Check out @elissabassist’s book bite for her memoir HYSTERICAL on the @nextbigideaclub app! #Repost @nextbigideaclub ・・・ You're Not Imagining It. “What if nothing’s wrong with you?” a gastroenterologist asked me the day before she called with the results of my blood work that revealed a fatal disease. For two years of my life, one doctor led to another, and I had no diagnosis. The diagnosis was that nothing was wrong with me or that I had a mental illness. This is “medical gaslighting,” when doctors brush off your concerns or delay treatment or describe you as “oversensitive” even when you’re in pain. It causes pointless suffering and even death. If you’re a woman, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, or older, then you’re more likely to endure medical gaslighting. Red flags that I ignored—because I wanted to be a “good patient” and not annoy anyone—were dismissive questions about my symptoms that made me feel unimportant and ridiculous, like, “Are you even in the pain that you say you’re in?” The average white man has shorter wait times for appointments and diagnoses, is given pain medication when he needs it (even if he doesn’t), is referred for tests, and is listened to and believed. We are the experts of and authorities on our own bodies. When something’s wrong, we know it, we feel it, we’re in bed because of it. We’re not making it up, and no one in a position to save us should assume we are. 📖 Hysterical: A Memoir 🖊 @elissabassist 📚 @hachettebooks #gaslighting #gaslightingawareness #gaslightingisabuse #manipulation #medicalgaslighting #memoir #womenshealth #medicalbias #healthcare #sexism #mustread #booksummary