Hey everyone, newbie here!

truthseeker_4

thanx for posting your stories too guys. rox you sound very like me! i'm really pleased you landed your dream job and have a family now . My uni experience was very similar lol...trouble is it makes you think of everything in terms of the anxiety so can distort your point of view of things quite alot!

that's 2 people that have recommended claire weeks i mite have a look!

I really don't want to give up on my therapy. I don't really know what to do about my job, i really don't want to go on benefits but maybe i will be forced to if i can't find the nerves to get one.

Robflh

Hi truthseeker

Whether you take medication for the Anxiety or not is not the important part, the important part is that you consult you doctor and have him or her inform you of your options, which would include various types of medication/treatment.

Hold nothing back from them, if you feel like crying then cry. They have seen it a thousand times before and if they are going to help you, you need to be honest with them about how you feel.

GP’s have a wealth of knowledge and experience at their disposal. I do not mean to be harsh when I say this but you would be foolish if you did not go and see your GP.

truthseeker wrote: »

I went out intending to apply for jobs today . But my anxiety got the better of me and i couldn't do it. So i just ended up wasting bus fare.

That says to me that you are not well enough to take on the stresses involved in having job. Yes, a job will help you clear the debts faster but not at the cost of your sanity.

At the moment, the important thing is to make the payments on the credit card and if possible stop that debt form getting bigger and I have explained how to do that.

Assuming your GP took one look at you and signed you off sick for a month. You then go to the Jobcentre and ask about incapacity benefit. If I remember correctly, you make a phone call from certain phones in the Jobcentre. You just pick the phone and wait for someone the other end to answer the phone and then you tell them, you would like to make a claim for incapacity benefit. They will then tell you what will happen next.

In all provability, you will not be fit enough for work in just one month or several months for that matter. So, your GP will renew your certificate as and when it is necessary. Once you have been assessed and if you get incapacity benefit, it will be for a period of time, which is likely to be a year. From then on, you do not need a doctor’s certificate but you can sign off anytime during the twelve months.

The Jobcenter also has ways and means of helping easy you back in to employment, when you are well enough.

I am on IB and because of that, I have been able to do different courses to help me to manage/cope with my problems. During one such course I met a woman that had a brain tumour that was inoperable. On a good day, you would have been hard pressed to know if there was anything wrong with her but on a BAD day she could do very little.

She had been turn down for IB, at least three times, even her doctor could not understand why. Some one said to her that she needed to fill the forms in for what she could or could not do on a BAD day and not, as she had been doing, on a good day. The next time she applied for IB she got it. So remember to fill out the forms based on a BAD day.

Whether you are tied in to the contract on the phone, I could not tell you. Someone else might be able to do that or you could ring O2 and ask them. The last time I checked Virgin had a good deal for Pay as you Go. Phone calls for my home phone and mobile together cost me less then £10 a month.

It is up to you if you do not tell the banks but personally, I do not think they will ask you to pay them back. However, if sometime down the road they found out you are not at university and they demanded the money back, how would you pay it back and how much anxiety would it cause you.

I am glad you are not so worried now and can look back over the last few weeks or months and maybe feel a little bit foolish for having worried about it so much. As they say. Sometimes it is difficult to see the woods for the trees.

In other words, when you are in the middle of the woods it seems to be huge and goes on forever but when you step back and look at the whole of the woods, you realize just how small it is.

Problems are the same, they are very big when you are in the middle of them but if you can learn, with the help of a book, website, or therapy, to take yourself out of the problem and look at it, they are much smaller and easier to deal with.

Remember, the only person that can upset you is YOU and therefore the only person that can make you anxious is YOU. Problems do not make you anxious, it is how you react to them that determines how anxious you are. Again that is something a book, website, or therapy will teach you how to control.

truthseeker_4

Robflh wrote: »

Hi truthseeker

GP’s have a wealth of knowledge and experience at their disposal. I do not mean to be harsh when I say this but you would be foolish if you did not go and see your GP.

yeh i know, i am foolish! I know i should do exactly what you say but i also know i won't at the moment. Guess i need an anxiety-type LBM.

Thanks for all the info on incapacity benefit, if i do go down that road that's really helpful.

taka

Hi TS

I'm not sure I have much to say on the debt front but I would like to ask a question? Does your Uni know about the problems you are having? I'm asking as I had to take a year out of my course in order to get treatment for an eating disorder/depression/anxiety. They were very supportive and I had to write a letter explaining what was happening and ask for the time away from my course which was granted on the condition that I would provide a doctors letter saying I was fit to return to uni before returning. I wound up returning home home to live with my parents and getting treatment and made a huge headway in that year off. Going back was very hard (especially as I returned straight into my final year) but I continued to get support from my GP and a student counsellor then too. Maybe this could be an option for you particularly if the course is something you WANT to do but just can't manage at the moment?

