Treatable, common, and worth addressing long before it starts limiting what you do.
Assessed and treated by a GMC-registered GP
Prescriptions, sick notes and referral letters included
A written treatment plan after every appointment
Your NHS records in the room, with your consent
Care led personally by Dr Khan
Attentive, unhurried care that listens properly
Five-star Google reviews from the people we have looked after
Registered with the Care Quality Commission
Anxiety becomes a problem when it stops being proportionate — when it persists without a threat, or when the worry itself starts shaping decisions and shrinking your life.
Around 1 in 6 UK adults experience a common mental health problem in any given week, and anxiety is the most frequent. It responds well to treatment, and it responds better the earlier it is addressed.
The physical symptoms are real, not imagined — they are the body's stress response doing exactly what it is designed to do, at the wrong moment.
It is a clinical diagnosis, made on the pattern, duration and impact of symptoms rather than on any measurement.
Structured questionnaires such as GAD-7 are used to gauge severity and to track whether treatment is working. They score rather than diagnose.
This is the part most often skipped, and it is where a twenty-minute consultation earns its place. Several physical conditions produce symptoms indistinguishable from anxiety:
New chest pain, particularly on exertion, should be assessed medically rather than attributed to anxiety.
Anxiety is a diagnosis of pattern, not a diagnosis of exclusion by assumption. Attaching the label early is how physical illness gets missed.
Thyroid function, ferritin, B12 and vitamin D, and where relevant a hormone picture — alongside a proper history of caffeine, alcohol, sleep and medication.
A 20-minute consultation is long enough to actually take a history rather than reach for a prescription in the first five minutes.
We check the things that mimic anxiety — thyroid function, and in women over 40, whether perimenopause is the driver. Getting that right can change the whole picture.
Treatment covers what is evidence-based: talking therapy, which is usually first-line and which we can refer into privately without a wait; medication where appropriate, with an honest account of what it does and how long it takes; and the practical changes that genuinely help.
We do not prescribe benzodiazepines for ongoing anxiety. They work briefly and cause dependence.
If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, contact Samaritans on 116 123 (free, 24 hours), call 111 and select the mental health option, or go to A&E. If you are in immediate danger, call 999.
New chest pain, particularly with exertion, should be assessed medically rather than assumed to be anxiety.
Slow breathing out for longer than in — four in, six or eight out. Lengthening the out-breath is what activates the calming response; deep breathing alone can make it worse.
Grounding — name five things you can see, four you can hear, three you can touch. It works by occupying attention rather than by relaxing you.
For panic specifically: it peaks and passes. Nothing catastrophic follows. Trying to stop it tends to prolong it; letting it crest shortens it.
Avoidance. Avoiding what frightens you reduces anxiety now and increases it later, and the avoided territory grows.
That is the single most important thing to understand about anxiety, and it is why the treatments that work involve gradual approach rather than escape.
NHS Talking Therapies accepts self-referrals — no GP appointment needed, and it is free. CBT has strong evidence for anxiety and is the recommended first-line treatment.
It is under-used simply because people do not know they can refer themselves.
The treatment with the strongest evidence for anxiety is free, and you can refer yourself to it today without seeing anyone. NHS Talking Therapies takes self-referrals — no GP appointment needed — and CBT has as good an evidence base in anxiety disorders as medication does.
That is the single most useful sentence on this page, and a great many people do not know it.
Your NHS GP treats anxiety free, and SSRIs are cheap generics.
Where a private consultation genuinely helps is time. Anxiety is not a ten-minute problem, and twenty minutes allows a proper conversation about what is driving it, whether medication is wanted, and what the first few weeks will feel like — which matters, because SSRIs commonly increase anxiety before they help, and that is when most people stop.
It also allows the physical causes to be excluded properly: an overactive thyroid is regularly mistaken for anxiety, as are anaemia and, occasionally, arrhythmia. A blood test is worth doing rather than assuming.
What we will not do is prescribe benzodiazepines or z-drugs. They work quickly, cause dependence within weeks, and undermine the treatments that work. We never initiate them remotely, and any service that will is not acting in your interest.
If you need help now: 999 or A&E if you are in immediate danger, 111 for urgent advice, or Samaritans free on 116 123 at any hour.
NICE CG113, Generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder in adults, is the governing guideline. It recommends a stepped-care model — education and active monitoring, then low-intensity psychological interventions, then high-intensity CBT or drug treatment.
CG113 recommends an SSRI as first-line drug treatment, usually sertraline, and is explicit that benzodiazepines should not be offered except as a short-term measure during a crisis.
