How do you cope with the gaslighting?

“councils who put bars on park benches, so homeless people can't sleep on them! ”

Oh my - that is callous.

And here I thought “we” (society) were trending towards more - not less empathy to those less fortunate?!

My husband works for our health authority - mental health and substance use ( it’s not called substance “abuse” anymore)
- Assertive Community Treatment division.
The goal is to have their clients get into housing, have food and access to medical care, medications to support their mental health diagnosis (many have schizophrenia) help with money management (budgeting), etc etc.

A good majority of the clients have been living on the street or in and out of institutions (psyche wards) before getting signed up for ACT.

It’s a burn-out job - my husband has high stress in his life - when you add a wife who hasn’t worked for 6 years and has rough days that cause him to worry.

I would bet that a high majority of those sleeping on benches are homeless due to mental health issues. Why else would anyone choose that life?
A little empathy can go a long waY

Funny you mention the bars on park benches, I just saw someone post a video of how to safely remove them yourselves if you're up for doing some illegal good.

Anyway, I really wish I had a canned response for these practitioners. I feel like I should by now for all the times I am made to look like a hypochondriac.

jolaleye121 said...

Girlie said...
“Yesterday, I had a seizure at my GP. I was then, condescended by a nurse practitioner when I explained the cause of all of my symptoms. I was told I don't have a degree, that I'm on forums when I stated charities and petitions have been made regarding this illness. Further to that when I cited peer reviewed articles and research centres I was still told that I don't have a degree - so my observations are invalid. ”

What did your Dr say about the seizure?

So they have no clue what caused the seizure and are unwilling to accept that an infectious disease called Lyme is the cause?

What ***holes.

I had the seizure after telling them my condition was worsening, had to walk to the practice (5 minutes away) I forgot where I was on 2 occasions. Then 3 doctors look at me like I'm **** on their shoe as I have a fit on the floor. It was disgustingly dehumanising. Then they threatened to send me off to a psychiatrist. The UK is as JovaLyme said, an increasingly horrible place to live, corporations and privatisation of so many services is to blame. I still find the US for profit medicine a horrible evil if I'm honest, considering the extortionate prices for treatments that shouldn't be remotely as expensive as they are. $2 Trillion a year on healthcare is a disgusting figure, but I digress (you can't put a price on life...)

A woman was sent to mental hospital and forcibly drugged for months before getting a positive test result back!!!
https://inews.co.uk/news/real-life/woman-eventually-diagnosed-with-lyme-disease-was-sectioned-for-months-and-told-her-symptoms-were-all-in-her-head-501413

I'm just forgoing all the medications. I'm pretty sure propranolol was doing more harm than good and I am improving, fortunately. I'm just going to hope for the best and trust in God as many here do.

I was in the UK in 2018 with my family and on the BBC news they aired a segment about the terrible state of disarray the NHS is in. Many people falling critically ill and not being assigned a bed due to high occupancy of patients & shortages of resources. Sad!

In the US health insurance barely covers the lot and people will go into financial ruin due to high costs of health insurance.

While the rule is most run of the mill doctors (usually in affiliated with a hospital corporation) don't treat diseases like Lyme, you usually can find practitioners or clinicians all over the states that do tend to cater to folks like us.

You're usually better off in a well-known large city than small. I am not surprised by the NHS's narrow mindedness towards this. It's govt run healthcare. Which the rule with govt. run, "you get what you pay for or, for that matter, don't pay for."
While we don't have a single payer federal program, there is the Veteran's Administration Healthcare system.

What you're describing reminds me of our Veteran's Administration Healthcare service sadly. While their are many that are happy with their care through them. This organization generally doesn't have a good reputation. Most govt. entities aren't going to properly treat something obscure or difficult.

Gaslighting by doctors seems par for the course with Lyme.

Post Edited (ElizKA26) : 10/2/2019 1:50:25 PM (GMT-6)

"And many of them get so upset or condescending when they see so many patients turning to alternative modalities, they blame the patients for being idiots, when maybe a thought that should be crossing their minds is how are we so abjectly failing such large amounts of patients that they feel the need to turn to all these various alternatives? Don't get me wrong, they are good for a lot of paint by numbers thinking, but beyond this for a disease complex like we deal with, most of them are worse than useless."

Oh yeah, that takes the cake, when my last doctor smugly chuckled when I told her I'm seeing a naturopath for my chronic Lyme and said something about wasting big bucks on natural medicine. Yeah, I am, because you aren't doing jack **** for me. What's your solution again? Nothing? Yeah that's what I thought.

Honestly doctors are some of the most intellectually lazy people I ever meet

My LLMD is in under our skin.

Did you see the sequel as well, Jova?

Honestly - if I didn’t have my husband - I don’t know how I would have coped - on my own? Not sure I’m strong enough for that.
A lot of very dark days that my husband has had to deal with and somehow pick me up and convince me of all the things I have to live for.
It’s been a struggle for him too.

I haven’t worked for 6 years - we’re just scraping by on my husbands wages - well actually not making it on his wages but we also used up an inheritance that I received in 2015. And we’re building a pile of debt.

The lack of my wages has hurt us the most.
I’m really really trying not to regret taking 14 years off work to be a stay at home mom for our son... as we would be doing so much better financially now.