Of course, it won’t be because you’re sick.
Does that surprise you? Because it shouldn’t.
Except you’re vastly different from most people, you have almost never gone to see a doctor because you were sick. You might think that’s why you go, but it’s not.
I’ll cut to the chase and tell you the real reason why you—or anyone else—ever engages in seeing a doctor.
You go to a doctor when whatever bothers you is getting too much in the way of your ability to live your life the way you want.
It’s that simple. I’ll phrase it differently…
You don’t come to see us for your symptoms. You come so you can get back to living your life.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you’ve done anything wrong. You haven’t. It’s just what it is.
In fact, the real problem is perhaps ours, we doctors. We assume the person in front of us is there to get care, and that’s what we focus on. We’re trained to figure out what’s wrong with you (the diagnosis) and treat that. The problem is not that we’re wrong. In fact, you could say the problem is that we’re not wrong. You do want the doctor you see to give you care, and to treat the illness or relieve the health condition. You just have a larger end game in mind: getting on with your real life, which the condition is impeding.
Sometimes, though, our treatment itself gets in the way of your life, just like the health issues did.
And that, I think, is a major (not the only) root of many people’s disappointment with modern medicine.
Why does this gap exist, though? I’ll talk about that in my next post.
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