Seeing three doctors in three days ...

It won't be my choice ... it is a bit how our system works here: access is universal, we don't need a private insurance. The downside is that availability is low. When your GP diagnoses ou with depression, he sends you to a psychiatrist. You'll get an appointment after 6 to 8 weeks. They give you pills. No matter what. I have a long list of medications and the side effects I suffered. They just sit through it and prescribe what tyey're used to. You either accept it or don't get a treatment. It's only when things turn nasty (like in my case), that they will listen. Not to the patient, but to their colleagues. That is what started this thread in the first place: I got the advice to stop one medication from the cardiologist, to stop another from the neurologist and the suggestion to take something else from my psychiatrist ...

In my experience, side-effects are usually an extra hindrance in my recovery, up to the extent that I now feel I will never recover because severe sleepiness (14h and more a day when working fulltime) worked against me so badly when my chances at recovery were at their best.



Apart from that, I agree with all you said.
Be it that saying goodbye to the sport that has coloured my life up to now will be a tough nut to crack. I will still have enough on my plate in the near future and I really don't need the extra challenge of having to battle the side effects of some new pill. Sadly, I'm afraid they won't listen ... I always wonder if "they" are the same elsewhere.

I sympathize with you pliepla. Giving up a sport that you have a deep connection to isn't going to be easy. I get that. Hopefully, you can find some low impact aerobic activity that will replace your mountain biking since being active is something important to you.

That really stinks about your country's healthcare system's policies. I mean, it sounds like, patients aren't given any control over their own healthcare there. That's scary. Well, can you at least petition to have your cardiologist and neurologist say "no!" to the GP and Psychiatrist about not prescribing you an antidepressant? Isn't there an appeals process you can go through?

It's not that we don't have any freedom of choice. It's rather that, especially when it comes to psychiatric care, the need for care exceeds the number of care-givers. The consequence is that, once you find a therapist, you stick to him and that psichiatrists are bound to give you medication, no matter what because they can only see you once in six weeks.
At least, in this system, I can still pay the bills. I think in other countries, I would have been screwed years ago ...