Reach Out For Support - When Doctor's Don't Believe

When you’re living in chronic and debilitating pain, not having a doctor who believes you can create intense feelings of loneliness, isolation, and despair. You should never be made to feel as if your body being in pain is all in your head – it’s not. Even so, some medical professionals may still not believe, or perhaps simply not take seriously, the magnitude of what you’re experiencing. That can leave you frustrated, feeling unheard, and searching for solutions that seem impossible to find.

If you may have experienced this before, don’t lose hope. There are steps you can take to both help yourself and mobilize potential allies to join the healing process. Here’s what to do when your doctor doesn’t believe you’re in pain:

1. Take Charge of your Care. If your doctor isn’t taking heed of your distress, know that you have the power and permission to seek out a second opinion. Advocates of informed consent assert that self-advocacy is paramount in medical care and that often must require assessing a range of providers if a particular doctor is unsupportive. Remember, ultimately, you are responsible for your own health.

2. Get a Coach or a Trusted Adviser. Completely rethinking your medical team, while at the same time releasing your illness narrative to someone else can be tough. If you’re looking for guidance in an area outside of your own expertise, seeking out a coach, mentor, or trusted medical adviser can provide a layer of additional support as you explore how to move forward. Having someone on your side that can speak fearlessly for you and your rights can be invaluable.

3. Look into Patient Support Programs. Connecting with a patient organization could be just what you need to feel familiarized and understood by a community of individuals facing similar experiences. National and local patient groups, those focused on specific diseases, as well as online communities can be a safe place to share stories and strategize about how to get the care and support you need.

4. Rely on Complementary Therapies. Not everyone is ready (or able) to constantly contract new doctors and switch up their system of care. That doesn’t mean there are no alternatives. If a traditional medical approach is largely failing you, looking into various body work therapies and something like Ayurveda or Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) techniques can be incredibly beneficial. Alternative medicine treatments that employ massage therapy, acupuncture, yoga, and breathing methods are promising natural interventions used increasingly as adjuncts to medical care as ways to reduce pain and encourage empowerment.

In cases when doctors may not believe or deny treating patients with chronic pain, there are indeed ways to mitigate that situation. It’s entirely possible to create a health plan that centers around your needs, gives you access to quality care and providers that care, and can offer viable strategies on the path towards greater healing.