Second ESA Medical Assessment With Doctor?

[jenny4]

Hey... I had my first ESA medical assessment yesterday. I took with me proof of my mental health diagnosis for SA, GA, ADD and it was also mentioned on the letter that I have difficulties with Dyslexia and Dyspraxia. The assessor explained that only a doctor can assess Dyspraxia, so she had to terminate the interview. It was going well up to that point, but now I have to wait for another appointment to go back and be assessed by the doctor... yet more anxious waiting! I was just wondering if being called back for an assessment with the doctor has happened to anyone else here? Will I have to go through the whole interview process again or will this next appointment be just to assess the Dyspraxia? I was too anxious to ask questions at the appointment yesterday and just wanted to get out of there! I've had a migraine since... these things are really stressful!

[artistformerlyknownasAAAh]

I have an ESA assessment coming up and would like to know what to expect.
The whole process is enormously stressful and designed to put people of, I could never have done it without the help of my dad.

[clawhammer.]

^ Good post.

Dyspraxia is on the list of conditions for which you have to be assessed by a doctor.

For conditions such as anxiety, depression, etc., you can be assessed by a doctor, nurse or physiotherapist.

[jenny4]

Thank you so much for your helpful post, cheekysneaky.

I've joined the full facts, just waiting for the moderators to approve my membership. I only have limited access to the site until they do.

You're right my assessor wasn't trained, and she did apologise for having to terminate the interview and mentioned that she could see it had taken a lot for me to attend, and that it was a shame, which led me to thinking I probably would have passed the assessment. I was highly anxious, visibly shaking, etc... it was a bit of an ordeal to be honest. I was in there maybe 30 minutes, so quite possibly had gone through much of the questioning. I knew I had to be honest and not hide how bad things really get, which is hard to do because I think many of have learned to hide our conditions as it's hard to get by in life otherwise. I even sometimes play things down at the doctors, so it's no wonder I've not always got the help I need. It's a tough process to unlearn this self-protective behaviour. I did manage it at the assessment though, which is why it was so difficult, but to have to go through it again is a bit daunting to say the least. I'm worried I'll get an unsympathetic doctor who might come to a different decision than the first assessor.

I was diagnose with all my conditions by Dr Hollis the hospital in Nottigham, so I took the diagnosis letter along with me as proof. The letter also mentioned about the Dyspraxia and as soon as the Atos assessor read this she explained she'd have to terminate the interview as a doctor would need to assess me for that. I've never properly looked into Dyspraxia until now to be honest, as my anxiety has been the most crippling problem. However reading more about the Dyspraxia from various forums, I can identify with many of the symptoms. It wouldn't be obvious visially, but I have real difficulty with my short term memory which affects lots of things in my life. For example, if I have an appointment in the afternoon, I might remember in the morning, and get distracted, then forgot all about it and miss the appointment! I did this yesterday, so now have to make an apologetic phone call to the surgery to reschedule... I haven't actually done it yet as I'm so anxious about it!!

So yes, I'm trying to prepare for the next appointment by reading about Dyspraxia, as I feel if I walk in there without any knowledge, I'm likely to fall into traps due my lack of awareness. I do wonder if my self-conciousness about walking, writing in front of others and eating in front of others might be down to the Dyspraxia as well as my anxiety though. I think sometimes, we learn to cope with our difficulties from childhood naturally, without really understanding those difficulties, and I think these leads to feelings self-conciousness and anxiety when were in certain situations without knowing why.

Thanks again for your help cheekysneaky. Nice to see you around the forum again!