Doctor's appointment.
Got the sniffles or a chest infection? Go to the doctor. (G.P.)
Got a skin infection? Go to the doctor. (Dermatologist.)
Got a broken bone or a torn ACL? Go to the doctor. (Orthopedic surgeon.)
Got a heart problem? Go to the doctor. (Cardiologist.)
Got diabetes? Go to the doctor. (Endocrinologist.)
Got cancer? Go to the doctor. (Oncologist.)
Got female troubles? Go to the doctor. (OB/GYN)
And on and on and on
So what's with the stigma, when someone gets the psychiatric equivalent of the sniffles, with going to the doctor? (Psychiatrist.)
Labels: Other blogs, problems, Questions, sicky
posted by Matt G @ 8:53 PM
5 Comments:
There's no stigma, except in the eyes of the ignorant and unwashed.
What is common, is lots of pathetic people with no talent, compassion or common sense, who get inordinately brave when they sit behind a keyboard.
A pox on them all.
By the way, your examples are a little skewed. For a growing economic demographic in this country, the answer is Go to the ER.
You can add to the list, need a Tylenol, need an aspirin, need a Robitussin, need a mosquito bite looked at by a professional, need a free pregnancy test, need prescription narcotics for quick resale...
Because knowing that someone you think has it all together, is "normal," doesn't have it all together, is scary. It makes you think it could happen to you....and it can and sometimes does. Plus, you can show someone your scars from knee surgery, or bypass surgery, but no one can see the scars of mental illness. As a society we tend to dismiss or ridicule what we can't see or understand.
I know you were asking a rhetorical question. Just thought I'd through my 2 cents in.
It's stigmatized because crazy cannot be "cured" at the current state of the art.
Like leprosy before antibiotics.
Get labeled "crazy" and you will never be trusted by anyone ... as well as not be allowed to own self-defense tools.
what kristopher said.
with the addition that "crazy" is not, at present, an objectively definable state; there is, at bottom, no way to demonstrate impartially that somebody or other might need their head examined. it all comes down to the subjective judgment of either the patients themselves (who, these days, don't even get to be called "patients"; they're "consumers", now), or the patients' families, or some panel of doctors.
no physical tests, no objective evidence, just that enough people with the right connections feel you're "crazy" based on how they experience your symptoms is what makes you so. this intangibility makes for an unfalsifiability of diagnosis that can be, and should be, frightening in itself.
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