GP and Medical Educator

Mental Health

The GP Consultation

About Martin

"Martin is an NHS GP and GP Trainer based in the UK. He is well known on social media for his popular content on mental health and can be found on both Instagram and TokTok as @doc_martin_gp. His book on anxiety and burnout, Your Worry Makes Sense, will be published by Jessica Kingsley Publishing in March 2025.

His other interest is in GP education. He was a Training Programme Director on the Guildford GP Training scheme for 10 years before stepping down in order to write a book on the consultation, The GP Consultation Reimagined, a Tale of Two Houses. He is a freelance teacher on communication in the GP consultation and mental health and wellbeing.

‘You can shrink or you can grow.’ These words could have rung hollow if they had not been said by one of the kindest, most positive people I have met who had just told me about some terrible things that had happened to her in her life.

I loved how she told me that, no matter what has happened to us, we all have a choice, and it is always better for us, and those around us, if we can choose to do our best to grow. It won’t be easy, and we may have every right to be angry at the injustice of what has happened, upset or frightened, while every instinct may make us want to shrink away. But if we can choose growth, if we can look for where the growth might come from amidst the sorrow, fear or pain, if we can resist the warm hug of self pity that so tempts us and face the world anyway, then it will always be better.

What does that growth look like? Only our individual circumstances will tell us. It might involve a great deal of courage and hard choices, it certainly doesn’t mean putting up with abuse or a traumatic situation or allowing people to take advantage of us, or ignoring the signs of burnout. The beauty of growth is that it is unique for each of us. It builds on what is past, with all its troubles, and looks to the future.

What do you think about this? When have you found the courage to grow despite it all? Have there been times when you shrank and had to pull yourself back up again? How will you tackle what you are facing now? I’d love to learn from your experience in the comments! 😊

#growth #mentalhealth #trauma #grief #loss #wellbeing

So many people have asked me if there was going to be an audiobook for ‘Your Worry Makes Sense’ and, until recently I didn’t know, and until today I wasn’t able to announce it - but now I can!! 😊🎉😊

I have spent the last two days in a very small room with a fantastic producer, Liam and support from the wonderful people @jkpbooks. Here I’m reading from the introduction. What an experience it has been! It was really good to go over the whole text once more as it was some time ago that it was finalised, and it was great to find out in practice that it was as easy to read as I hoped it would be 😊

And you can preorder the audiobook now on Amazon! You won’t find it hard to listen to, but I do hope you will find it enlightening, encouraging and, most of all, empowering. So why not get your preorder in now?

Links to the book on Amazon are in my bio - including links to where to get your hands on a print copy, and all the details for my book launch in Guildford on 29th March! 😊

What do you prefer? A print copy, or an audiobook? Or maybe even both! I’d love to hear in the comments! 😊🎉😊

#anxiety #burnout #yourworrymakessense #instabooks #instabook #audiobook #mentalhealth

If you are prone to catastrophising then this is really important! 😊👍

When it comes to the worst case scenario it’s always ok to think about it. It’s how we keep ourselves safe, and sometimes we do need to act on those thoughts. As a GP I need to do this all the time with my patients. You want a doctor who is going to ask themselves if there could be anything serious going on and what might need to be done about it. But you don’t want a doctor who is alarmed at every minor symptom and sends you to A&E every time they see you!

The issue with catastrophic thinking is not whether we think about the worst case scenario, but whether the amount of time and energy we spend there is in proportion to the thing we are worrying about, and whether we get stuck down rabbit holes of worry where our thoughts take us to all manner of awful consequences that are highly unlikely to happen. Even if the worst thing has happened before, even if it has happened often, our imagination can always come up with a huge list of other worst case scenarios to worry about that will not happen, and yet we can exhaust ourselves worrying about them anyway.

When you catch your brain doing this, try not to beat yourself up about it, or give in to it without any sense of control, but try thanking your brain for trying to keep you safe, and then put boundaries around it - like only worrying about one step at a time and not any future steps that may or may not happen, or putting a time frame to your worry - saying something like ‘I’ve worried enough for today, so I’m going to stop now and do something else, but I’m allowed to worry about it again tomorrow’

How do you manage this? Are you prone to exploring rabbit holes? How do you get yourself out of them? Do you use boundaries? I’d love to hear in the comments! 😊

#worry #catastrophicthinking #anxiety #gp #doctor #mentalhealth #worstcasescenario

The effect of trauma on the brain really fascinates me! I feel like I have so much more to learn about it! Whether it’s chronic trauma from neglect or years of abuse, or an acute traumatic event like happened to Stan and Ute in this post, how our brain responds to it is both remarkable, and tragic. When we can find a place of safety we are frequently able to process trauma very well, but when we are trapped we can be left stuck in panic mode as our brain sees the threat of reliving the trauma all around us, or our brain may try to protect us from the traumatic memories by blocking them out altogether, we dissociate from our physical and emotional feelings and are left numb.

