I have developed a significant distrust of most doctors. (I once had a doctor tell me that I could live on a potato-a-day. That was the start of my many years of bulimarexia.) That distrust continues to grow.
Recently, I met with a doctor who I was considering switching to for a primary care physician (this doctor's specialty is internal medicine). However, before I could fully discuss my concerns and explain my issues, he jumped down my throat, shouting, "C'mon, you're a smart girl! Sugar levels in the blood stream mean that you are over-eating." It was clear, from that moment on, that he had decided that I'm a liar. Why would I lie? I want to regain my former health! After I told him off, explaining that he was passing judgment about me and my illnesses without nearly all of the facts, explaining that I am a smart WOMAN. He backed off, saying, over and over, "You're the boss." Clearly, however, he was patronizing me. He took in all data I could share, but his face showed that he did not believe me. He even said that the only way he could work with me is if I accepted that I was in denial. I gave him several opportunities to change his attitude, but in the end I knew that this sexist, irrational bigot was not going to be my doctor.
I was visiting this doctor, for the first time, because my current physician told me to go on the South Beach Diet. I informed this doctor that I was done with diets, that I was trying other approaches, a combination of approaches, that would take me a long time to balance. This doctor was very upset with my sassy reply (how dare I question the doctor!?) and told me that if I didn't lose weight quickly, then I would have to explore having my stomach stapled. After explaining that I had researched this idea and, in consultation with my diabetes specialist, concluded that this was not a reasonable path, I told her that she needed to listen to me, to work with me. She threw her hands up in the air in frustration, saying, "Well, we need to come to an agreement on SOMETHING because what you're doing or not doing right now isn't working." I agreed, and I explained to her, again, my desire to strike a balance between foods, exercise, insulin and work. And then she said, as if she hadn't heard a word I had just said, "So, South Beach or Atkins--which diet is it going to be?"
To each doctor, recently, I've said that the major factor affecting me right now is stress. I've been saying that a lot, lately: I'm stressed. Or I've been saying that I'm tired. Hell, I'm both! What really stresses me out is prejudice.
I just read an interesting essay in The New York Times today: "For Obese People, Prejudice in Plain Sight. (Harriet Brown). "Stigma and prejudice are intensely stressful," explains Dr. Peter A. Muennig in this piece. No shit?! But what this Columbia professor next says is very ineresting: "Stress puts the body on full alert, which gets the blood pressure up, the sugar up, everything you need to fight or flee the predator." Prejudice, in other words, can cause stress, which can then cause illness. "Over time," explains Harriet Brown, "such chronic stress can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes and other medical ills, many of them (surprise!) associated with obesity."
No person can get rid of all stress in his/her life; in fact, a person needs a little stress. "Because of the overabundance of stress in our modern lives, we usually think of stress as a negative experience, but from a biological point of view, stress can be a neutral, negative, or positive experience." (http://www.medicinenet.com/stress/article.htm#what)
Therefore, we (those of us ill and/or otherwise overweight) might all need more positive stress in our lives. For example, sex is a positive stress that can also cause other (negative) stresses to be released. Have sex, or die?
Doctors can be such assholes.
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