Friday, June 8, 2012

Doctors

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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