One would think that doctors would know better than to quickly assume your chronic pain is just due to psychological disorders, or even some psychotropic medication that you are on. Sadly, many doctors still make this unwise decision, especially doctors who do not fully know the patient as well as they should. This kind of assuming from a doctor destroys the kind of trust a patient needs in order to have a good working relationship with their clients.
I have listened to many stories of others being treated badly, and now recently I have experienced it after my original doctor retired. Many chronic pain symptoms have been present long before I had trouble with major psychological disorders or any major combination of medication. Many people really do know their body better than anybody else. Just knowing the difference between neuropathy numbness and pain from psychological disorders, such as anxiety, to medication side effects, to actual neurological problems is huge!
Sadly, fibromyalgia is thought by many doctors to be a trash diagnoses when they can’t figure out what is wrong, and even more concerning is how many doctors still think it is the result of psychological disorders. They need to understand the pain is real, and that chronic pain sufferers do not usually make up such things. If you are having severe pain shooting down your arms from the shoulders, including partial to full numbness that causes major weakness in your hands and arms (even to the point you cannot close your hand fully, and most of the time you need to snap your joints back into place usually with a lot of pain in doing so), you would think a doctor would take these issues seriously? In many situations, including my own recently, the doctor just seems to blow you off as a psychological case or that your cocktail of medication is causing it. Even after you told them many times this has been happening for years and is just getting progressively worse, even before you were on such medication.
This is a serious issue that not only makes clients suffer more, but gives the doctor less credibility in his work ethics and expertise. I do agree, many physical problems can be due to a psychological disorder, but many chronic pain disorders can cause psychological problems to occur or progress on a negative level do to unmanaged pain from the doctor. Just being told that the pain may be caused by your psychological disorders, or your medication, is traumatic enough due to being invalidated by someone you thought you could trust.
What can a patient do when you run into a doctor that acts like this? First of all, mention it to the doctor directly and how you feel he is not looking into your problem seriously. If this still fails it’s time to move on to someone that is willing to figure out what is happening or refer you to a specialist when they don’t have a clue of exactly what is causing the chronic pain. There are many really good neurologists and rheumatologists out there, and some with wonderful psychological training, so they truly know how to tell the difference!
Not only do I have to deal with severe fibromyalgia, but osteoarthritis as well. A good majority of my joints have severe to moderate deteriation, and due to my age and other problems I had when I was younger it was determined I had juvenile osteoarthritis, also called early onset. But for years I have also dealt with my joints never staying in place. This is called a subluxation (partial dislocation), and some joints are worse than others; my hips, shoulders, knees, neck, back and feet being the worst right now. I have dealt with severe neurological pain for years, was tested for carpal tunnel only to be found I do not have it. Having to deal with nearly constant pain shooting through your limbs, severity depending on the day and what I have done with my body over a period of time, is no picnic. I know the difference when my anxiety causes some numbness, such in my hands occasionally and my lips. These sensations feel very different compare to the pain, numbness and subluxations that are not associated to anxiety or depression. I can also say it doesn’t help to try and sleep when you dreaming about your pain and constantly being woke up by it as well.
So, like I said, if you do not get the care and answers you need from your doctor, it may be wiser to move on. It’s not worth being invalidated and continuing to suffer from moderate to severe pain with no end to it in sight. This is not living; this is suffering both physically and psychologically. We need to inform our doctors that they need to learn as much about their clients as possible. If they cannot fulfill their duties, they need to recognize that and send you to someone who can help you more effectively. I also want to remind those who may have had a severe issue with their doctor but unable to report the issue. All one has to do is contact the doctors licensing board so they will investigate the issue. You never know if some doctors have done uncaring things in the past, and if so, the board needs to know what these doctors are doing with certain populations of people and work on the issue.
It’s inhumane to continue to allow someone to constantly live in major physical and psychological pain. Doctors learn best when they get feedback from their clients, whether positive or negative, so speak out if you know there is a problem. Too many people overly trust a new doctor and give them a benefit of the doubt because they believe they should know what to do. Doctors are only human and only truely know the causes and best treatments for problems if they have had the proper training and experience to know how to use it. That is why they call it ‘practicing” medicine right? To practice medicine, is to continually learn newer and more innovative ways to help their patients, while other practiced procedures may end up becoming outdated and ineffective. So use the resources that are available to you when there is an issue before it becomes a larger problem.
