You are a woman and go to the emergency room with a severe cough and the ER doctor listens intently at first and acts nice. However, the physician sees on your record that you have a mental health condition or that you have complained about this same problem before.
Suddenly, the physician begins to act differently perhaps growing curt with you or telling you nonsense such as you need to drink more water or lose weight and the cough will go away.
You leave the hospital feeling ashamed and embarrassed with your self-esteem badly bruised. You feel deeply frustrated and a fool forever approaching a medical person for help in the first place. You also may question yourself and your perceptions asking yourself, “Is it all in my head?”
You have been medically gaslighted and the doctor has committed iatrogenesis.
This article will focus on the definitions of gaslighting and iatrogenesis and how mental health and medical personnel can harm their patients.
What is Medical Gaslighting?
Medical Gaslighting takes many forms including someone telling another person they are imaging that they are ill or questions their sanity.
Unfortunately, gaslighting is also performed by therapists and psychiatrists. Both can bring devastating results.
The problem of gaslighting is that it can have dire consequences leading to further harm or even the death of patients. The possibility of being embarrassed or feeling ashamed overwhelms clients and they may ignore their good sense and decide to never darken the door of a doctor again.
Once a person has been gaslighted they may not trust physicians any longer behavior that can be deadly if their condition, the reason you went to a doctor in the first place, is dangerous.
Who Gets Medically Gaslighted?
Women are by far the group that is gaslighted the most. Medical professionals tend to see women as hysterics and do not heed a woman’s complaints or take them as seriously as men. Interestingly, this is true whether the physician is female or male.
Women are more likely than men to hear from their attending physician that their pain is emotional and more likely to receive anti-anxiety medication than men. They are also more likely to be diagnosed as mentally ill (Pagan 2018).
Also, even with diagnoses that affect only women the diagnosis may be prolonged or delayed. For instance, conditions such as endometriosis may take around seven to eight years to diagnose. The result is that women suffer needlessly because they are not heeded by their doctor.
Methods to Defeat Medical Gaslighting
The humiliation and possible physical harm from gaslighting by a physician are horrendous side-effects to a biased or prejudiced approach.
However, there is no need to lay down and take medical gaslighting, you can fight back. Below are a few suggestions as to how you can defeat medical gaslighting.
Find a healthcare provider you can connect with. The greatest weapon someone who gaslights has is to make vague statements to pacify you. Find a new physician who is honest and frank with you.
Be a Self-Advocate. You can fire your doctor and do not have to put up with someone who is condescending or rude. If you are not satisfied with the doctor’s treatment of you or their diagnosis seek out someone else who will listen to you and takes you seriously.
Report a Negligent Doctor. You are not without recourse against a doctor who is continuously gaslighting you and others. Go over his or her head to the clinic supervisor or the board if it is a not for profit clinic or hospital. Tell them frankly and honestly how you were treated by the physician and demand action. There is always the option of legal action as well if you are harmed physically and mentally by the egregious actions of a gaslighting doctor.
Gaslighting by Mental Health Professionals
Being gaslighted by a mental health professional is not something anyone should take lightly. The biggest reason not to ignore the possibility of being gaslighted by a therapist or a psychiatrist is that it is probably intentional.
There are two possible reasons for a mental health professional to gaslight a client. One is that the clinician has a different idea than the client about what their diagnosis should be and thus gaslights you to get you to go along with their chosen treatment.
The other possible reason a therapist might have for gaslighting a client is that the therapist is unethical and is gaslighting to make their patient into a long-term client.
In either case, it is useful to ask for clients to ask for their files to see what is written to make certain the therapy being performed is what they expect. After reading the file, if a client feels gaslighted, they should leave that therapist and seek out one who will listen to and be honest with them.
Medical Iatrogenesis
Hippocrates formed one of the most basic principles of treatment of patients by physicians, “First do no harm.” However, treatment by physicians can be more harmful than healing. Such treatments may involve diagnostic procedures, medications, surgery, hospitalization, or psychotherapy. Such mistakes are known as iatrogenic harm.