How we treat trauma is complex, but it’s immediately obvious, both from the scans and the emotional response that Ute and Stan experienced, that the approach will need led to be very different for these two individuals. Stan needed to learn how to disconnect his bodily response of threat and panic from the memory of what happened, while Ute needed help to reconnect with her body and her emotions.

I’m learning a lot by reading The Body Keeps the Score. I wouldn’t say it’s an easy read, partly because some of the traumatic stories he recounts are (not surprisingly) traumatic, and partly because it is quite technical, but it is highly authoritative and I can definitely recommend it.

Have you read it? What did you think? Is there another book (or resource) on trauma you can recommend? I’d like to find one that is easier to read and to relate to (maybe I will write one myself one day! 🤔)

If you have felt dissociated at times, what helped you? Or what have you found helps others if you support people who have dissociated? What have you found helpful with trauma, and how should we improve trauma treatment? I think we have a long way to go in the UK, sadly, what’s the experience in other countries?

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

#trauma #dissociation #thebodykeepsthescore #instabook #mentalhealth #gp #doctor #panic

So many people burn out because they have too much on their plate, whether it’s work, home life, caring responsibilities or a combination of all three it’s like they’ve packed the boot (trunk) of their car rammed full and it’s ok, they are holding it together, they are surviving, until one extra thing comes along and in a moment they are overwhelmed. Whether it’s a rising feeling of panic, being irritable and snappy or bursting into tears, the signs of impending burnout are there. And they may manage this time - they may unpack the boot, get the suncream and repack it and it seems ok once more, but it’s only a matter of time before it happens again, and will keep happening until either they see the signs and take some things out of the boot, clearing some space in their lives, or they collapse in a heap and are forced to stop.

How full is your boot? Do you have space to breathe and recover or are you living on the edge of burnout? And, if so, what could you do about it? This is a hard one, as sometimes it seems like there a nothing you can do, but even a small change can help, and I believe there will always be some small change we can do if we are only prepared to make it. Whether it’s pulling out of something, putting back a deadline, lowering our standards from perfect to good enough, or having the courage to ask for help, there is always something.

#mentalhealth #burnout #burnoutprevention #anxiety #depression #gp #nhs

If you are prone to catastrophic thinking it can be like your brain only knows one path to take, and it doesn’t matter how muddy or unpleasant that path becomes, the path of thinking the worst case scenario is where your brain will go, because that is where it always goes. We might hate that it does this, it might stress us, exhaust us and leave us frustrated and angry with ourselves that we always do this, but our brain just goes and does it anyway!

What can really help is to understand that neural pathways in our brain - patterns of thinking - are not fixed. We really can learn new ways of thinking and create new neural pathways, and gradually put old pathways into disuse. It can seem hard initially, like the new path is full of brambles, and so we are best to take it slowly.

The next time your brain jumps to the worst case scenario, take a moment to notice what it is doing. Thank it for trying to look out for dangers and trying to keep you safe. And then try to think of one other explanation for whatever it is you are worrying about - like the reason someone hasn’t got back to you, or another explanation for that pain in your leg. You don’t have to believe this new thought, and you don’t have to think it for long but, while you are thinking it, just imagine yourself taking your secateurs and cutting one of those brambles, and then treading the bramble down with your walking boot. Then tell yourself well done, that’s enough for today. Take a last look at this new path and have a quick wonder about which bramble will be next, and then get back to your day! 😊

Over time the new path will start to clear and get easier to navigate, and what’s even better is that brambles will start to grow in the old path. We will still go there from time to time (and sometimes we do need to consider the worst case scenario after all! It’s ok to use this path, we just don’t want it to be the only one our brain knows about).

Let me know what you think about this! Is it something you’ve tried? Are you prone to catastrophic thinking? Would it work for you? Is there anything else you’ve found helpful? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments 😊👍❤️

#anxiety #worry

I’m so grateful to @quentyquestions @drsarahnicholls @iambenwest and Dr Tim Cantopher for taking the time to read my book ‘Your Worry Makes Sense’ and for their wonderful prepublication endorsements! 😊❤️ They were the first people beyond my family and @jkpbooks to read the manuscript and so their encouraging feedback meant so much! Thank you!! 😊😊😊

The book is out on 21st March. You can preorder in the UK and US with links in the bio (I believe it can be preordered on Amazon in Canada and Ireland also).

I can’t wait for you to read it and tell me what you think! My hope is that people will really feel empowered once they can make more sense of their worry, and that this will help them make tangible progress as they learn to manage anxiety or recover from burnout.

