I
have been going to doctors as far back as I can remember.
Unfortunately, when I was young I had some problems with ear infections,
and I still remember being in a black room at a young age and listening
to tones through old earphones to test whether my hearing was still
there. I guess ever since then, doctors and I have had a rather
symbiotic relationship. It helps that I also was in wrestling and
football (the American one, not the one with the soccer ball) so doctors
became a necessity when I broke my hand, got a concussion, or any such
injury. Now I find that I go to doctors mostly to tell me that whatever
crazy disease I think I have is in fact something that is mostly
harmless.
Though
I blame my “disease exaggeration” mostly on the internet. As it turns
out, no matter how small the pain or little the symptom is, the
diagnosis I find on the internet will usually be either lethal or
detrimentally life-changing. Sometimes I think I go to the doctor just
for them to tell me I am crazy and give me some medicine to take when I
get home. Though I know this is a rather privileged way of acting on my
medical suspicions, and in the worst case scenario, I may not have the
insurance to indulge. I have found myself going to the doctor more now a
days, just to try and set up a threshold of what I can experience
symptom-wise before I should worry.
Though
I suppose that this reliance on doctors isn’t the healthiest seeing as
doctors are only human. The fact of the matter is, doctors have to act
confident and know everything in order to inspire confidence in their
patients. If doctors don’t the patient may not go with the prescribed
actions and medicine and just become weaker. Also, it is the confidence a
doctor protrudes that may help spark a placebo effect, and make the
patient feel better before a single pill is taken.
Maybe
the lesson to take from that realisation is that a lot of health
problems are not just physical, but of perception. That being said, I
don’t think waiting for symptoms to go away and/or self medication is
always the answer either. The only way I have been able to try and avoid
this health conundrum is to try and just get healthier all around. When
I exercise everyday, try to watch what I eat, and keep myself and my
place clean, it may not make me invulnerable to sickness, but it at
least gives me the peace of mind, when I go see the doc, that at least I
tried.
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