I recently realized a sore point, and I decided to "get it out".
Discrimination is alive and well. I can see why so many people are so secretive about hiding their mental illness.
Imagine this scenario: You go to the hospital. You HATE hospitals. You don't fear them but you really hate everything they represent, sickness and debility... crises, expenses, death. But you feel lousy enough that you finally head on into the ER.
You're in agonizing pain. They want your medical history. You give it. Drugs taken, Lithium, etc. Medical conditions: bipolar disorder and fetal alcohol syndrome. You can almost see the switch in their head.
They get brusque. You go to the chair and wait.
Someone comes in, you're scared. They examine you and you tell them the whole meds/bipolar thing. They go away. Finally, someone comes back. They draw blood and go away. You never do see a doctor... and when you see the medical assistant they tell you "Don't worry, we'll get you your pain meds. What do you want?" What do I want? I want a diagnosis and treatment! I don't want freaking pain meds! I am at EXTREME risk of drug addiction, the LAST thing I want is dope.
They tell me (notice I'm switching from third to first person), what do you want? I tell them, I want to stop the cause of the pain. I don't want dope. They scratch their heads and look at me, then they go away.
If I'm lucky, they might actually run some diagnostic tests and send me home. If I'm not, they tell me "Go home, here's your prescription for the pain meds". I DON'T WANT DOPE!
I get very, very tired of being treated as a drug-seeking drama queen everytime I go to the hospital. Yes, I understand half of the people with bipolar disorder ALSO have drug and alcohol issues, but half of them don't.
I am ONLY mentally ill, I am not a drug addict. I have made many sacrifices to be a contributing member of society and I am tired of being stigmatized because you don't like my "label".
If fact, it's a damned good thing I DO take my pills or you'd be in trouble!
2 comments:
Heather when you get treated like that please promise me you will write a letter of complaint ..it does natter these days if you do that ..I am a nurse as you know and I write up my coworkers when they behave like that ..and I will validate you ..yes healthcare workers do "assume" when they look at patients histories ..and it pisses me off to know end ..so please complain if they hear your complaint that provider will be called up for that behavior I promise
OOOXXX happy gardening :) H
Yes, I will. I was too miserable to say anything at the time but even my aunt was infuriated. She drove an hour to be with me when I had the gallbladder attack and they never even did an X ray.
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