And it’s all been brought to life with wonderful illustrations from @robinsondraws 😊❤️😊

I’ll be having a book launch in Guildford on Saturday 29th March! All are welcome - watch out for details to follow! 😊🎉

#worry #anxiety #gp #mentalhealth #doctor

Don’t write off a British winter (or the equivalent time of year wherever you live!) As a GP I see this all to often where patients of mine don’t think about going outdoors for 3 months every year because they assume it will be too cold or too wet. And yet every winter has stunning, crisp dry days like the one when I recorded this, as well as plenty of other days when we could get outside if we are prepared to wrap up!

The key question, when it comes to exercise, is not what it might do to our cortisol levels or our vagus nerve - we can leave that to the scientists to work out - but how it makes us feel. And although we might not always feel like going out for a walk, I can almost guarantee that we all feel better once we’ve been!

So get outside when you can, leave your phone in your pocket and enjoy noticing what you can see, hear, touch and smell of the great outdoors!

How does being outside help you? How do you get yourself going when you don’t feel like it? How do you feel when you get back? Do you have any other tips to share about how exercise affects our health? Or how you improve your own health? I’d love to hear in the comments! 😊❤️

#exercise #wellbeing #mentalhealth #walkingforhealth #outdoors #selfcare #doctor

Huge thanks to Frank for playing the starring role in this one! He is such a lovely, friendly and cuddly dog! As someone who used to be terrified of dogs he has brought me as close to wanting a dog as I ever have been before! And thank you to his very kind owner for trusting me with him (and supplying treats! 😊)

There is a really important message that Frank and I want to get across with this post, which is how the fear of and anticipation of pain plays such a key role in how we manage pain, and even how much pain we feel. Fear of pain is completely understandable, but it raises our stress levels, increases muscular tension and puts our body in a state of high alert, so that when even a small amount of pain starts, it rapidly escalates with our brain on full threat mode. This can be true for acute pain, like the pain associated with an injection, and is so important to understand with chronic pain.

What is more, fear of pain makes us avoid situations where we might expect to be in pain, so it is natural that we end up moving less, when keeping mobile is so key to managing and recovering from chronic pain. Of course it depends on the cause and nature of pain as to what this means for each of us individually, but a key thing to remember is that if we can work on the anxiety we feel around pain then we can actually reduce the amount of pain we experience.

When you think of pain, imagine that cycle between a burglar alarm and a hearing dog, and think about how to train Frank, and teach him which alarms he needs to let us know about, and which ones he can safely ignore 😊

What has been your experience? Has fear of pain been a significant thing for you? How have you overcome it? Have you thought of pain like this before? I’d love to hear your views in the comments 😊

And, most importantly of all, what do you think of the star of this show? Do send Frank some love!! 😊❤️🐶😊

#chronicpain #anxiety #fear #frank #cockerpoo #mentalhealth #gp #doctor

Imposter syndrome is not a medical diagnosis, but it is something many of us can relate to and have to deal with on a daily basis - that feeling that you are not up to the job, that everyone else is better than you and that one day you will be caught out and exposed as a fraud. It can lead to a great deal of anxiety and self doubt, where we learn to ignore our successes and obsess about anything we get even the slightest bit wrong.

Imposter syndrome is a useful concept, but is it helpful calling it a syndrome? The word syndrome is a very medicalised term and one that is reserved for more complex medical problems that involve the whole body and are usually permanent, like congenital syndromes, for instance. When you are already doubting yourself, does it really help to imply that you have a whole system problem that is probably permanent?! 🥹

Imposter syndrome is not a syndrome, but it does involve thoughts of self doubt, and so if we can reframe it by seeing it as having imposter thoughts then we can see it as it truly is - thoughts of self doubt that can come and go, that we may be prone to but are not permanent and not due to some inherent thing that is wrong with us. We can remind ourselves that many people get these doubts, that there is nothing wrong with getting them, and that we can live alongside them without having to pay them more attention than they deserve. They are just thoughts after all 😊👍

What has been your experience of this? Have you thought of yourself as having imposter syndrome? Would this be a helpful way of thinking for you? What have you found helpful in dealing with these thoughts? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments 😊❤️
#impostersyndrome #anxiety #worry #mentalhealth #gp #doctor #imposter

As a GP I love hearing about the great care people have received from other GPs - it reminds me of how many fantastic, caring doctors there are out there who are making a real difference to people’s lives. Maybe it was the support they gave at a difficult time, their willingness to listen and give you time or the fact that they got the diagnosis spot on. Obviously I particularly take note when I hear about GPs, but there will be just as many examples of great care from nurses, physios, therapists, physician associates, paramedics and more in both primary and secondary care.

I’m not naive about healthcare, I know it has its problems, that it can be hard to access and that doctors can fail to listen and make mistakes, but I also know that we often hear about the mistakes far more than the successes, and it would be good to look at the positives on this New Year’s Day.

It would be amazing if you could take a moment to add your own thanks about the care you’ve received in 2024 - and before - and to share this post so that others can do the same. I will start with a pinned comment from my own experience this autumn 😊I’m convinced that kindness and gratitude are so important, both for our own wellbeing and those around us, and it would be great to start 2025 by spreading a little bit of both!

