RE: The worst 40 minutes in my whole life
Sorry to hear you went through this. Invisible problems and the people with them do cop it a bit. You hear stories of people yelling at people for parking in disabled carparks etc due to the fact that the person doesn't look disabled, but in reality they are. It's the same sort of thing.
Mental health problems cop this a bit too, either due to being invisible or simply misunderstood. I've ran into misunderstanding when I was trying to be assessed for ADHD. My GP was hesitant to pursue it because she didn't think it was likely because I did well in school. I had to push to make her pursue it and even then I had to research to get the help I needed because she didnt tell me every option available. A psychologist I ended up with at one point that said she didn't know about ADHD said that she thought it was just a lack of self discipline. I was doubting myself and feeling down on myself for a couple of days after that one before realising that couldn't be true because I was trying too hard for it to only be that. Another person down the line when I first described my symptoms started to suggest continuing antidepressants for three months and putting a hold on the assessment then seeing how I was going then, until I explained in more depth just how much it was affecting me.
As it was both my GP and that psychologist were wrong, and they shouldn't have said anything like that since they didn't know much at all about the disorder, but misconceptions about health problems, mental or physical, are harmful and can be really upsetting, let alone the damage they could cause if we just listen to it and accept and don't push for what we think needs to be done. Your doctor shouldn't have treated you that way, and they shouldn't dismiss concerns at the point that a lot of them may dismiss concerns. That's a horrible situation to be in and I'm sorry to hear you have been in that situation. Some few people may truly be lazy and trying for work comp etc, but many many more of the patients that will be going to that effort to get help will legitimately have a health problem, so assuming people are trying to get insurance shouldn't be the first thing for them to think, by far. Doctors can be frustrating and these sorts of things happen, but what they did to you is not on and the fact it happens to multiple people just makes it worse, not makes it okay.
Thank you for you heartfelt message. Invisible illnesses are maybe harder to fight than other ones because they add extra stress and pressure to those who are already drained of energy and positivity. As for the doctors, most of them are taught to address a symptom, not to treat the root cause. Those who are still dedicated to their profession can't do much either because they risk having repercussions. It's a sad reality but the only winner is BIg Pharma.
I agree with the address a symptom rather than treat the root cause, because a lot of people who aren't neurotypical come across that with mental health where they first get diagnosed with depression or anxiety because that is what is apparent at the top but the underlying issue of undiagnosed ADHD or aspergers etc is a large part of what that person has depression or anxiety. In that case, they actually often think they are treating the root cause by treating the depression etc but it certainly can go deeper and it isn't always obvious. Sometimes the doctors are too quick to write it off as being only the surface issue and not the deeper problem, and other times it isn't very obvious at all that there is something else there and while it is bad for the person who doesn't find out then and suffers longer, they weren't to know either.
But misconceptions and a lack of knowledge about health issues is an issue too. Even when it became obvious to me I had ADHD and I pursued an assessment, I was still running into the fact that not enough was known about the disorder by the people I was talking to, some of the people who were meant to help me had misconceptions about the disorder and it is mostly associated with young boys, not adult women. The psychologist that said it was a lack of discipline knew basically nothing about ADHD and it's common enough that when your job is in medicine, and especially in an area that deals with the brain, they should have known more than that. Or if they didn't they still shouldn't have said that, just like your doctor shouldn't have jumped straight to saying "everything is in your head". They need to put the effort in to work out the actual cause rather than jump to conclusions that quick. That wouldn't be acceptable performance in any other job. They can make mistakes and have off days, but dismissing patients as quickly as that one did to you shouldn't be one of those mistakes. Sometimes even with putting the effort in people will get it wrong (doctors are just human) but that sort of crappy response of jumping to a conclusion without even problem solving and thinking about it and testing and trying to determine the cause is not reasonable at all and instead of that being more okay than another industry doing that, doctors should be more accountable for actually doing their job rather than dismissing people because it is people's health on the line. People could die from them dismissing their issues.
Big Pharma isn't always wrong either though. While there may be someone making a lot of money from medications, they can really help. It's not a magic pill that fixes everything - I still struggle - but I'm doing better on medication for ADHD than not. It's combined with other strategies, but it is a positive part of my life and it helps a lot honestly. At the same time, I also was on epilepsy meds when I was younger (I outgrew it) and I found out later on that even back then I should have been on better ones that had less side effects so medication mismanagement definitely happens too. The issue I had with them trying to get me to take antidepressants for longer instead of assessing me was more symptomatic of them not realising how much I was struggling and basically shrugging it off and saying "well lets try this first" than being them pushing antidepressants (a lot of people with ADHD are on both anyway.) Medication is a complicated thing ethics wise and when it is very helpful but non-essential (as in you won't die from not taking it etc), different people will have different opinions and make different decisions about whether they use medication or not. I've seen this happen in the case of ADHD meds, but it would happen with other helpful but non-live saving meds too. If it is life saving medication, there's pretty much no choice involved, but with others there can be depending on what they are treating.
The thing is though, for some issues, sometimes medication is a great tool and a great choice for a treatment option, but shouldn't be the whole treatment. That's the case with ADHD. Meds are ideally supposed to be part of a larger group of strategies and methods of treatment. I've done more of this on my own, with the main treatment from seeking help being medication, as well as the all important answer. Later stuff like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) may come into the mix too but psych didn't want to do that yet. Medication can help a lot but for issues that can be helped in other ways too (some heatlh problems only really can be treated by meds) the other parts of treatment (ones that are scientifically backed or if not can't do harm - like slight healthy lifestyle changes - of course) should probably get more acknowledgement as well in conjunction to stuff like medication, so patients can do the best things for themselves and give themselves the best chance at life with their health issues / disabilities / whatever it is they are being treated for.
TL:DR:
Medication can be good, and it can help people, but sometimes other treatments get overlooked.
Doctors need to not dismiss people so quickly and make decisions and judgements without putting the effort in to find out what is really going on.
Sometimes doctors make mistakes and scratch the surface while thinking they are treating the root cause.
Your doctor was being shit to dismiss you so quickly without putting the effort in and unfortunately that does happen to happen to people and times and that shouldn't be okay.