The term iatrogenesis is from the Greek “brought forth by the healer” and refers to any effect on a person from the actions of a healthcare professional that negatively impact their patients. These professionals include physicians, surgeons, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and many more.
Iatrogenesis might occur as a direct or indirect result of their treatment or lack thereof. An example would be if a person entered treatment with a therapist complaining of feeling deeply depressed and receives treatment for an anxiety disorder. The therapist has made an iatrogenic error and may wholeheartedly be unaware or biased to believe their diagnosis is correct. Sometimes the treating physician may himself be guilty of harming his patients and bringing about an iatrogenic disorder.
According to one study, the harm that a doctor can do is not limited to the negligent use of medicine or medical procedures but may also include unjustified remarks and misinterpretations of the data. The end result, either way, is a patient who is harmed emotionally and physically and may not recover (Krishnan & Kasthuri 2005).
The Effects of Medical Iatrogenesis of Those in Mental Health Treatment
Receiving the wrong diagnosis and being treated with the wrong methods can be extremely devastating. This is especially true for those who have a mental illness who are more likely than the general population to not be treated appropriately.
To better understand how iatrogenic treatment for those who have a mental health problem seriously affects them, read the following information put out by the National Mental Health Consumer & Carer Forum.
“People living with persistent mental health issues can often expect to:
- have significantly reduced life expectancy
- experience a greater burden of ill health
- suffer delayed diagnosis, non-existent or inadequate preventative screening, and deferred commencement of treatment of many avoidable disorders or diseases.
Studies have shown that:
- people living with mental illness are 30 percent more likely to die from cancer, despite having no higher occurrence of the disease than the wider population
- people living with mental illness have an overall death rate 2.5 times that of the general population
- forty-four percent of all hepatitis C cases occur in people living with mental illness
- people living with mental illness have life expectancy reduced by between 15 to 25 years
- people living with mental illness who also have alcohol and drug-related disorders have the worst survival rate.”
Obviously, iatrogenic treatment is devastating to the health and welfare of those living with a mental health condition.
The Effects of Psychological Iatrogenesis on Mental Health Clients
Mental health treatment by professionals can sometimes have negative consequences. Some of these possible effects are psychiatric labeling or misleading information about their client’s diagnosis. To be clear, there are few mental health professionals who would commit iatrogenesis on purpose, but that does not stop it from happening.
The therapeutic alliance between the professional and their client is a deep relationship that aids in the healing of the patient. But, sometimes this alliance means that the patient becomes completely reliant on their therapist and may act the way they believe the therapist wants them to.
This iatrogenic effect can lead to misdiagnosis and lead to inappropriate treatment by therapists who should not make hasty decisions on a diagnosis until they know their client well (Boisvert & Faust 2002).
Methods to Fight Iatrogenesis
The best method to fight iatrogenesis and keep it from happening is to be alert to the possibility that it can happen. Both clinicians and patients need to be aware of what iatrogenesis is and how it can affect the overall outcome of their treatment.
Medical clinicians must watch for biases that may lead them to prescribe or treat their patients with inappropriate treatments. One way to fight these problems is to listen to your patients and do not blow off what they are telling you. Listening to your patient closely and accepting them as an ally in their treatment can go a long way in mitigating the chance of a misdiagnosis.
Because some clients will want to please them, mental health professionals can prevent iatrogenesis from happening by taking the time to get to know their client well before diagnosing. Also, watch for signs your diagnosis is wrong and admit to yourself and your client that you have made an error. Only honesty can help prevent or reverse iatrogenesis.
Patients can help keep iatrogenesis from happening through awareness that it could occur in their relationship with their therapist or doctor.
In Closing
Gaslighting and iatrogenesis are both very harmful to those who seek out treatment for physical and mental health issues. However, there are many methods to prevent either gaslighting or iatrogenesis from harming you and for physicians and therapists to help their clients to heal.
