The absence of any physical explanation for symptoms is taken as ‘evidence’ for somatic symptom disorder. This ignores the fact that most patients do not receive a thorough set of tests and referrals to specialists to rule out physical causes. It doesn’t take into account that some patients present in ways doctors find confusing or unexpected due to cultural differences, leading to missed diagnosis. It doesn’t take into account rare diseases which are often missed. It doesn’t take into account common but medically neglected diseases, such as ME/CFS, which are also often missed. (Even a common and medically recognized disease, endometriosis, typically takes 5-10 years to be diagnosed; patients spend years being told there is nothing wrong with them.) And it fails to acknowledge that medical science is not finished; there are still some medical conditions that science doesn’t understand and can’t explain.
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Extract from:
Somatic symptom disorder: Why your doctor doesn't believe you're really sick
mecfs.substack.com/p/somatic-sy...
#Psychologicalisation #chronicillness #ChronicPain #hiddenillness #invisibleillness