Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick

by Maya Dusenbery

Of course, there’s another group of patients who tend to insist their illness is medical and “doctor shop” until they get a diagnosis: people suffering from yet-to-be-diagnosed physical diseases. That such behavior could be considered a “hallmark” sign that there is in fact no organic disease at all is an absurd and very dangerous logic. The possibility of a psychogenic diagnosis creates a system in which trying to get an explanation for persistent or worsening symptoms puts a patient at risk of acquiring a mental health diagnosis right up until the moment the correct diagnosis is made. In fact, the actions that are often required to get a diagnosis in a fragmented and inefficient medical system may be seen as “abnormal illness behaviors” until, finally graced by the legitimacy afforded by a medical diagnosis, they retrospectively become the perfectly rational actions of a sick—and no doubt increasingly desperate—patient. As one patient with chronic fatigue syndrome put it, “The difference between a crazed neurotic and a seriously ill person is simply a test.”