“Though either choice was good, one was truer to me… Ultimately, I reflected on Geothe’s invocation to ‘make a commitment and the forces of the universe will conspire to make it happen’ and chose the uncharted path.” ~ Jacqueline Novogratz
“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.” ~ William Faulkner
During this challenging time with the COVID-19 crisis, the CPTSD Foundation wants to reach out to you.
If you or a loved one are living in the despair and isolation that comes with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, please, come to us for help. The CPTSD Foundation offers a wide range of services including:
Mindfulness, Prayer, and Meditation Circle
The Trauma-Informed Newsletter
All our services are reasonably priced, and some are even free. So, to gain more insight into how complex post-traumatic stress disorder is altering your life and how you can overcome it, sign-up, we will be glad to help you.
References
Boisvert, C. M., & Faust, D. (2002). Iatrogenic symptoms in psychotherapy: A theoretical exploration of the potential impact of labels, language, and belief systems. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 56(2), 244-259.
Krishnan, N. R., & Kasthuri, A. S. (2005). Iatrogenic disorders. Medical journal, Armed Forces India, 61(1), 2.
Pagan, Camille Noe. 2018. “When Doctors Downplay Women’s Health Concerns.” The New York Times
Physical Health Impacts of Mental Illness and its Treatments (2016). National Mental Health Consumer & Carer Forum
Schopen, Fay. 2017. “The healthcare gender bias: do men get better medical treatment?” The Guardian
My name is Shirley Davis and I am a freelance writer with over 40-years- experience writing short stories and poetry. Living as I do among the corn and bean fields of Illinois (USA), working from home using the Internet has become the best way to communicate with the world. My interests are wide and varied. I love any kind of science and read several research papers per week to satisfy my curiosity. I have earned an Associate Degree in Psychology and enjoy writing books on the subjects that most interest me.
Please explore the harms caused by polypharmacy, the acceptance of really bad side effects due to the medications. Also, the extreme harm done from physical restraints, take downs, being handcuffed by police to transport for involuntary assessments, and finally the tremendous harm done from incompetence, lack of CLINICAL supervision and consult, and that many therapists do not maintain their own therapy while practicing.
Thank you for the marvelous suggestions. They are important topics. Shirley
I am entering a 12-week CPT program for PTSD caused mainly by the hospital that is going to treat me for it. They blame my reactions on BPD, and nearly every dr (as they rotate routinely) has a different diagnosis. My “active problem list” is 20+ diagnoses long. They just keep adding and then tell me that it’s not them causing any of this; that it’s my “ineffective coping.”
If you are able at all, I’d seek out a different hospital and doctor to start fresh. I’ve had the same experiences as you and know it will not end until you find a therapist and psychiatrist who will throw out all the old diagnoses and start over. I’m not a mental health or any other kind of professional, but that is my opinion. Keep fighting for what you need. I did and finally found the help I needed. We here at CPTSD Foundation are behind you 100%. Shirley Davis
I believe I am a victim of iatrogenesis and extreme clinical gaslighting, what can I do?
If you feel your therapist is not treating you correctly, then you have every right to leave and find one that does. But talk to your therapist about your feelings first and if you still have that gut feeling that the relationship is wrong, find someone else.
Shirley
I documented 3 years of medical gaslighting at the Mayo Clinic, 3 years at an MDVIP concierge provider, and a one-visit complaint of Gaslighting at UCLA. I sent them to 240 doctors and deans at the universities that teach medicine to make them aware. But there is no advocacy group that will help with gaslighting. You have to educate the public.
I recently read the office notes relating to my medical and mental health visits for the last few months and was PISSED to see what has been written. So nice to my face, faking empathy and alliance just to mock me and minimize my reality in my records. I emailed the clinic director and laid it all out. His response was I have the right to request my record be modified by petitioning the medical director. That’s it. I see my medical provider today. I want to jump her sh#t for what she’s done. I’m feeling betrayed and traumatized AGAIN. I want to write her a letter to read while I sit there, telling her exactly what I think. AND, I’ll insist it be entered into my medical record along with the emails to/from the clinic director. What are your thoughts?
