Fed up with stupid doctors.

Post Reply New Topic

I'm starting (reluctantly) to think that the faults may be on both sides.

There may also have been some genuine misunderstandings.

There is a serious school of thought that says shrinks and other doctors behave very much like drug dealers - selling pharmaceuticals for their own private gain with little regard for the client's well-being. Let's face it, con merchants get everywhere. I'm sure it's not universally true, but it doesn't take much brain to work out that this client is concerned about that issue, and well they might be. Heck, shrinks work with clients who have MASSIVE problems in communication. Making sense of apparently offensive behaviour in this case is a no-brainer compared to some of the sorry cases they get. It's hardly surprising that the burden of responsibility for building trust falls onto the shrink. It's called bedside manner. It's completely unrealistic to fob off the burden of responsibility onto the client. Good interpersonal skills in a client are no doubt a great help, but no realistic shrink could hope for a decent success rate if they expected them as if it were just 2 laymen chatting on a bus. Even simple depression can bring the worst out in a client.

I agree with what you posted, TD, but I also want to add that the client/patient has to want treatment and believe in it as much as the doctor.
If a patient is already predisposed to distrust and find fault, that is all they will ever find no matter the bedside manner of their doctor.

But if you're totally unwilling to find fault, complain, or insist on something you know you need, then you end up with substandard treatment--especially when it comes to psychology.

If I hadn't taken the initiative to even mention AS; if I hadn't insisted on going off the insane amount of medication; if I hadn't insisted on a sensible diagnosis instead of believing the people who said I was borderline or OCD despite the total lack of symptoms; then I don't know where I'd be. I know I wouldn't be going back to college, and I'm pretty sure I'd have gone right back to another depressive episode rather quickly.

The doctor is there to help YOU. You are not subservient to him; if anything, he is your employee. Treat him with the respect due a human being; but no more. Being in awe of your doctor is dangerous. He may be an expert on psychology or medicine; but you are an expert on YOU.

Between the extremes of adoration and contempt lies a happy medium. That can describe how I feel about my psych, somewhere between adoration and contempt. I wouldn't say I genuinely dislike the man, but I do sometimes question how he does things, and I do get frustrated from time to time. But my psychologist is not unreasonable or unintelligent. In fact, I would attest that he's acually a decent, solid human being.

You are right, Callista; it is the right AND responsibility of every patient to take a pro-active role in their own treatment, physical or mental. It is completely appropriate to question the professional so that you understand the treatment you are receiving.

This is where I have to digress. No doctor is your employee. More often than not, the doctor is self-employed and you are paying him in exchange for his/her expert services IF you are paying at all (a $15 co-pay doesn't make a doctor your employee. If anything it makes them the employee of the insurance company you pay into). Besides, when has that kind os mentality ever worked? Anytime I hear things like, "My taxes pay your salary" (I work for the county) I usually fire back, "Yeah, well then I want a raise, you dumbf ck."

I wonder- if that were really true, why go to a doctor (psychologist) at all?

Because collaborating where your fields of expertise meet is more likely to result in a workable plan of treatment. That should be obvious.

If it were obvious, Callista, I wouldn't have asked.

You & your doctor are not colleagues or professional equals.

Am I supposed to care? I only go to her for drugs to treat PCCI. We don't talk about my feelings or anything fluffy.

Only you can answer that, sweet-pea.

It's no good to be rude to your doctor. They've got feelings too, you know.

i've always hated doctors but went to them when necessary. that was until i read Confessions of a Medical Heretic by Robert Mendelsohn and The Myth of Mental Illness by Thomas Szasz. since reading those books i have zero faith in doctors. i think there are maybe 1000 decent doctors in the U.S. and good luck finding one of them.

chinese acupuncturists are the best. or any acupuncturist.

It's been said, and I do believe it is partly true, that if you don't believe in the doctor or the treatment, your ability to "get better" is lessened.

usually both doctor and treatment are defective
on the other hand, acupuncture is highly effective and few have tried it and claimed otherwise.

Why do you have such unshakeabkle faith in acupuncture?