Happy New Year to you all, and especially to all those who work in healthcare that you would thrive in 2025! 😊😊😊

#happynewyear #kindness #gratitude #greatcare #gp

Most forms of anxiety come down to how we cope with doubt, or uncertainty - the fear of ‘what if?’ And if we can recognise that, then it can help us to reframe our anxiety and think about it in a different way, which also means we will feel differently about it, which can be very empowering.

So, instead of telling yourself that you have OCD, or Health Anxiety, or suffer from Anxiety (useful as these terms can be) you might say to yourself that you have a doubting disorder (or, if like me you aren’t that keen on the word disorder, that you sometimes find it hard to deal with doubt or uncertainty).

Thinking about anxiety in this way can be helpful because we know that there are always uncertainties in life and we can’t eliminate them all, so the issue becomes how to manage the anxiety that uncertainty brings, and this acceptance is key to being able to live alongside anxiety and to manage it better 😊👍

How do you think about your anxiety? Have you thought about it as being an issue with handling uncertainty and doubt before? Have you reframed your anxiety like this? Was it helpful? Do you think it will help? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments 😊

#anxiety #doubt #uncertainty #ocd #mentalhealth #doctor #gp

I’m on the Stompcast Podcast this week! It was great to meet @dralexgeorge (and he is as nice in the flesh as he seems on the podcast! 😊) We had a fantastic conversation and talked about so many areas of mental health. It will be out on @thestompcast Monday to Wednesday this week, including Christmas Day! - 23rd to 25th December 2024 😊🎄😊 Do check it out, and have a listen to some of his past podcasts if you’ve not come across it before. He’s doing a great job and has some fantastic guests!

As we knew it was coming out Christmas week, in the third episode we explored some of the challenges associated with Christmas. We talked about how it can be hard to navigate if you have a mental health problem like an eating disorder or neurodivergence. And we talked about one of the hardest challenges, which is when you are missing someone close to you because they have died. It might be your first Christmas without them, or your thirtieth, you will always miss them and wish they were there.

How do you navigate bereavement at Christmas? Well there are no rules in bereavement, no ‘shoulds’ or ‘must’, but laughter and tears are two of the greatest gifts we have as humans.

Sometimes people struggle with guilt that stops them laughing- how can I laugh when they are not here? It can feel like a betrayal when the opposite is true. It is because we have love in our lives that we can laugh, and so we can honour someone’s memory by allowing ourselves to laugh, even when we miss them so much.

And sometimes we need to cry, we want to cry, but we won’t let ourselves because we have to ‘be strong.’ Sometimes the very strongest thing we can do is to stop pretending we are strong and allow others to see our weakness. It’s exhausting to cry all the time - which is why laughter is so important - but sometimes it is just what we need.

So do these two things if you can. It won’t stop the pain of missing them, but it will make it easier to bear.

Do comment if you can - how have you managed grief at Christmas? Have you enjoyed the Stompcast? Are there any particular episodes you would recommend? #grief #mentalhealth

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas! Martin 😊🎄😊

Pain is SO complex!! The case of the man, his boot and the nail was described in the Minerva column of The BMJ dated 7th Jan 1995 and is a famous case where there was severe pain without injury, but very strong visual cues that seem to have fired the pain centre in the brain in the same way as if the nail had actually gone through the foot. It’s a rare example, but a powerful reminder that the presence of injury or disease is not the only way to trigger the neural pathways that cause pain.

And yet modern medicine loves to try to find a cause for pain, and so we do an MRI scan on people with back pain to investigate the cause, and find a bulging disc and believe we have found the cause for their pain, even though most people without back pain have bulging discs once they get to their 50’s or 60’s, as do many younger people without pain. And this is going to be harmful, because once you believe you have a problem as apparent on a scan as a bulging disc you will be more protective of your back and more fearful that it could give you pain - and if there is anything that traps us in the cycle of chronic pain it is the fear of pain, as well as the belief that we won’t get better.

If you live with chronic pain for which doctors cannot find a cause then learning about pain, with an open mind (because it may transform your thinking) could radically change how you think about and approach your pain. Pain is an important signal from our brain, the question is, what is it trying to say?

And one of the best places to learn about this is to listen to the podcast I have just been listening to. It is with host @drchatterjee and it is #310 on his Feel Better Live More podcast with Dr Howard Schubiner (a lot of people tell me I have a soothing voice, his is so calming I could listen to it all day! 😊)

Do take a listen and tell me what you think! Maybe you have already listened and could say how it helped you. And please share your experience of living with chronic pain. What helps? What doesn’t? And if you know of anyone living with chronic pain, why not share this post with them so they can benefit too? 😊👍

#pain #chronicpain #mentalhealth #fearofpain #trauma #gp

So how did you get on with my challenge?! Sorry to trick you! 😂 It’s an important point, though, because if you worry about your health your brain will easily trick you in the same way as it biases you into thinking your tests must be wrong and so you interpret normal results, or minor abnormalities that are of no consequence, as abnormal or serious, greatly adding to your worry in the process!

