes, are now looked after primarily in GP clinics rather than in a hospital.

However, six weeks is far too long to wait for an urgent problem, so I wonder if a misunderstanding about the types of appointment may have occurred.

If you have an urgent or emergency problem, the surgery can offer an on-call or duty GP who can see you the same day. You will not be able to see your doctor of choice and you may be expected to come at an inconvenient time, but that is tolerable to be seen urgently.

Many surgeries offer a book on-the-day service, where you phone or queue from a specific time – but you will be seen the same day and may get a choice of GP. The final category would be routine and booked in advance with the doctor and time you prefer – this may involve a three-week wait.

Waiting six weeks would be considered incredibly long and certainly not normal, unless a very specific time was requested or a doctor was on leave.