#medical abuse

[fenrichaita]

One major factor that makes the nature of psychiatric treatment intrinsically violent is the fact that the boundaries of the patient is considered an obstacle to treatment. The lack of consent of the patient is considered an obstacle to treatment. These obstacles are abhorred by psychiatry and considered things that much be broken down. If the patient has a disagreement with the treatment, or objects to it, this is considered a symptom and therefore is seen as something not to be validated or respected. Thoughts, behaviors, beliefs; these are all considered symptoms if they are in opposition to treatment and must be broken down. However, compliance with treatment is almost never seen as disordered or symptomatic, even if the patient is fawning or similarly complying to avoid more harm done to them. The fact that only extreme compliance is accepted by psychiatry is inherently violent and conditions people to accept abuse. Isolation and violence are not vectors of healing.

[nightmaretour]

Okay now I've gotten myself angry again. Every time a medical professional is abusive/neglectful the overwhelming response is "Their job is so stressful and underpaid! They deal with so many rude and abusive patients, of course they're like that!!"

You know who else has stressful, underpaid jobs and deal with rude and abusive customers a lot? Retail workers. But if a retail worker started assaulting all of their customers you'd hear all about it, wouldn't you? The consequences would be enormous, and there would be an overwhelmingly negative response, even if it was exclusive to rude customers.

Now imagine this was the norm, and it was socially acceptable, encouraged even, in retail jobs to abuse and assault your customers whenever you feel like it, for any perceived sleight, just because they need to buy groceries and you have to serve them. It would be all over the news, it would be an international scandal with arrests all over the place, there would be exposés of the secret culture of abuse and assault in retail workplaces on every channel and news source with interviews with the victims. Everyone would know about it and everyone would care, because of course that's fucked up.

So why is it different when your victims are sick and rely on you to survive?

[schizopositivity]

It's so frustrating that I'm only seeing more and more lobotomy jokes. Especially "live, laugh, lobotomy" merch.

You are making fun of the torture of disabled people. People with intellectual disability and severe mental illness brutally had parts of their brain severed or killed. Many people died from this. We can never know the true impact because the people who endured this were not the same after.

We shouldn't be bringing this up in any lighthearted way. This was a tragedy, and we should be showing basic human respect to the victims. I don't think anyone can "reclaim" it and no one should want to. Please treat it with the severity and respect you would to any other mass tragedy from history.

[cartoonscientist]

I feel like one of the most insidious types of sanism is this thing I’ve noticed lately where mentally ill people report that their doctors just refuse to treat them or acknowledge their health problems, especially GI doctors; they’ll refuse to read the patient chart, tell the patient they’re lying about their officially recorded diagnoses and test results, and insist they see a therapist instead when usually the patient has been in therapy for years already

my own GI doctor refused to treat my ulcers or hernia or test me for gastroparesis after multiple scope exams and told me it’s all in my head, and my GP is currently gaslighting me about not having scoliosis and never having it on my record when I have actual adaptive devices prescribed to me

only my psychiatrist and therapist, dermatologist, pulmonologist, gynecologist and physical therapists take me seriously as a mature and cognizant person

this is really disturbing to me for obvious reasons

[crimeronan]

the last time i went to therapy they told me there was nothing wrong with me and that the clinic was for people with real problems.

this sounds like a joke about how i'm in denial about my mental illness but it's an actual legit thing that happened.

the reason it happened is not very fun or funny or punchline-like though. what happened was that i walked in and started the intake paperwork and one of the papers was a court document telling me to sign away my right to refuse ECT and force-fed antipsychotics. this document was included with no explanation in a stack of other more standard consent forms. i was at a low income medicaid clinic that serves a lot of homeless people who don't have legal counsel warning them what they're signing.

after several panicked texts to my partners, i overcame the fawn response just enough to ask the receptionist, "hey, is it okay if i look this over before i sign it?" and they replied, "oh, yeah, that one needs a legal witness anyway."

but it was included with no explanation in the consent forms. a document telling me to sign my name stating i'm incompetent and can be held down and subjected to 1950s horror torture if the doctor feels like i should be.

so i went into my appointment and i answered all the questions as brightly and neurotypically and sweetly as i could, and they told me i was incredibly self-aware and well-adjusted and that there was nothing they could do for me, and then i went home having been dishonest with my therapist.... but ALSO still having the right not to be Fucking Lobotomized For No Reason.

now don't get me wrong: i'm gonna guess the Vast Majority of therapist's offices do not do this. i'll even guess that this was flagrantly illegal, although i'm not super familiar with my state's specific patient rights protocols.

but it is Very Important to know that when you say "go to therapy, therapy is beneficial, and tell your therapist everything, because lying is counterproductive"

....some of the people you say that to. are going to walk into clinics like this.

so like.

please.

for my sake.

please understand.

Lying To Therapists... And Not Going To Therapy... Is Good, Sometimes ,

[our-queer-experience]

Many intersex adults who underwent childhood medical interventions may have experienced repeated genital examinations throughout childhood and into adulthood, which may increase their medical mistrust. Many intersex adults delay or avoid seeking mental health support due to medical mistrust. This mistrust and avoidance of care is exacerbated by the incorrect attribution by some health care workers of mental health conditions to intersex variation itself rather than to stigma and trauma from previous medical interventions, further underscoring the benefit of affirming, trained mental health providers in mitigating self-harm and suicide risk. To combat medical mistrust, training for the next generation of health care professionals must account for both the medical and interpersonal needs of intersex patients, especially young children. When intersex individuals receive appropriate and affirming social support and mental health care, they can thrive.

from Advancing Health Equity for Intersex Individuals, a paper by the U.S. Department of Health and the Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health that was censored by the trump administration

[fenrichaita]

Always question the missing reasons when a mental health professional talks about how they have been punched, bit, spit on, exc. Those who are hospitalized are routinely subjected to forced drugging, restraints, forced stripping, isolation, coercion, manipulation, violence, and isolation. They are detained and are often given no escape on their own terms. A psych sees any act of violence they commit as self-defense no matter the actual circumstances, and any retaliation or attempt at self-defense by the patient as violence.