Knowing that your brain might do this to you is important, as you might need to stop yourself looking up test results at the weekend and causing yourself unnecessary worry when your doctor’s surgery is closed, or looking at your scan when it flashes on the screen and so panicking yourself that you can’t concentrate on what the doctor is telling you. And being able to build a trusting relationship with your doctor can be so important here!

What did you think when you first looked at the chest X-ray? Was there anything that jumped out at you as worrying? Have you had this experience with your own results? Have you ever frightened yourself about a result that ended up being nothing to worry about? Do you get anxiety when you are waiting for a result? (Sometimes called scanxiety!) and how do you manage it? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments! 😊👍

#anxiety #healthanxiety #mentalhealth #doctor #gp #worry

The fact that running late can make your OCD worse and so make you run even more late tells us so much about anxiety! The body has a limited way of coping with stress - increased adrenaline that speeds our heart up and tenses our muscles ready for action - so any cause of stress can feel very similar to anxiety. And when we have learnt to deal with anxiety in a particular way, such as an OCD ritual, or having an alcoholic drink, or smoking a cigarette, or whatever it might be, then we will reach for that response, and have to do that response even though we may know it’s just going to make things worse. And so the need to check the door becomes more difficult to ignore, an OCD ritual is magnified and we end up running even later as the vicious cycle has its way with us.

This is a powerful reminder that often our best approach to anxiety is to calm our physiology first, then bring our thinking into line. What do I mean by that? Well if you are in an anxious state and try to stop your brain from stressing about the rituals you have around locking the door then you are unlikely to succeed. You won’t be able to tolerate the anxiety associated with not doing the rituals and so you will just have to do them more. If, on the other hand, you can recognise that you are a bit stressed and calm your physiology before you leave the house, then you are more likely to manage locking the door at least without the rituals escalating. You can do this by, for example, steadying your breathing or using grounding techniques.

A reasonable question to ask is, ‘won’t that take me time when I am running late?’ And this is a good point! Clearly, you won’t want to spend too much time doing this, but even a few moments can make a difference, and even if it takes as long as the extra rituals would have taken (and it probably won’t) you will still feel much more in control of your anxiety than if you just rush out the door and hope for the best.

And for anxiety, feeling in control is everything! 😊👍

What do you think? Have you experienced this vicious cycle yourself? Or something similar? What has been your experience? Have you found anything that helps to turn things around? #anxiety

Yesterday I shared @robinsondraws powerful illustration for the chapter in my book on Wilbur the Anxiety Monster, but who is Wilbur? If you’ve been following my page for a while the you will have seen the fun, orange, goofy-teethed monster my daughter made for my page this summer, and he will always look that way to me now, but my original post about Wilbur was from a whole year earlier and I thought it was worth sharing this again, since he has a whole chapter in the book.

The idea of Wilbur is such a powerful one as it creates separation between ourselves and the anxiety we are feeling, allowing us to step back a little from those feelings. It encourages us to accept the anxious feelings, because the important thing is that we are not trying to chase him away, we are recognising that he is here for the ride and we are ok with that, but we remind him that we are in charge, not him. By imagining him as a silly, goofy-toothed monster with googly eyes or fluffy ears, we start to associate more positive emotions with our anxiety, like humour and even affection, and not just fear, and so we start to become less afraid of our fear!

It’s easy to think that monsters are for children - and this can be very helpful for children - but this is very much something for adults! We can find it harder to tap into silliness and imagination as an adult, but both are powerful if we can only allow ourselves to use them! 😊

Do you have an anxiety monster? Is this a concept you have found helpful in managing your anxiety? How do you imagine yours? What have you called it? I don’t have any Wilburs for sale, but if you would find it helpful to have a real one, could you make your own? Or have you done so already?? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! 😊👍

‘Your Worry Makes Sense’ my book on anxiety and burnout, will be out in March, and is available for preorder now - links in my bio! 😊

#anxiety #worry #mentalhealth #doctor #anxietymonster

I was thrilled when Hannah Robinson (@robinsondraws ) agreed to illustrate my book! In fact, we had already been in touch with the idea of working together as I love the fun, energy and impact that her illustrations bring, and she shares my passion for the topics I was talking about and a desire to help people with their mental health 😊😊

It was such a joy to see the drawings when she first sent them to me. With each one she took my ideas further than I expected, adding witty extra details I would never have thought of. They all made me smile, some made me laugh and one in particular almost made me cry. They all bring the text to life, adding a little extra in the process, and I know you will love them as much as I do 😊❤️