CG113 also recommends against offering antipsychotics in primary care for GAD.
NICE CG113 recommends warning people that symptoms may worsen initially when starting an SSRI, and arranging early review — particularly in those under 30, who should be reviewed within one week.
NICE NG222 and CG113 cover the importance of excluding physical causes, including thyroid dysfunction.
It genuinely could, and it is worth checking. An overactive thyroid produces palpitations, tremor, restlessness and poor sleep — and is frequently mislabelled as a panic disorder.
Weight loss despite eating well, heat intolerance and loose bowels point towards thyroid. The test is cheap and it is missed regularly.
Worth asking about perimenopause. Fluctuating oestrogen affects mood regulation directly, and anxiety appearing in the forties without an obvious cause is a recognised presentation.
It is commonly treated as primary anxiety — particularly worth questioning if it started alongside cycle changes or worsens premenstrually.
No. Talking therapy is first-line for mild to moderate anxiety and works well on its own.
Medication is an option rather than an obligation, and for many people the combination works better than either alone.
They are not addictive in the sense of craving or needing increasing doses.
They do cause withdrawal symptoms if stopped abruptly, which is why they are reduced gradually. That is a genuine and often under-explained difference, and it is worth understanding before starting.
No — we do not prescribe benzodiazepines for ongoing anxiety, and we never start them remotely.
They work briefly and cause dependence quickly, and in anxiety specifically they undermine the treatments that would have worked, because they prevent the learning that reduces avoidance.
Four to six weeks for a meaningful effect, and the first fortnight can feel worse before it feels better — more anxious, more restless.
Knowing that in advance is the difference between pushing through and stopping on day ten.
Entirely. Palpitations, chest tightness, breathlessness, nausea and urgent bowels are the stress response doing exactly what it is designed to do at the wrong moment.
Real symptoms, real physiology — not imagined.
Try reducing it substantially and see. For some people it is the entire problem, and it is the cheapest experiment available.
Reduce gradually — stopping abruptly causes headaches and a few days of feeling worse.
Refer yourself to NHS Talking Therapies. You do not need a GP appointment and it costs nothing.
It is the single most useful thing on this page, and most people do not know self-referral exists.
August 23, 2026
Ongoing
Time to be seen
Appointment length
Your NHS record in the room
Written treatment plan
Told when a test isn’t needed
Cost
Same day, usually
20 minutes
Yes, with your consent
Included
Yes, and told why
£40 for 20 minutes
Varies by practice
Typically 10 minutes
Yes, your full record
Not routinely
Usually
Free
Same day
Often 10 to 15 minutes
Usually not
Sometimes charged
Varies by provider
Often a subscription
Same-day access is usually available, from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week. You choose a time that suits you rather than waiting on hold at 8am.
Yes. Care is led personally by Dr Mohammad Khan, so you are not passed between clinicians. Continuity is the point of a small practice: someone who knows your history and is listening attentively rather than working through a checklist.
Yes, with your consent. We can access your Summary Care Record during the consultation, so your current medications, allergies and significant history are in the room. That means fewer questions you have already answered elsewhere, and safer prescribing.
No. We are not here to replace GPs, only to support them. Your NHS practice remains responsible for your ongoing care, and with your consent we write to them after the consultation. We are useful when you need to be seen sooner, or want more time than a standard appointment allows.
Twenty unhurried minutes and a comprehensive assessment. A written treatment plan is included, along with any prescription, sick note or referral letter arising from the consultation, at no extra charge.
£40 for 20 minutes, self-pay. Membership is optional and never required. Priced for fairness, because we are not here to charge extortionate amounts for access to a doctor.
It means the diagnosis can usually be made from your history and photographs, and that treatment can be arranged safely without examining you. Where a condition is not marked treatable online, it is because examination is the diagnosis — listening to a chest, feeling an abdomen, examining an ear or a joint — or because a procedure or device is needed.
Yes, where there is a genuine bacterial infection — cellulitis, impetigo, bacterial urine infections, confirmed strep throat. We will also frequently tell you that you do not need one. Most sore throats, coughs, colds and earaches are viral, and an antibiotic gives you the side effects with none of the benefit.
If your problem turns out to be genuinely outside what we can do remotely, the doctor will tell you straight away, point you to the right service, and refund your fee in full. We would rather do that than fill twenty minutes to justify the charge.
Call 999 or go to A&E — do not book an online appointment and do not wait for a reply to an email. For urgent problems that are not emergencies, NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, online or by phone, and can direct you to the right service.
Patient reviews
