Medical Gaslighting: Dr. Phil’s Patient Bill of Rights

Have you ever been told by a doctor that your symptoms are all in your head? When a doctor dismisses a patient’s health concerns as nothing more than the product of their imagination, some call it medical gaslighting. Dr. Phil meets several women who claim doctors didn’t take them seriously, which led to major health problems. Philecia was 29 when she says her life came crashing down after an undiagnosed lump turned into stage 4 breast cancer. Then, a woman says she saw 30 different doctors within five years for migraines before she finally got a diagnosis. And, how did a 27-year-old woman go from a competitive runner to using a wheelchair and needing open heart surgery? Dr. Phil gives life-saving tips on how to be taken seriously at the doctor’s office. (21030)

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[Destinyirus]

As someone who is disabled & suffers w/ a rare disease that most drs haven’t learned about. Medical gaslighting is very real. And since most of them don’t even know what disease I have it’s hard to trust new drs w/ my care, I’ve been misdiagnosed, denied treatments, medicine because of the insurance company. Even if the dr is fighting for me & agrees what’s the best treatment the insurance company denies it because my disease is rare, & has no cure it seems like the insurance company rather not pay for any medical treatments & just have me suffer

[jessk]

My Aunty had migraines and various other symptoms, multiple doctors passed her off for months saying it was stress. She took my Nan for an appointment to her long term GP who agreed to do a scan on my Aunty as a favour for 'peace of mind'. My Aunty actually had brain lesions from a melanoma in her lung and is now in palliative care.

I'll never forgive, nor trust doctors ever (also have had horrendous experiences myself) and I don't think anyone should. Always advocate for yourself and seek a second opinion if you feel needed.

[Destinyirus]

When I was a 18 living on my own & had an injury that resulted in a rare disease. I remember going w/ my fiancée in the drs office & they treated us both so bad idk if it was because we were both only 18. They kept saying stuff like we aren’t gonna give pain med & I said i don’t want medicine I just want to know what’s going on & how to fix it. I never asked for pain medicine so idk why that was even apart of the conversation.
My mom decided to come help me & visit & when she went w/ me to the dr appointment (same drs) it was like a 180 switch. Suddenly they were listening to me & my mom when we were discribing my symptoms. When my mom went w/ me the drs actually started asking me about my injury & symptoms. Questions they didn’t even ask the 1st time.

[KiraSieni]

I wrote an article in Medium on this year's ago. I have Ehlers Danlos which has caused a litany of health problems and I've got horror story after horror story, including the EDS diagnosis itself which was OBVIOUS, I had from birth, I had to figure out, and didn't get diagnosed with until I was 47. My narcolepsy was another I had to figure out. My interstitial cystitis yet another. All of these self diagnoses have been confirmed. Now I'm fighting for a cervical instability diagnosis; confirmed by a chiro but no Dr's taking it seriously. I've had a flexion extension xray and it's actually obvious to even an untrained eye. The neuro I saw asked me "you're hypermobile, how do I know you aren't bending that way? " you can't bend your vertebrae out of alignment. Its impossible. I walked out. He wrote in my notes that I was hyper somatic. He also saw my proffesionally made ankle braces and questioned them as if I got them off amazon- the ligaments in my ankles are collapsing kind of like what's happening IN MY NECK. An ortho (one of the few Dr's to take me seriously) saw me and immediately sent me to have them made. They even did molds of my feet to make them.

And God help you if you need help with pain. My entire body has severe osteoarthritis from my missed ehlers Danlos. I have degenerative cysts in my ankles, knees and fingers from the synovial capsules being under stress from my hypermobility. My shoulders pop in and out, my knees are swollen to twice normal size, I've lost use of several finger joints and they have become gnarled, and of course my vertebrae are sliding around and bumping my spinal cord. Nobody will treat my pain and my pcp keeps trying to send me to a "pain psychologist".

Another horror story: my epidural spaces are small and I was getting a repeat cesarean. The spinal anesthesia wasn't working and I tried to tell my Dr AND SHE DIDNT BELIEVE ME AND WENT TO CUT. I had to quickly move my legs to prove it. She almost cut my abdomen WITHOUT ANESTHESIA. I had a panic attack and asked for general anesthesia instead. She handed me a literal paper bag and told me that I could have a spinal or I could go home and not have a c-section and risk dying because I had a previous emergency c section that was vertical (and had EDS which I didn't know).

Many of us have developed a form of PTSD from it. We avoid Dr's even when we shouldn't, don't get cancer screenings etc, can't look Dr's in the eyes, our brains go blank, we have panic attacks, nightmares.

[beckycracraft]

Thank you Dr Phil
Please do a show on gaslighting by means of medical labels and treating the body by parts instead as a whole. People really deserve the truth

[lynnettecapobianco]

The medical clinic that I go to does not allow patients to change providers after establishment of care with a doctor

[elizabethheim]

I’m also a victim of medical gaslighting. Hate to be this graphic, but haven’t had a period since almost a year ago and it hasn’t been consistent for almost two years. Everytime I go to a doctor, I get the same response: go on birth control. Except that doesn’t help, because birth control suppresses ovulation which happens after a period

[DONTWANTCHANNE]

I've gone to topped ranked docs and they were the worst...one was only top ranked by patients because he handed out narcotics like candy

[michellekerns]

Can you pls delve into the fact that as physicians we are given limited time to interact with patients? I’m given 7—15 minutes, and I’m at a world renown institution. I do my absolute best to help my patients, but I’m often set up to fail. Doctors are always the ones who bear the brunt of the failures in medicine. We’ve given our best years to training to help others and are at the mercy of administrators.

[KiraSieni]

Be careful with keeping symptom diaries or listing symptoms. That's been used against me.

[michellekirkman]

I had a vertebral spacer implanted and a few weeks later started having so much pain in my left leg that I ended up in the Emergency room twice, once by ambulance. My doctors said that I was exaggerating, drug shopping, unable to tolerate pain and there's nothing more they can do for me. I finally went to another neurosurgeon and found out that the spacer has been implanted incorrectly, I have a new collapsed disc and severe nerve damage in my left leg

[Mazi-xtsc]

Get with the program start understanding

[DONTWANTCHANNE]

patient advocate only spins it to try to prevent a lawsuit

[MorsOktober]

My sense of taste and smell changed after COVID and my doctor didn't do anything. Said there is nothing they can do. I don't believe they are correct. Horrible doctor.

[DONTWANTCHANNE]

hard working? well trained? not in my experience....

[aveganeverywhere]

First of all I don’t really understand what medical gaslighting is. I’m making this comment cause I want someone other than Dr phill to explain it to me. ( like is it just a general term for doctors not believing you because then I have a bunch of them to report