Thank you, Hannah, for your hard work on this and for all the work you do! Hannah and I are planning to do a book launch together on Saturday 29th March in Guildford, so watch out for details of that next year if you live close enough to come - you will be able to see a lot more of her work then. And I really hope we can work together again on future projects! 😊

If you like Hannah’s work as much as I do then why not let her know in the comments, and do give her a follow as you will enjoy seeing her work pop up in your feed! 😊😊

Your Worry Makes Sense is published on 21st March and is available for preorder in the UK and the US - links in my bio! I believe it can also be preordered on Amazon in Canada and Ireland, and it will be available worldwide by around June 😊👍

#worry #anxiety #burnout #bookstagram #mentalhealth #gp #doctor

Such an exciting day for me as I get to show you the cover of my book!! It is called ‘Your Worry Makes Sense’ and is available now for preorder in the UK and the US - links in my bio! The publication date is 21st March - I can’t wait! 😊🎉

The book has been 4 years in the making and has come out of a desire to help people make sense of their anxiety, including the experience of burnout, because so many patients I see are left bewildered by what they are experiencing and are left stuck, unable to see a way forward. In the book I unpack how everything about anxiety and burnout really does make sense, and how you really can make progress. If you like the way I use analogies and metaphors on my Instagram and the practical insights I try to give in my posts then I know you will love the book! 😊

If you plan to get a copy then it will really help me if you preorder it now! Here are the advantages of preordering:

1) You know you will be one of the first to get the book! 😊🎉

2) There is a price guarantee so if the price is reduced before publication (which is very likely) you will get that reduced price

3) Preorders contribute to the initial sales when the book first comes out which are so important in getting a book noticed by the booksellers 🎉

4) It will help my publisher to know how many to print so it stays in stock

5) It helps booksellers to know how well it will sell, and so how many copies to have in stock, how much to promote it and so on

6) It will make me very happy!! 😊🎉😇

I’d love to hear what you think about the book! What do you think about the title? Do you have any questions you’d like to ask me about it? Will you be ordering a copy? Please let me know in the comments! 😊👍

#bookstagram #worry #anxiety #burnout #gp #doctor #mentalhealth #anxietyrelief #anxietysupport

If you are going through a hard time, then feeling that someone truly understands you can be the one thing that makes the difference between getting through and feeling like you are drowning. If someone you care about is struggling with their mental health, then being willing to truly understand is the greatest gift you can give them. But you will have to resist those strong urges to respond and give your opinion and to try to fix them, and that is SO hard, because all your instincts will make you want to do one or the other, or probably both!

As a GP I am all too aware of this. People come to their GP for their opinion, and so I am programmed to give my view on things, and GPs are fixers by nature, it’s part of being a healer. And yet there are many times when the best thing I can do to help a patient is to listen with the intent to understand and let go of the urge to respond or to fix. It can feel like you are doing nothing, but it’s remarkable how helpful that nothing can be!

What has been your experience? Has there been a time when someone took the time to really understand you? What was it like? How did they make you feel understood? What difference did it make? Or have there been times when you wanted to be understood, but people were too quick to give their opinion or try to fix you and so you just didn’t feel heard?

How do you find it when you try to listen to someone else? Do the urges to give advice and fix get in the way of understanding? Is there anything you do that helps someone to feel heard?

It would be great to hear your experience and thoughts on this, as I’m sure we can all learn from each other on this one! 😊👍

#mentalhealth #activelistening #understanding #support #selfharmrecovery

The Sunday Scaries might not be a formal medical diagnosis, but they are very real and very common. That feeling of anxiety and dread that you get as Sunday afternoon turns into evening and you start to anticipate the week ahead can become a real challenge to overcome every single week and it can be exhausting! So what can you do about it?

Firstly, recognise that you are not alone - surveys have shown that as many as 80% of working people recognise that this is how Sunday evenings can make them feel. It is normal to feel this way! Of course, for some people it’s because they are not in the right job and it might be time to change, but for most of us we are the right person in the right job, yet we still get this every Sunday night. There is often a bit of imposter syndrome here!

It can help to recognise it and name it - and here the slightly cute name Sunday Scaries can actually help, because it can help us to put a bit of separation between ourselves and those anxious thoughts - we can step back, recognise the Scaries at work and that in itself can make them less powerful.

Then it is worth thinking about what makes them more likely to take root - and research here shows that the more we think about work at the weekend, especially on a Sunday, the more likely we are to get these scary monsters turn up on Sunday evening. So have a think about how and when you do any work at the weekend. If you need to work then maybe do it early in the weekend rather than leave it to Sunday afternoon. Maybe schedule send emails to go on Monday so that you don’t get replies over the weekend.

Then have a think about Monday morning. Would it be best to not check your phone until the day has got going? Or could you schedule something first thing on a Monday that helps you feel calm? That will depend on your job, of course.

