Status Updates From Medical Gaslighting: How to...

also suggesting to go to better help my dude have u done ur research on it LMAOO I can’t take any of her advice abt mental health seriously I’m sorry😭 also what’s up with the over sensationalizing prose in her retelling of already horrific medical abuse testimonies ? it sometimes feels so disrespectful especially here where the topic was medical rape??

Man lowkey what a load of bollocks this chapter was :/ I could completely relate to her describing of what medical trauma does to u when u suffer from a chronic illness but the coping tools referenced were a bunch of easy to suggest empty words to me I’m sorry. Some of us are actually mentally ill or neurodivergent medical trauma « aside » and that layer is absolutely ignored by her pov lol

Woah I knew pain management in the US was fucked but I didn’t know the full extent of it and I’m shocked and appalled on behalf of my fellow chronic illness sufferers from across the ocean the protocoles are beyond weird inadequate and ableist I have no words. The worst part is I’m not a 100% sure the author realizes just how abnormal this whole system is bc of how well the US makes insane shit look justified

« in which she must navigate between becoming either an overmedicated zombie or a malinger-ing, undermedicated wretch-when all she *really* wants is to be able to work, maybe parent, and live a life of reasonable quality with muted pain. » I fucking hate this narrative I’m not seeking quality of life because I want to work lol in fact this is the only good thing abt being severely disabled to me: not having to

Lowkey vraiment hâte de finir ce livre j’y prends plus aucun plaisir dps qq chapitres l’autrice m’énerve je trouve bcp de ses conseils à côté de la plaque et limite un peu dangereux parfois et bcp trop centré sur son expérience prise pour générale qui diffère bcp de la mienne et des gens qui ont le genre de pbs que g c peut être juste que jss dans un mauvais mood et que jss un peu triggered jsp mais

also I find so much of the medical admin protocoles abroad super infantalizing like what do you mean your doctor sends scripts to the pharmacy for u and u can only pick it from that specific pharmacy?? same for referrals sounds practical on one hand yeah but on the other the lack of control over the direction and who gets to decide what abt ur care would freak me the fuck out

For how much shit this brings on I’m so glad the french medical administration is so shit at being coordinated between providers and platforms because the american medical electronic record sounds like my own personal nightmare at least the awful reports some doctors have done don’t follow me around except for public hospitals ones which is already a huge threat to my care bc I’ve been gaslit there the most

« When you are not given the chance to speak, or your well-developed arguments are shut down-know that defeat is not having to leave a bad doctor. Defeat is choosing to not seek care elsewhere because of them. » this is healing to me somehow

It’s crazy how I think about specific apps where I was gaslit, during this part abt strategies to navigate apps, and realize I have done everything right in a lot of my bad apps that I kept feeling were my fault for going wrong bc I’m autistic. It’s not helping me know how to get better care but it does make me realize that as powerless as I feel abt it, a lot of what I’ve been through is just not my fault.

« If they're yelling, you should speak at a lower volume. If they're flustered, you should be calm. » I did this once with a md who had already MG’t me to tears 1st time. She lost her temper at my 2nd app and it felt so empowering because she was RIDICULOUS getting all riled up whilst I was staying very calm and rational. I kinda played uno reverse on her ass. I knew I was never coming back to see her though

3/3 and maybe it’s why medical gaslighting is so fucking effective as well, it would be sooo simple to fight against it if it was just one remark, or one thing to focus on at a time during an app, but just like ur 73834 symptoms bulldoze you into oblivion til u don’t know what is what doctors do the same thing in the way they treat u like shit til u don’t even know what’s most important to defend urself on