# Using "big words" with your doctor(s).



## PsyKat (Sep 25, 2007)

I know there's a reputation with patients getting too technical while describing themselves, their symptoms and their medications. I used to strongly hold back, instead using basic terms while talking to them. I started opening up and using terminology that I've learned over all these years. I don't self-diagnose, ask outright for specific medications, or anything of the sort. If anything - I feel like a boulder has been lifted off of my chest. I research on Wikipedia, the Mayo Clinic website as well as the National Institute of Mental Health; they give me a lot of information and much more specific medical terms to use to express myself. So far I've gotten nothing but support.

To those who use everyday terms with their doctor - do you wish you could be more specific? Would it make you uncomfortable - or if you're savvy, what is holding you back?


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

I don't bow down and kiss Dr. God's feet. Doctors in this country are so arrogant and have this god complex, as if only they could ever know how to prescribe Paxil! They would like you to think that in order to arrive at your prescribed treatment that they went through 3 or more chalkboards worth of calculations, when in reality they merely selected a random medication out of a hat.

Western medicine is all about keeping the patient as ignorant as possible about his/her own healthcare and treatment. The patient is supposed to put full blind trust into their doctor, the same doctor who will not be the one taking the medication or treatment, the same doctor who won't be suffering from the side effects or adverse effects, the same doctor who won't be going to fill in for you at work if you are too sick as a result of complications or mistakes from his/her treatment. This is the same doctor that assumes none of the risk, and assumes none of the responsibility(because if he/she screws up, he/she never apologizes, gets reprimanded, if at worst, the insurance company will pay out and not Dr. God.

You know its like entering into a business partnership where you invest say a million dollars into a business and Dr God invests nothing into the business, yet leaving Dr God to make 100% of the business decisions when he/she stands to lose absolutely nothing if he/she screws up/doesn't do his or her job/ is careless or willfully ignorant.

Please tell me in what other area of your life would you enter into such a ridiculous partnership?

I have caught countless mistakes, careless errors, poor decisions made off of misinformed doctors who are willfully ignorant about certain medications and or treatments and the resulting side effects/adverse reactions/drug interactions because they have been too lazy to update their knowledge base since they graduated med school some 20 years ago despite practicing in a field as dynamic and ever changing as medicine.

Doctors are not gods, stop treating them as such.


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## hazelblue (Jun 6, 2012)

Noca said:


> They would like you to think that in order to arrive at your prescribed treatment that they went through 3 or more chalkboards worth of calculations, when in reality they merely selected a random medication out of a hat.


LOL I find this to be accurate. My psychiatrist was on google during my assessment.


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## diamondheart89 (Mar 21, 2011)

I agree with not treating your doctors like gods, because they aren't. But that also doesn't mean you treat them belligerently or like imbeciles. People seem to have trouble being somewhere in the middle. It doesn't pay off to have a negative relationship with your doctor any more than it does to blindly follow everything they say. Make suggestions, ask questions, be your own advocate but also remember you're on the same team and that they're human... in a good way.


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## Imbored21 (Jun 18, 2012)

hazelblue said:


> LOL I find this to be accurate. My psychiatrist was on google during my assessment.


Mine too rofl.


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## komorikun (Jan 11, 2009)

It's weird how they don't like it if their patients research their symptoms/medication before going into the appointment. I guess some people are hypochondriacs but still....You know damn well the doctor won't spend more than 5 minutes thinking about your problem since they are always in a rush. Even with all the training and education they get 5 minutes is not enough.


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## UltraMagnus (Jan 25, 2014)

Quite the opposite, if I know the technical term I use it, but I've known my doctor for 20 years so.

Had to stop with my last therapist, after I realized she didn't know what I meant when I said I try to be nietzschean about things...


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

komorikun said:


> It's weird how they don't like it if their patients research their symptoms/medication before going into the appointment. I guess some people are hypochondriacs but still....You know damn well the doctor won't spend more than 5 minutes thinking about your problem since they are always in a rush. Even with all the training and education they get 5 minutes is not enough.


 Yep. Most of the time if you have anything that isn't completely obvious, they will either not notice it at all or if you mention it to them, they'll tell you it's nothing or they won't have any idea what it is. If you need a test or something to find out what it is, they usually won't order it. Or if they do and it comes back inconclusive or something and you go back with the same problem, they'll just ignore it.


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