If you do do this then in your banks eyes you are still a student but you may well not be able to claim certain/any benefits.

I would definitely speak to your GP about your social phobia too and about your treatment. If he/she is not very helpful or sympathetic then try another one. I am having some probs again (more anxiety and depression and panic attacks... don't get me started on crowded buses :eek: and places ) and have found a lovely Doc who is very symathetic. Yes, he/she may suggest antidepressants again as it may be that you need to try a different one (1st one I tried made me shake sooooooo much and felt sick - current one is ok) but if this is not for you he/she may help find something that DOES help. Some GPs are open to more alternative type therapies and may still be able to refer you somewhere that will help you work out something that WILL help you.

I was referred onwards again by my GP and am now seeing someone through the NHS and while some of what she talks about is fairly traditional its not all so traditional... Paul McKenna style tapping (EFT) anyone? It is worth a try anyway I think and may well complement what you plan to do privately.

oooohhhh sorry that was a bit of a ramble I hope it has helped and good luck!

Taka

truthseeker_4

Hey there taka :wave:

ooh i've heard of EFT! Yeh it's a bit strange but can help some people. Good luck with it!

I 'suspended studies', is that the same thing you did? It means i have a place open for me next year if i want to go back but there's no obligation. I thought it was pretty nice of them. I didn't do the sensible thing and tell them about my anxiety though just made up another excuse. I'm hoping to make 'huge headway' lol like you, with this therapy i'm doing. Yes my course at uni is definitely something i WANT to do but can't do atm you sum it up well!...Do you reckon this 'suspended studies' might put me in favour with the overdraft thing then?


Back to the money side of things i just got a £200 'bursary' from my uni paid into my account!! If that's not taken away that'll be great . And i've managed to budget really well for xmas.

I can't quit my phone contract apparently, but i may be able to sell my classy phone and get a cheaper one. I can also claim back some of the money later cos it's a casback deal.

taka

Hiya!! I think so.... not sure it had a name!

Do you have to prove to the bank each year you are a student? If not then I would only tell them if you have to that you are not at uni at the moment. I would think the suspended studies would help at the bank as you are simply unable to be at uni at the mo but plan to return and have not just left... If you are worried maybe talk to the bank and explain you are not at uni this year due to illness?

Good luck

Taka xx

truthseeker_4

i just got a letter from my uni saying they would let me keep the £200 bursary installment since they paid it into my account before they knew i had left (even though i had left already!). I think i shall pay off a bit of my overdraft with it .

It also said there might be a chance my Local Authority will continue paying my maintenance loan :eek: since i have only suspended studies for this year. That would be a godsend. It's a slim chance but it says to phone them and ask anyway.

taka

:j :j Fingers crossed!!

Robflh

Hi truthseeker

I would definitely go and tell the Uni the real reason why you need to suspend your studies and ask them about a student counsellor. While you are at it check with them just what “Suspended Studies” means and if there is more then one type.

Have you heard any more about the £1,000 refund you are hoping to get. Do you feel brave enough to see your GP? To anyone else reading this, no I am not being funny or patronising


Hi taka

I am glad to here that you have managed to get back to your studies. As I have already said to truthseeker. Problems do not make us anxious, how we react to a problem makes us anxious.

If you suspended your studies because of ill health, I presume that you are still a student but that you cannot continue to get your student grant/s. However, as you are still a student, you cannot claim JSA. To get JSA you have to be actively seeking employment.

Effectively you are off sick. If you was working and off sick you would get Sick Pay and if you did not qualify for that, you would claim Incapacity Benefit.

If your studies have been suspended due to ill health and assuming that you cannot claim Sick Pay, I would have thought you would be entitled to claim Incapacity Benefit.

truthseeker_4

thanks taka

hey robflh i'm surprised you haven't given up on me by now lol! I haven't heard about the £1000 refund yet but i should definitely be getting it as i paid a big installment for university accomodation and was only there 2 months. They told me before i left i would only be charged the number of weeks i lived there for and get refunded the rest.

But i've just got a whopping payment from the student loans company again, over £1000?! It's so tempting with all this money in my account lol...but they will probably take most of it out again so i'll try not to touch it. I think it might just be maintenance loan payments as they haven't realised i've left yet. Ah i'm so confused i will phone them today.

As for the GP...yeh i could muster up the nerve to go i think. It's just the shame attached. The thing is..well it's complicated. If i was living on my own, after your advice, maybe i would claim it now. If i went on IB would i have to tell my family, who i live with? My sister is on IB at the moment, for the same sort of reasons--mental health i guess. I don't have the heart to tell my family i'm in the same position. To be honest i'm not sure how they would take it. I could be completely wrong but they might even freak out and kick me out. I couldn't handle that kind of change at the moment.