Thank you for this story. I am no longer ALONE.
Amy Eldridge
Being open and honest with your feelings is vital to helping advocate for yourself. I’m glad you found my story helpful. You are definitely not alone. Shirley
May we schedule a time for a zoom call? Devices here r remotely accessed. Would appreciate learning more from one who has gathered so much info from a variety of sources.
No, I’m sorry. Thank you for asking. Shirley
Amy, Shirley, all, I am sorry what you have gone through. Please take a peak at my complaint, which is my 3-year story with the top Clinic. Maybe it will be helpful for you to look at it.
I believe the root cause of most gaslighting comes from the Mayo Clinic where Clinical Engagement was dropped in the practice of medicine in the mid ’90s which resulted in removing the patient from the equation and opened the door for gaslighting, especially in chronic cases that don’t show up in blood work (like fibromyalgia, which I also have).
Wishing you well, here again is the link:
I was Gaslighted at the Mayo Clinic for 3 years from day one. I felt buried. When I learned about Gaslighting, I examined all of the Clinical Notes from my visits and discovered how Mayo Gaslights, who they choose to Gaslight, why, for about how long they have been doing it, and what the solution is.
Please take a peek at my complaint of Gaslighting at the Mayo Clinic:
After 35 years in nursing, I am experiencing CPTSD from seeing medical errors which led to the deaths of patients along with being gaslighted by my previous healthcare provider. I saw a therapist who recognized the CPTSD cause by medical trauma. However, I moved out of her area and have since been gaslighted by several therapists who refuse to believe that I could be traumatized by medical professionals. I’ve spent most of this evening doing research on medical abuse and evidently what I have experienced seems quite common. The gaslighters have tried to convince me that my experiences are rare occurrences. SMH.
Hello,
THANK YOU FOR THIS ARTICLE!!!
Where can someone report mental health providers abusing power and gaslighting both patient and patient’s personal representative? What can be done when a provider goes so far off the rails with psychologically abusing the patient, then falsely accusing the patient’s only support and healthcare agent of ” physical and financial abuse,”? What can be done about a mental heath provider’s abuse that ends up causing patient negligence and permanent cognitive damages that do not get addressed because the provider is projecting perhaps their own issues on to their patient’s caregiver? Even when the caregiver is diagnosed with cancer desperately needs to get cancer treatment but has to delay their own treatment due to this provider’s very serious accusations against caregiver while also lowering the patients tbi/bi-polar medication without their knowledge or consent? I will add the patient is also blind, so they cannot see their medication has been changed, and would NEVER stand a chance to realize they were having a mood shift into mania, as they have been compliant with meds and would never think their own provider of 5 years would lower their medication and then deny patient was having a crisis, and blame patient’s caregiver for issues stemming from this crisis? Where does someone report this and it’s taken serious? Specifically reporting a rogue mental health provider from a V.A. mental health care clinic who is abusing the most vulnerable and already traumatized patients? The VA DOES NOT TAKE THIS SERIOUS AND ITS HARMING VETS AND DESTROYING LIVES. Any guidance on ensuring patient safety issues involving mental health providers gaslighting both patient and patient’s caregiver, and this has caused a ripple affect of mental, physical, and psychological harm as well as continues to keep both patient and caregiver from getting help, addressing further diagnostics, and perpetuates an institutional betrayal that is endangering lives and potentially killing people? What can be done when Administrators refuse to address this, and refuse to investigate? It’s very difficult to report these issues and leaves patients and families without proper avenues to get help during such a serious crisis. The stress of this kind of mental abuse is an unbelievable burden to put on a Veteran and their caregiver. People need to understand just how much damage medical gaslighting can cause, and the medical community has got to start listening to patients and patients representatives when there are questions, concerns, and especially when there are complaints about any healthcare providers abusing their power and gaslighting people who are in a crisis. What can be done about this when it’s a V.A. hospital and OIG will not act, and other reporting agencies are kept out of investigating a serious serial abuser provider hiding in plain sight with access to the most vulnerable patients who don’t have access to speak out against the abuser? Any advice for how to report this and have the report truly investigated?