[unstablemotions]

Save my Cousin with Very Severe ME from Forced Psychiatric Hospitalisation 💜

Only your signature needed! Click here for the petition

My cousin Line, known online as @nebulow (her instagram is more active), is suffering from very severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), a multisystemic neuroimmune disease, which is incredibly misunderstood in our country Denmark, where psychiatrists have decided that my cousin is not suffering from a somatic illness, but is instead psychotic and that all her symptoms of very severe ME are delusions. They don't listen to her, when she tells them she's not interested in their psychiatric treatment and they are now threatening with forceful psychiatric treatment, which might worsen her ME if not cost her life.

The petition has more information on my cousin's case and about ME in general if you wanna read more.

Please sign this petition made on behalf of my cousin! You don't have to make your name public, all you have to do is confirm your signature through an email. Reblogs are appreciated to 💜

[thebibliosphere]

I'm not sure the novelty of a doctor actually providing me with compassionate and competent treatment will ever wear off.

Like... I've known for years I am sick. Logically I am aware I've been ignored, abused, and violated. But there's still that abused and gaslit part of my brain fearfully murmuring, "But what if I am doing this for attention and I just don't know it? what if I am a Bad Patient?"

And it's so ingrained that even when a doctor tells me they ran biopsies that confirm my diagnosis irrefutably, I'm still like, "Wow, I sure am a good liar being able to fake biopsies like that." Like bitch, the fuck did I do? Manifest a fake result through the power of my brain?

What kind of Matilda-ass-nonsense do I think I'm capable of? And why am I not using it to make Elon Musk explode at will?

Anyway. I hope my therapist's great-grandkids enjoy the college education I'm about to bankroll. Fuck me.

[myalgicencephalomyelitiscfstom]

[pro-birth]

Amber Thurman's hospital is flooded with negative reviews from patients who complain about the neglectful care they received there, in all sorts of medical situations.

Further proof that pro-aborts will use dead women's bodies to fearmonger society about abortion laws, when the REAL culprit has always been shit healthcare to begin with. If you want to give af about birth and reproductive justice, then STOP IGNORING WHAT'S ACTUALLY HURTING US.

[auntie-doom]

Appt this afternoon with a neuro in the next county, who could see me sooner. I have zero hope for answers; I saw this guy for migraines, and his skills consisted of--

Me: "I reacted extremely badly to X, I reacted extremely badly to Y, every time I try Z I have classic overdose symptoms, and I reacted extremely badly to a small test of Q."

Shitty_Doc: "I am prescribing you X, Y, and Z. Make an appointment here ASAP for a full treatment of Q. Come back in 2 months."

Also, he suggested I try a "modified paleo diet" for fibromyalgia. Okay, sure, diet may help, but not a random selection of foods that are labeled capriciously by people who have not studied nutrition, history, or anthropology.

This guy is my #2 example of why I never wanted to see a neuro again. But then, my appt in April is with exhibit #1, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

...

I don't have any idea what is wrong with me. Maybe this will actually be something within his skill set, or he may be able to send me for a test which will be productive, even if he is a total ass. Yeah. Maybe. What else can I do?

[cringecorp]

Ask your doctor if medical gaslighting is right for you

[spacedocmom]

Doctor Beverly Crusher @SpaceDocMom I truly do not understand why so many doctors in your era seem to hate chronically ill patients so much, enough to body-shame them and/or refuse to diagnose them properly and/or treat them with any degree of consistent care. Why become a doctor only to not care? emojis: black heart, blue heart, masked 2:24 PM · Mar 15, 2024

[thebibliosphere]

>:0 wait all this time there were meds that could have helped you and NO ONE LET YOU TRY THEM??? AUGH. Sorry I'm hella mad on ur behalf now. Anyway I'm rooting for u queen I hope the mast cell stabilizers help u

There were different meds I could have been trying, yes. Some mast cell stabilizers are available otc in the US (things like Zyrtec and Pepcid), and I've been self-managing with elevated doses of those since the specialist diagnosed me a week before the pandemic hit. (Supplements can help, too, especially if you're deficient in things like D3 and all the Bs, which a lot of MCAS patients are.)

Unfortunately, because the allergist decided I was making shit up (🙃), I was denied access to other drugs, as no one else felt like they were able to safely prescribe me what I need. They were either afraid to do something that'd make me worse, or they just didn't care and treated me like the allergist did.

My cardiologist wouldn't even officially put POTS in my file because she didn't want me to "think of myself as disabled and give up on being '''normal'''." (🔪🔪🔪)

My PCP has been my only ally, but he kept hitting roadblocks and was honest that he didn't know how to help me. He just kept writing referrals to different specialists in the hope they'd help me and has been doing his best to keep me alive in the meantime. Poor guy's been doing triage for my symptoms since I first staggered into his office in 2019 and said, "I think I might be dying." (Spoiler alert: I was.)

The pandemic didn't help. A lot of the specialists I should have been seeing suddenly found themselves on the front line of a global pandemic and are now inundated with long covid patients. It was sheer luck I found a GI doctor who knows about MCAS. Seriously, I picked him at random because he was the first available appointment.

What a happy thing that turned out to be.