K, agree, I am in Canada and it is pretty much impossible to get medical records corrected. Especially anything a psychiatrist publishes to widespread electronic health records. Their “opinion” is viewed as the word of God and infallible. I have tried every route possible. It’s also very difficult to find a lawyer to take a case involving a doctor’s incompetence, abuse or malice because we have an organization called the Canadian Medical Professionals Assoc (CMPA) The CMPA is funded with billions of tax payer dollars to provide free legal representation to doctors to fight any patient complaints. The deck is totally stacked against the patient.
Donna and Hope, I am so sorry to hear of both of your situations. More people need to understand how harmful psychiatric ‘help’ can be and how unjustifiable labels and libel they put on a person’s records has very detrimental effects on being able to get proper medical care for physical conditions. It is especially cruel and tragic as people get older. I would liken it to elder abuse and it needs to be exposed.
Thanks for another excellent article Dan. Context is SO important to understanding why someone is suffering mentally or emotionally and to actually be able to help resolve the suffering. It is ludicrous that psychiatrists ignore crucial context. Doing so should be viewed as malpractice.
Thanks for this excellent piece Dan. It’s mind boggling some psychiatrists take such a simplistic, primitive and judgmental approach to allegedly “help” people dealing with adverse life circumstances. I don’t know how these psychiatrists sleep at night knowing they have only made life more difficult for those who placed trust in them.
Thank you so much for sharing your harrowing story Martha.
āInstead of help, I became your victimā – That really resonates for me and likely very many who placed trust in a psychiatrist believing they would be receive some āhelpā or at least a little compassion for their struggles or difficult circumstances. I was in cancer treatment and had been told I had little chance to survive. When the chemo drugs and steroids caused sleep issues I was told I could see āsomeoneā for āhelp with sleep medsā. This āsomeoneā turned out to be a psychiatrist and agreeing to see her was a huge mistake. The chemo drugs caused many adverse effects, including vertigo, tinnitus, profuse nosebleeds, insomnia and dizziness which led to a fall and significant head injury. (I laid unconscious bleeding from a laceration on my head) The psychiatrist had zero compassion and actually labelled these well-known effects of chemo as a āSomatization Disorderā.
Doctors in general can write whatever they want in a patientās records. If they feel annoyed by a patient they can write something less than flattering. However psychiatrists can actually defame and ridicule a personās character and make up derogatory and blatant lies – and they get to do this with impunity! The psychiatrist simply says itās their āopinionā and the patient has no way to get their records corrected to reflect the facts and reality. If more people knew this no one would set foot in a psychiatristās office.
So glad to hear you are now thriving and living a good life in spite of the doom and gloom this soul crushing psychiatrist spewed. Kudos to you!
Thank you Professor Gallagher, I really appreciate this article. Some in psychiatry have proven they are all about victim blaming. In 2009 I was given a cancer diagnosis and informed I had little chance to survive even if I took the 3 standard chemo drugs. The oncologist wanted me to add a trial drug to the 3 chemo drugs. I am in Canada and if I agreed he would get the prestige/perks of being named as an ‘Associate Doctor’ on the California clinical trial. But the trial drug meant I had to sign consent to ‘side effects’ of heart attack, stroke, blindness etc. There were very valid reasons that made this ‘dire diagnosis’ appear overblown so I declined the trial. The oncologist flew into a rage, threw his pen across the room and stormed out. After I started the standard drugs he was very abusive. The drugs had horrible effects, causing permanent tinnitus and vertigo, also nausea, painful swallowing, multiple profuse daily nosebleeds and dizziness which led to a fall and head injury. I laid unconscious and bleeding from a deep head laceration that needed stitches and CT scan. When the chemo and steroids began to cause insomnia I was prescribed Imovane but after 1 or 2 months it quit working and made the insomnia worse. I was sent to a young female psychiatrist under the pretense it was for “help with sleep medications”. Instead she treated me with disdain and blamed me for the difficult circumstances I faced. I ended up quitting chemo halfway through hoping the harmful effects would not be permanent. (the clinical trial was later halted due to too many fatalities) It was approximately 2 years later when it became apparent something very negative must be on my health records as I was being denied other health services and treated badly by any providers I did interact with. I would finally see a ‘report’ the psychiatrist published to widespread electronic records that contained many outright fabrications and 4 damaging psychiatric labels. I have tried relentlessly to get my records corrected without success. Even with having many supportive letters from psychologists, plus another psychiatrist who is Director at the same clinic, and my long time family doctor, and others who all disputed the psych labels as erroneous. Psychiatrists can write whatever falsehoods they want, they can defame people with impunity and will never have to correct their lies. They can simply hide behind their victim blaming and fabricated psych labels as being their “opinion” without having to provide any reasons or evidence whatsoever.
“Pathologizing normal and commonly-experienced human emotions should be considered a form of harm to patients and a direct violation of the Hippocratic Oath”
This is spot on! Thanks for this great blog Phil. Doctors in general, and psychiatrists in particular, are often narrow minded and rigid thinkers. Many have a God complex. After given what turned out to be an overblown, bogus cancer dx in 2009 (and informed I had little chance to survive) my eyes were opened to how much corruption and abuse of trust and authority there is in ‘health care.’ When I decided to make decisions that were proven to be wise and best for me the doctors got their knickers in a knot. Because I declined their self-serving orders their egos could not handle it and they colluded to condemn me and pathologize me for that.