So glad I found this, I am 17years into my medical negligence story. Since passenger in a high speed car accident at 16.
I have only survived so far due to endless private healthcare my mum has been lucky to be able to get me. She paid £20,000 in 2019 on spinal surgery number 4 to get me walking again. I was a houseplant trapped upstairs for a year. I’m 6months into trauma therapy, sober 1.5 years
I’m the process of learning as much as I can about cptsd, brain damage, ARBD,fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathy… and anything else that might be now happening to me at 33. Going to save your page, thank you
The extent and depth to which I’ve been medically gaslit and had iatrogenic harm is really unbelivable. I was a teenager in the 90s when not a lot was known about autism. I was def autistic but didn’t know it. I was labeled a sociopath and then schizoid and later borderline features and treated like absolute shit. None of it stuck but later on after my autism dx they still kept trying to dx with me with a million other things including BPD….finally understanding I had CPTSD was the thing that broke the pattern but I’m still traumatized by it. I was also a victim of the troubled teen industry too. The whole thing is a cluster fuck. I also had a severe eating disorder that went improperly dx and not treated and then it got very severe and harder to treat. I’m still struggling. We don’t have access to quality medical care here because of medicaid and medicare so I still don’t have access to very basic things like groups and trauma informed therapy :/
We are dispensable, and only the survival of the fittest will prevail. We are a “burden” on and to society, politics. However, there can be money made from us!
This equation makes up the whole pie.
Have you been gaslighted?
I know everything there is to know about Medical Gaslighting. History from Mayo, the narrative developed and contributed by all doctors in the clinic and outside thereafter, etc.
I know how to diagnose any form of Fibromyalgia correctly. No doctor practicing today knows how to correctly diagnose fibromyalgia. (Step 3 is to use the pinwheel on the bottom of the foot).
I know the reasons why today’s doctors fail their patients: They cannot diagnose, perform Clinical Engagement, or take responsibility for diagnosing; hence, in certain cases, all doctors lie and Gaslight their patients today, ever since the turn of the century when the practice of medicine changed away from evidence-based practices to machine-based, permanently eliminating treatment for entire classes of patients, compelling doctors to Gaslight!
Shayle Hirschman
I have been gaslighted. I had a horrific cough that lasted for over three months. I kept going to the doctor but they wouldn’t listen to me. At one visit, a doctor suggested I needed to drink more water. I finally found a doctor who would treat my problem and discovered that I have genetic COPD. I suffered for months because they wouldn’t take me seriously. I am an overweight woman in a wheelchair with a psychiatric diagnosis. They saw that instead of my illness.
May I ask, besides believing you, what did this doctor do differently to know how to help you? Did he engage you clinically better? I mean, did he sit right next to you instead of 3 feet away and actually examine you carefully and use his hands to help feel where the problem is, like old school doctors? What are the things the good doctor did differently? Did he simply believe you and then do some independent research on his own?
The first doctor didn’t think I had anything wrong. He did no testing and told me to go home and get some rest. That would have been fine except it didn’t go away and I needed to return again and again. He brushed me off as a nice mental patient. The good doctor immediately ordered testing to see what was wrong. He drew blood, did x-rays, and did a breathing evaluation. Once we knew it was COPD he tested me to see if it was genetic since I had never smoked. There was a huge difference in their manner too.
Interesting. Can I assume the only difference between them is that the good doctor believed you and so then ordered the appropriate panels of all possible testing whereas the bad doctor would not believe you?
