What does your GP do? *SH Trigger warning, graphic*

[HG888]

Quite new to the forum, been stalking for a while ha 

I was just wondering because basically, my GP is very nice and has been so kind about my depression, but she is very young and inexperienced. It feels like she doesn't know what to say or do a lot of the time, which usually I don't mind too much because she has done what she can so far and I like that she never says inappropriate things like some health professionals.

Anyway, I was just wondering if this was a bit odd: went in for my fortnightly check up and AD prescription, and let her know that SH has been escalating, ie getting more frequent and deeper. She asked to see, so I showed her a recent one that was into the subdermis, and she didn't clean, or steri-strip it (possibly should have been stitched, but too late for that), just put a dressing over it. Didn't give me any advice about wound care or infection prevention, or the walk in clinic. When my friend went in and showed her GP after she self harmed (there was no need for A&E, another friend and I steri-stripped her and she's on ADs and doing great now!  ). Anyway, he cleaned and dressed it and all that.

I guess this is a bit of a rant but I was wondering if you guys get your harms seen to by your GP when you go in, in which case this may be just another example of her inexperience.

[Vermilion]

We welcome to the forum.  :wave:

If your wound was a few days old it may simply have been too late for steri strips. If the wound has started healing closing it won't do much good (that's what my gp has told me a number of times). The dressing was the best thing to do to keep it clean and prevent infection.
If you feel like your sh is escalating it might be worth asking for a referral to a counselling service or the CMHT as they are more specialised in mh than a gp.

[pandapaws]

i have a very good and experienced gp and when I have had to show her my sh in the past because its deep and infected shes never tinkered with it, no dressing, nothing, just cream if its needed to ease the infection.

Are you receiving therapy or under the CMHT, if not then that's worth asking about.

Having fortnightly appointments with your gp is really good though.

[HG888]

Ah OK yeah that makes a lot of sense I guess I just have to trust that she does know what she's doing, and stop being a control freak! Gosh, just read my post again, and it has such an arrogant feel to it!  Sorry about that!

Basically, I'm under a specialist SH assessment thing in my area which lasts for 4 sessions, and I've just had the second. If they think you need it, they refer you afterwards. I had it last year as well, but I was a lot better then, and also under uni counselling (which I have now stopped because I didn't feel it was helping), so they decided not to refer me further. I really feel like I'm not ready to be left alone yet though, so I hope they refer me somewhere.

[Sian-May]

All GP's seem to vary, I've had some clean and dress my wounds, others have given me the dressings and other ones haven't done anything about them. It's only in A&E that I always get them looked after.

Your post wasn't arrogant, don't worry.