K, agree, I am in Canada and it is pretty much impossible to get medical records corrected. Especially anything a psychiatrist publishes to widespread electronic health records. Their “opinion” is viewed as the word of God and infallible. I have tried every route possible. It’s also very difficult to find a lawyer to take a case involving a doctor’s incompetence, abuse or malice because we have an organization called the Canadian Medical Professionals Assoc (CMPA) The CMPA is funded with billions of tax payer dollars to provide free legal representation to doctors to fight any patient complaints. The deck is totally stacked against the patient.
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Donna and Hope, I am so sorry to hear of both of your situations. More people need to understand how harmful psychiatric ‘help’ can be and how unjustifiable labels and libel they put on a person’s records has very detrimental effects on being able to get proper medical care for physical conditions. It is especially cruel and tragic as people get older. I would liken it to elder abuse and it needs to be exposed.
Report comment
Thanks for another excellent article Dan. Context is SO important to understanding why someone is suffering mentally or emotionally and to actually be able to help resolve the suffering. It is ludicrous that psychiatrists ignore crucial context. Doing so should be viewed as malpractice.
Report comment
Thanks for this excellent piece Dan. It’s mind boggling some psychiatrists take such a simplistic, primitive and judgmental approach to allegedly “help” people dealing with adverse life circumstances. I don’t know how these psychiatrists sleep at night knowing they have only made life more difficult for those who placed trust in them.
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Thank you so much for sharing your harrowing story Martha.
āInstead of help, I became your victimā – That really resonates for me and likely very many who placed trust in a psychiatrist believing they would be receive some āhelpā or at least a little compassion for their struggles or difficult circumstances. I was in cancer treatment and had been told I had little chance to survive. When the chemo drugs and steroids caused sleep issues I was told I could see āsomeoneā for āhelp with sleep medsā. This āsomeoneā turned out to be a psychiatrist and agreeing to see her was a huge mistake. The chemo drugs caused many adverse effects, including vertigo, tinnitus, profuse nosebleeds, insomnia and dizziness which led to a fall and significant head injury. (I laid unconscious bleeding from a laceration on my head) The psychiatrist had zero compassion and actually labelled these well-known effects of chemo as a āSomatization Disorderā.
Doctors in general can write whatever they want in a patientās records. If they feel annoyed by a patient they can write something less than flattering. However psychiatrists can actually defame and ridicule a personās character and make up derogatory and blatant lies – and they get to do this with impunity! The psychiatrist simply says itās their āopinionā and the patient has no way to get their records corrected to reflect the facts and reality. If more people knew this no one would set foot in a psychiatristās office.
So glad to hear you are now thriving and living a good life in spite of the doom and gloom this soul crushing psychiatrist spewed. Kudos to you!
Report comment
Thank you Professor Gallagher, I really appreciate this article. Some in psychiatry have proven they are all about victim blaming. In 2009 I was given a cancer diagnosis and informed I had little chance to survive even if I took the 3 standard chemo drugs. The oncologist wanted me to add a trial drug to the 3 chemo drugs. I am in Canada and if I agreed he would get the prestige/perks of being named as an ‘Associate Doctor’ on the California clinical trial. But the trial drug meant I had to sign consent to ‘side effects’ of heart attack, stroke, blindness etc. There were very valid reasons that made this ‘dire diagnosis’ appear overblown so I declined the trial. The oncologist flew into a rage, threw his pen across the room and stormed out. After I started the standard drugs he was very abusive. The drugs had horrible effects, causing permanent tinnitus and vertigo, also nausea, painful swallowing, multiple profuse daily nosebleeds and dizziness which led to a fall and head injury. I laid unconscious and bleeding from a deep head laceration that needed stitches and CT scan. When the chemo and steroids began to cause insomnia I was prescribed Imovane but after 1 or 2 months it quit working and made the insomnia worse. I was sent to a young female psychiatrist under the pretense it was for “help with sleep medications”. Instead she treated me with disdain and blamed me for the difficult circumstances I faced. I ended up quitting chemo halfway through hoping the harmful effects would not be permanent. (the clinical trial was later halted due to too many fatalities) It was approximately 2 years later when it became apparent something very negative must be on my health records as I was being denied other health services and treated badly by any providers I did interact with. I would finally see a ‘report’ the psychiatrist published to widespread electronic records that contained many outright fabrications and 4 damaging psychiatric labels. I have tried relentlessly to get my records corrected without success. Even with having many supportive letters from psychologists, plus another psychiatrist who is Director at the same clinic, and my long time family doctor, and others who all disputed the psych labels as erroneous. Psychiatrists can write whatever falsehoods they want, they can defame people with impunity and will never have to correct their lies. They can simply hide behind their victim blaming and fabricated psych labels as being their “opinion” without having to provide any reasons or evidence whatsoever.
Report comment
“Pathologizing normal and commonly-experienced human emotions should be considered a form of harm to patients and a direct violation of the Hippocratic Oath”
This is spot on! Thanks for this great blog Phil. Doctors in general, and psychiatrists in particular, are often narrow minded and rigid thinkers. Many have a God complex. After given what turned out to be an overblown, bogus cancer dx in 2009 (and informed I had little chance to survive) my eyes were opened to how much corruption and abuse of trust and authority there is in ‘health care.’ When I decided to make decisions that were proven to be wise and best for me the doctors got their knickers in a knot. Because I declined their self-serving orders their egos could not handle it and they colluded to condemn me and pathologize me for that.
Report comment