Psychology - Scottish Pulmonary Vascular Unit

Living with Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) and its treatment can bring about many challenges, different thoughts, feelings and responses. These may include distress, worry about the future, frustration, feeling down, on edge and bad about yourself. It can also impact your close relationships and ability to engage with your daily life, including your hobbies and interests, as well as social and professional roles.

You may also feel apprehensive about and struggle to cope with medical treatments and appointments. You may also have trouble with your sleep, for example due to breathlessness, feelings of depression or anxiety. These are just a few examples and you may experience other difficulties.

Whilst a degree of emotional distress is normal when living with pulmonary hypertension, almost half of people experience symptoms serious enough they could seek professional help for them. This usually happens when different thoughts, feelings and responses to your diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension and challenges of living with it become overbearing and begin to take over your life.

To make those difficulties more manageable, we can:

Talk through any problems in relation to coming to terms with your diagnosis, understand your emotional reactions and support you in making difficult decisions about your treatment.
Work with you to manage any worries and fears, including about your future, upcoming procedures and prognosis.
Help you cope with symptoms of anxiety and depression, such as:
- not being able to enjoy daily activities or struggling to find them interesting,
- feeling preoccupied with your condition and unable to stop worrying,
- becoming easily annoyed, angry or irritable,
- struggling to connect to others,
- losing confidence and avoiding certain situations,
- problems with thinking and concentration.
Work with other members of the SPVU team to help support you.