And most of all, remember that once the week gets going, the Scaries calm down and you do ok!

What has been your experience? Do you get the Sunday Scaries? What makes them worse? What have you done to help manage them? It would be great to share your experience in the comments! 😊👍

#sundayscaries #mondayblues #anxiety #workanxiety

Dealing with anxious thoughts can be very tough! They tend to want to dominate and push other thoughts out of the way, because they come with a high level of emotional response due to the feeling of threat we get when we are anxious. The two natural responses are OBEY, where we allow the anxiety to take over and boss us around, or STRUGGLE, where we fight the anxiety and try to push it away, which is exhausting and usually unsuccessful.

I’m grateful to Dr Jenna McKeown for sharing this lawyer analogy with me, which is based in the theory of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or ACT. The key thing is that every company needs a lawyer and their job is to watch out for threats and keep the company safe, but the CEO needs to be in charge and to make room for all the other members of the team to give their input, otherwise the company will lose track of its vision and will never develop or grow. When it comes to a dominant lawyer we need to thank them for their hard work, tell them how much we value their input, and then firmly but gently remind them that we are the boss and we want to hear from other members of the team.

Similarly with anxiety, if we remember that we are the boss and so don’t have to passively obey, but also stop exhausting ourselves by fighting our anxiety (which increases our stress levels and so makes us more anxious) then we can find a different way of handling these thoughts. We can thank our anxiety for trying to keep us safe, allow it to stay in the room, but remind it that we are in charge and we want to allow other thoughts to have a chance to be heard.

Is this something you’ve tried? Do you think it might work for you? Have you other strategies for dealing with anxious thoughts? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! 😊👍

#anxiety #mentalhealth #anxietyrelief #anxietysupport #doctor #mentalhealth #gp #mentalhealthmatters #mentalhealthawareness #generalpractice #act #acceptance #psychology

Often our thoughts get stuck on a worst case scenario, especially when it comes to health. The intense emotional feelings we get when we think about the worst case leads to such a feeling of threat that we can’t think of any other explanation for a problem until that threat is removed. And so we need to practise being able to think in a different way, which may not come easily at first!

So, have a go at thinking about what could be causing my tremor! I really won’t be worried about what you come up with, and this is not a test about your ability to make a diagnosis, it’s an experiment in thinking broadly so that you can teach your mind to not get stuck in threat mode. Even if you know the cause for certain I’d like you to think of at least one alternative explanation, more if you can! The experiment here is to hypothesise and think of a differential diagnosis. When my trainees come to talk to me about a patient, I will often say to them, ‘what else do you think it could be?’ - even if they probably have the right diagnosis!

As a GP I do need to consider worst case scenarios - we call this marginalising danger - and then, once I have ruled out anything dangerous, I can consider what are the most likely explanations, what best fits the symptoms and whether I need to find out any more information (through more questions, examination or tests) to work out the best fit.

So have a go - I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, but whether you comment or not try to think of as many possible explanations for my tremor as you can, and then practise this way of thinking in other areas of your life! 😊👍

#catastrophising #anxiety #healthanxiety #tremor #gp #doctor #mentalhealth

When you fall over with burnout you just fall over! Often you don’t have much choice and, once that has happened, there are no shortcuts - the only three things that will help you get back on your feet are rest, time, and lightening your load! At first it will seem like getting back on your feet will never happen, just like with our tree when we tried to lift it and just hurt our backs trying! What was fascinating about the tree was to see it lift, little by little as it’s load lightened. It was imperceptible at first, but gradually we could see progress!

But the tree would never have got upright in its own, it needed our help and needs support structures in place - both of which you will need if you are going to make a good recovery from burnout! And it still needs to rest over the winter, but it will recover and it will be as strong and fruitful as it ever was - we will just have to be mindful of not overburdening it in future! 😊🍎🍏😊

If you have burnout, you are not weak, you have just taken on too much. You can recover, it just may take longer than you’d like. You might be able to recover on your own, but your progress will be so much better if you reach out for help and support from those around you. But always remember that the outlook is good - you can be fruitful again (and even when it was lying flat we still enjoyed the apples from the tree!!) 😊🍏🍎😊

I hope this metaphor helps you and that you can take hope from the story of our tree! 😊

#burnout #burnoutrecovery #burnoutprevention #strong #depression #anxiety #mentalhealth #doctor #gp #mentalhealthmatters #mentalhealthawareness #generalpractice #anxietyrelief #mentalillnessrecovery #anxietysupport #depressionhelp #strong #stress #stressrelief #wellbeing #wellness

Grounding techniques can be a really helpful tool for taking a break from your inner thoughts and calming your brain. And they can be as simple as popping outside and taking note of the world around you - what’s not to like about having an excuse to do that?! And what I love about nature is how it is constantly changing, so if you don’t go and look at it you might miss it - and that is truer in Autumn than at any other time of year, where the leaf colour seems to change every day. And one day soon they will all be on the floor! Thankfully there will still be things to notice, enjoy and give us a break from troubles even when all the leaves are gone, but, for now, take a moment to pop outside and enjoy! 😊🍁

