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1. You pay to see a doctor. You weren't forced to. You chose to.

2. You tell them you read about your condition on the internet. Even though the majority of the health information on the internet is utter garbage.

3. You then get offended when they tell you to not trust what is on the internet. Although again they are 100% spot on here.

4. You are confused why they are dismissive of you. When you chose to see them, paid money for their expert advice and then wanted to dismiss it in favour of your expert advice. Except that your expert advice = 5 mins of Google and theirs = 20 years of schooling.

I really do feel really sorry for GPs to have to go through this 100x a day.



> You weren't forced to.

Actually you are. Doctors have a carefully protected monopoly on ordering diagnostic tests and on prescribing treatments. At least where I live, if you want diagnostic tests or drug treatments you need a prescription from a member of the cartel.


Yes, and the crazy thing is you can get cosmetic surgery on every corner of every street, no questions asked.


>1. You pay to see a doctor. You weren't forced to. You chose to.

Yes, that they couldn't help me is not the problem. The problem is that they behaved unprofessionally and mocked me.

>2. You tell them you read about your condition on the internet. Even though the majority of the health information on the internet is utter garbage.

>3. You then get offended when they tell you to not trust what is on the internet. Although again they are 100% spot on here.

- I am 100% OK with a doctor disagreeing with me. A few of the doctors I've met I respect immensely - even though I disagree with them - simply because they were respectful in their disagreement of what I had to say and had an adult answer for me that didn't involve mockery.

- They did not tell me not to trust what is on the Internet. They mocked me and gave up trying to treat me. They became aggressive. And they still wanted to get paid even after deciding I wasn't worthy enough for them to try!

I am an expert in my field, yet I don't dare imagine what would happen if I mocked a client who asked a "stupid" question! And even if there were no consequence, I'd never do it. Why is this somehow OK in medicine?

>4. You are confused why they are dismissive of you. When you chose to see them, paid money for their expert advice and then wanted to dismiss it in favour of your expert advice. Except that your expert advice = 5 mins of Google and theirs = 20 years of schooling.

I did not dismiss their advice. I took it, for decades. You underestimate the hubris of some of these people - they mocked me even if I took their advice, simply for reporting what happened to me.

>I really do feel really sorry for GPs to have to go through this 100x a day.

Oh those poor snowflakes, having to speak to non-expert clients without mocking them!

There exists no other industry where the expert can be so ineffective, yet at the same time aggressively mock the client outright, even deciding not to do the work because the client is not to his/her liking, while still getting paid.


> Oh those poor snowflakes

Indeed; it boggles my mind that people are so forgiving of doctors. Why do we not demand the same level of respectful conduct from them as we do from others?

Is there a "Code of Conduct" in the medical community?


:D

There are doctors out there who get this. They are hard to find.


>Oh those poor snowflakes, having to speak to non-expert clients without mocking them!

So much aggression...


1. Expert mocks client

2. Poster remarks "Poor expert"

3. I make a retaliatory post highlighting how ludicrous it is to say that the expert who mocked the client is also the victim somehow

Your "OMG look who's aggressive" deliberately ignores pretty much all the events being discussed.


Information is as good as it's source. The internet has plenty of good sources.

Given that the doctor can't know my symptom history as well as I do...

Or as well as Google from tracking my previous symptom searches.

What's the chance Google search algorithms point me in a more productive direction than an MD?

Anecdata: Doctors prescribed me antidepressants and muscle relaxers. The internet introduced me to healthy eating, keto, stretching, and mindfulness.

I'm happy to report that I stayed away from the former. And the latter has been unbelievably life changing, for the better.

Edit: add two unnecessary surgeries, kidney stone removal after passing the stone and septoplasty for nasal inflammation, to the doctor cons list.


The the information found on the Web is of mixed quality, and most of it is garbage.

That being said, outright scolding a patient who did some research without inquiring on what they read is not acceptable.

Their expertise is not exhaustive. The patient may have something to teach them, especially for cases that don't fit the mold.


Incidentally, my mother was recently taken to the ICU due to an acute heart condition (she's perfectly fine now), and she was very impressed with the cardiologist there. He was very experienced, yet he told her "we are always learning new things; we have to listen to patients more" and was very attentive to her description of the symptoms and, yes, some things she read on the Internet.

That's what a good doctor should be like.




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