A few questions
 

I know that there have been posts about OH checks before but none of them really answer my question. What happens when you go for an OH check? Do they ask if you feel suicidal? I'm a bit worried because this is a pre-employment check and in my interview I had to talk about my experience of recovery but if i'm honest at the OH check then they might think I was lying at the interview because I didn't say that I still struggle with things. Has anyone ever been told that they are unfit to work?

My second question is what do you do when you need to be distracted but are unable to concentrate on anything? Sometimes I feel really suicidal and I try to read or watch TV but I can't stay focused on anything which makes things worse. What things could I do that don't involve too much concentration but would keep me occupied?

Also, things are really difficult for me right now and I need the support of my family. I live with my Dad and my brother and my extended family don't know about my problems, they don't live near us and we aren't very close to them. My Dad is 90 and doesn't understand anything about mental health, my brother is 17 and I am worried that if I break down in front of him or share how I am feeling with him he will be concerned and will also become depressed. I don't think he would talk about how he feels about my issues with anyone and it concerns me that he keeps it inside. I know I am affecting them but it's getting difficult to hide how unwell I am. Do you think that we should have family therapy? Do you think that my brother would confide in someone about me if he needed to? I don't want to hurt them. What scares me the most is that my brother might become like me.

I'd like to be able to seek out the support that I need also. Sometimes things are so difficult and I think about going to A&E but don't want to because my family will know. I wish that we had more family members and that they were close to us so that I wouldn't be leaving my Dad and brother to cope with me on their own.

I've never had an OH check before so I don't know anything about it, sorry.

They don't tend to ask that kind of thing in Occ Health assessments - well not in the one I had.

They will get a letter off your GP (with your consent) and that gives a bit of background.

My GP (very decent of her seeing I'd actually said on the consent form I didn't want to see the letter) discussed this with me and showed what she'd written.

It said stuff about history of depression, hospital, medication, who I was seeing (psych). It also said that working wouldn't be detrimental to my health and that in there was nothing to indicate that I would be any danger to anyone else.

The actual assessment was just getting more details, and how this could affect me at work, absences and such.

In an ideal situation OH should be about making sure you have the support you need at work and any reasonable adjustments that should be made.

I'm pretty sure the nurse I saw from OH didn't have much of a clue about anything but she didn't ask me anything about self harm or suicidal feelings.
(I begged my GP not to say anything about the SI, which she eventually didn't)

Hope that helps. I'm likely going to be referred to OH again at work, cos I have been off sick, and it's all changed (new provider) so if I can let you know what that's like when it happens.

x

I've dealt with that before; what I find I need to do is to do something to keep my mind somewhat occupied so that I can focus. For example, at work I sometimes listen to music on my mp3 player [positive music only.. as music with negative lyrics can bring me down]. This distracts me enough from my thoughts that I can focus on work. Another thing I try is to do random doodles, it requires me to pay some attention to it, but then again allows me to be able to focus on something else. For example, if I'm trying to pay attention at church, I need to doodle so I can focus, otherwise my thoughts will take over and I can't focus on anything but them.

It's weird, but I need to keep myself somewhat busy in order to properly focus.

I don't know if that makes sense at all, but I hope it helps. Please feel free to pm me if you want to talk about this more.

Sending you lots of hugs!