I am trying to determine what made the good doctor make the right decision. My hypotheses for the problem with medical care in general is that the patient was removed from the equation around the turn of the century along with the responsibility for diagnosing, which was strictly given only to experts, mostly machines. So most doctors today are either specialists or PCPs, none of whom know how to diagnose or have any diagnostic skills. Today’s doctors don’t even have deductive reasoning skills and completely fail when blood test or imaging does not reveal the cause of the condition or disease and the symptoms aren’t obvious from afar, such as with seronegative rheumatoid arthritis.
I have the worst muscle wasting disease there is, beyond the capacity of today’s best doctors and clinics to do anything but gaslight me. So today’s doctors sentenced me to death, very soon now, because my needs are different than their needs, and they refuse to let me show them the horrendous and fast muscle, tendon, and skeletal atrophy and destruction. So I had to commission a clinical study using MedX Medical machines to prove the lifetime of my skeletal muscle is only weeks. But since today’s practice of medicine is not based on evidence, no doctor will accept the proof of my unique illness and help me. I also have severe fibromyalgia, another disease today’s doctors cannot diagnose correctly, even those few “experts” who try. (Pinwheel check for sharp edges.) Hence, in seven years, only one M.D. has let me show them the symptoms and effects of my illness, and only that doctor has provided any diagnoses by an M.D. for me, ever. And that doctor was an old-school doctor who still practiced evidence-based medicine and dove right in and acted like the last real doctor practicing. Lucky for me.
So as you can see, in trying to understand how today’s doctors fail, I am trying to see if their lack of responsibility and training for diagnosing is the culprit. And that is why I am fixated on Clinical Engagement. Do you think, in any way, the good doctor better engaged you and was able to obtain some evidence from your body by seeing him in-person, or would you strictly say that he simply believed what you told him without any clinical engagement, as if you had been on a virtual call instead?
I don’t think the quality of the background and the resulting findings vary much between doctors, by intention. However, in chronic cases like yours and mine, today’s doctors always ignore any evidence from the patient because they cannot use that evidence to diagnose. So they don’t want to risk their reputation and, as specialists, they are not qualified to make and defend a diagnosis, anyways.
So the doctor that helped you may have taken a risk from the normal behavior that today’s doctors follow. To do this, he had to place your needs above his. I have never seen an M.D. do that, in five years full-time seeing doctors. So you should point that out in positive feedback for the good doctor online.
Do you think he engaged you and used any evidence from your body to help confirm, or just only went by what you said?
Thanks. Let’s fix why doctors fail. I know the solution is a hybrid EBM approach with full clinical engagement and responsibility for both diagnosing and treating, to the satisfaction of the patient.
I’m sorry, Shirley, if that was too long. I am on a mission to fix and return the patient to the practice of medicine, like the Blues Brothers, as long as I survive and am able to. Because 6 years of gaslighting took my life away from me and I have to die soon.
Today, when a patient’s needs differ from their doctors’ needs, the patient always gets gaslighted. Especially if their symptoms cannot be seen from 3 to 10 feet away. This was not true with the old-school doctors.
2 years ago i became extremely I’ll after contracting Covid. I was an extremely healthy, active athlete who drank recreationally (wine only) and never smoked. I had no previous history of any serious health issues and I had 2 grand mal seizures in one day. I had drank a few too many the night before and the ER dr essentially destroyed my life by labeling me as an alcoholic. He reported my seizures to the dmv so I could not drive or get a job, flat out told me Id “be dead in a year,” and gave me a 500 mg bolus of metronidazole (which any medical professional knows will make you extremely ill if you have had alcohol in the previous 24 hrs). I suffered from anxiety and body dysmorphia before this, but now I’ve spiraled into a horrendous depression and DID start drinking bc I lost my job with my license suspended and was completely isolated without any disability support despite pursuing all my options. Can you please tell me if it is possible to seek action against this particular dr or how Togo about doing so with a very limited income?
I’m not qualified to give you advice on that either way. Check with your local lawyer’s office. An intake appointment will not cost that much if at all. Many places have lawyers who offer their services for free. I hope you get your questions answered. Shirley