Recently I happened to pop into a coffee shop for a coffee and a sandwich and got into a conversation with a fellow male customer. As our conversation developed he told me that he was unemployed, had high blood-pressure, high cholesterol was depressed and was experiencing insomnia. His G.P. had prescribed medications for his blood pressure and high cholesterol and had also put him on anti-depressants and sleeping tablets. He had previously worked for an accountancy firm, but due to the recession, had been laid off with no future prospects of being re-employed. He told me he was really struggling financially and now did not have the cash to go to his G.P. for monitoring of his medication. He is awaiting a medical card and has been told that it will take months for his application to be processed. Neither is he able to afford the different medications and he had decided he would stop taking the medications for his high blood-pressure and high cholesterol; he had also stopped taking his anti-depressants, but had maintained the sleeping tablets as these gave him some relief from his overwhelming anxiety and sense of helplessness and hopelessness.
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