And did you both hear and see our cat making a rogue appearance?! 😂🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

#autumn #autumncolours #fall #fallcolors #mindfulness #wellbeing #anxiety #mentalhealth #doctor #gp #mentalhealthmatters #mentalhealthawareness #generalpractice #anxietyrelief #mentalillnessrecovery #anxietysupport #cornus #midwinterfire #garden #gardening #gardeningforhealth #grounding #groundingtechniques #psychology

So the first thing to say is that I actually love the happy emoji 😊😊 It’s my favourite one to use and the point I want to make is not about the emoji but with how we can perceive happiness as the goal in life and that can cause us problems. By showing it as an emoji I wanted to highlight that it is an emotion or feeling, and so to remind us that it is temporary.

The second thing to say is that you may recognise from the title of the post the name of an excellent book The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris where he talks about the traps we can fall into in the pursuit of happiness. Being a temporary state of feeling, if our goal is to feel happy right now, this can often lead to actions that are overly focused on that goal of achieving a feeling, and that pull us away from our real values and priorities. In the book, Harris talks about how we can get hooked on actions which pull us away from our values, and ways to change this to actions which bring us towards our values.

What do you think? Is happiness the goal in life, or are there deeper values that we should be more mindful of that are the true marker of a life well lived? Can the pursuit of happiness set us up to fail and what does it mean for us when we have to go through a period of deep sorrow? Have you read Harris’ book? I’d love to hear your thoughts! 😊

And I really do love the happy emoji! I hope I haven’t upset anyone by saying it caused us problems!!! 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

#happy #happiness #happinesstrap #success #wellbeing #values #livingwell #lifegoals #mentalhealth #doctor #gp #anxiety #mentalhealthmatters #mentalhealthawareness #generalpractice #health

It’s National Recycling Week and that seems a good excuse to repost this important message about anxiety and avoidance. I first posted it in July 2023, back when I had around 400 followers, and it was the first post that really took off on my page.

It’s not an easy message to hear, because avoidance feels safe and not avoiding something that makes us anxious takes us out of our comfort zone and feels really scary. It’s a really important question to ask though - what does anxiety stop you doing? And does it matter? If it really doesn’t matter that you avoid it then you don’t need to do anything about it, but if avoidance is causing you a problem then maybe you have identified an area to work on.

What to do about it is another question, but it usually involves slowly, gradually, little by little, choosing to practise doing that thing that makes you anxious, while recognising and tolerating the anxious feelings that come with it. The more you practise, the more those anxious feelings diminish and the more progress you can make! 😊

What do you think? Is avoidance a feature of you anxiety? Are there areas you’d like to work on? Have you managed to overcome avoidance in the past? How did you do it? Or do you disagree with me? I’d love to hear your thoughts! 😊👍

#anxiety #mentalhealth #anxietyrelief #anxietysupport #gp #doctor #mentalhealthmatters #mentalhealthawareness #generalpractice #mentalillnessrecovery #mentalillness #avoidance #panic #panicattack #recycling #nationalrecyclingweek

I’m so excited about my book ‘Your Worry Makes Sense’ which will be out In March, but today I want to tell you about my first book ‘The GP Consultation Reimagined, a Tale of Two Houses.’ Although it is a book about communication and primarily aimed at healthcare professionals (while my new book is for a general audience) what is similar about the two books is that I love the challenge of making difficult concepts easy to understand and enjoyable to learn. In both books I try to do this through the use of imagery, story and metaphor so that ideas come alive and are easy to relate to.

Good communication between patients and healthcare professionals is at the heart of good mental health care, which is how these two passions of mine come together!

Why do I see communication between between healthcare professionals and patients like a dance on Strictly, with a professional dancer and a celebrity? What am I going on about when I say patients can be a bit like custard, and why would I want to help them go in Room 101?? (Who wants to go in there?!) Well, for all this and more, you will have to get the book! It’s available on Amazon (in the UK, the US and Australia at least) and if you are in the UK then the cheapest place to get it until the end of 2024 is through my publisher Scion Publishing Ltd with the offer code ‘TwoHouses35’ I’ll put a link to their website in a story highlight 😊

I’d love to hear you thoughts on this, and if you have read the book, or heard me teach on the Two Houses model, it would be amazing if you could let others know what you think about it in the comments! 😊

#doctor #gp #generalpractice #gpconsultation #communication #communicationskills #consultation #education #gptraining #gptrainer #mentalhealth #worry #anxiety

.pro-gallery-wix-wrapper {display: block !important;} .pro-gallery-wix-wrapper .gallery-item-container {opacity: 1 !important; display: block !important;}