HEALTHY LIVING


Don’t Let Your Doctor Gaslight You


It can delay diagnosis and lead to improper treatment. :: BY LYNN ALLISON


T


he word “gaslighting” has become a popular buzzword to describe a toxic relationship.


The phrase originated from the


1938 British play Gas Light involving a seemingly genteel husband who tries to persuade his heiress wife that she is mentally ill so he can manipulate and steal from her. While the term itself wasn’t used


in either the play or the subsequent 1942 movie, gaslighting refers to the manipulation of a person that causes them to question their memory and perception of reality and leads to confusion and loss of confi dence. When experienced in a medical


setting, gaslighting can lead to missed diagnoses, improper treatment, and even medical trauma. It can happen to anyone, but


it’s been shown to happen more frequently to older people, women, and people of color.


COMMON SCENARIOS “Medical gaslighting occurs when your healthcare provider dismisses


or downplays symptoms you are experiencing or doesn’t make an eff ort to address concerns you are voicing about your health,” says Sophie Vergnaud, M.D., senior director of clinical content at GoodRx. “For example, someone could


be experiencing severe symptoms during their menstrual cycle that their provider dismisses or attributes to a nonspecifi c cause, when in actuality the symptoms could be pointing to a larger diagnosis such as endometriosis. “A woman could be complaining of


chest pain but is dismissed as having anxiety or some other mental health issues, or an older person could have symptoms dismissed as ‘menopause’ or ‘aging aches and pains.’” Another common example,


she says, is when people in larger bodies have their symptoms, such as breathing problems, sleep, or joint pain, blamed on their body size. Vergnaud points out that


experiencing medical gaslighting is not only incredibly distressing, but it can also result in a delayed or incorrect diagnosis that can be


damaging to your health. Tina Sacks, an associate


professor in the school of social welfare at UC Berkeley, says that she once interviewed a Black woman who experienced knee pain for 15 years and was told by physicians that it was a result of her weight. She later discovered she had two tumors in her knee. “Women in general in the


healthcare space are invalidated because of pervasive misogyny,” says Sacks, author of Invisible Visits: Black Middle-Class Women in the American Healthcare System. “And then when you compound


that with a profound anti-blackness that runs through all of society, these groups of people are more likely to be dismissed.” Sacks says that myths about Black


biology abound. In fact, a 2016 study by University of Virginia researchers found that 50% of white medical students and residents endorsed false beliefs about the biological diff erences between Black and white populations. Those who did perceived Black


patients as feeling less pain than whites and were more likely to suggest inappropriate treatment for Black patients, according to a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


GASLIGHTING EXPOSED It can be diffi cult to know when


A woman could be complaining of chest pain but is dismissed as


having anxiety or some other mental health issues, or an older person could have symptoms dismissed as ‘menopause’ or ‘aging aches and pains.’”


— Sophie Vergnaud, M.D., senior director of clinical content at GoodRx


82 NEWSMAX MAXLIFE | AUGUST 2023


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