Anyone else have an irrational fear of doctors?

I have a doctors appointment this morning for a regular checkup. I am already panicked. My blood pressure is way up and my head is pounding. I know there is no reason to freak out, but I always do!

Anyone else have white coat syndrome?

Me! I hate it with a passion no matter how minor the symptom is

I remember one doctor saying to me once that in the winter you normally leave with more than you came in with because of the cold viruses

Originally Posted by rosiemac

I remember one doctor saying to me once that in the winter you normally leave with more than you came in with because of the cold viruses

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I was thinking about that myself and may but some hand sanitizer in my purse!

Kinda, but mine is more like a big distrust for them more than fear, I did fear them once, as I have a condition which they refused to treat, and it took me a long time just to go there to get treatment, the only treatment i got was practically being given the cold shoulder like I was "faking it". The doctors here are useless.

Yup, I hate the DR....especially for the 'yearly' visits....

I don't fear them, but I certainly distrust them. I really think we shouldn't have to pay them if they dont' help us. I hate paying so much money just to have them translate my symptoms into Latin.

Karen, Yours is a phobia. Like a unnatural fear of flying, spiders or hights.
I don't think there is anything you can do about it other than professional help. I'm so sorry this is such a problem for you!!

and here i am enjoying seeing people getting needles! and receiving them!
I so want to get liprosuction on my legs

Yup! I had`nt been to a Dr in over 30 years till I found out from a friends blood meter that I had diabetes 5 years ago...and only when I found out that he was willing to treat me without the usual physical would I even go then. I can handle blood work, giving them pee and letting them look in my ears, eyes, nose and mouth...and listening to my heart through my clothes....but that`s IT!
I always went when I was PG....for the baby`s sake....but just can not bring myself to do it otherwise. Even the thought of it...or someone else talking about their own yearly pap test just sends me into a horrible panic! There is no way to describe it...it`s just like this giant steel wall goes up inside of me. It is not a matter of being stubborn and not wanting to go. I just CAN`T do it!
Linda

Not doctors, dentists! I'd rather get a pelvic exam every day than ever have to go to the dentist again!!

I don't mind going to the DRs...I just get panics when the needles and such start to appear.

My first OB visit was horrible...they made me watch this fisher-price type of movie (with the hand crank to play) about what was going to happen in my visit. I had to lay down because i nearly passed out. I were prefer to know less about what their doing the to be *fully* informed.

I'm quite horrified of Drs and avoid them unless I'm sick beyond belief. My last few appts I've had anxiety attacks, it was just a mess. I'm aware this is an irrational fear, I'm an RN!

Originally Posted by AbbysMom

1.-I have a doctors appointment this morning for a regular checkup. I am already panicked. My blood pressure is way up and my head is pounding. I know there is no reason to freak out, but I always do!

2.-Anyone else have white coat syndrome?

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1.- Good luck my Friend! ...Keep us updated about it!

2.- Nope here! ...


Have you ever to try with a Tequila Double before the appointment???? ... ...I´m so sure you going so Bravely at your appointment! .....




Just kidding! ...

Originally Posted by Kathylou

I don't fear them, but I certainly distrust them. I really think we shouldn't have to pay them if they dont' help us. I hate paying so much money just to have them translate my symptoms into Latin.

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I think that's a bit unfair. Just because they're doctors doesn't mean they're miracle workers. I work for a doctor so I see a different side to this story. If a doctor can't help you they should refer you onto to someone who can, however if you have made an appointment and taken up their time, you should pay for it. I don't think anyone should have to work for free, and it's still work - they still spend the time with you regardless or not of the outcome. If a mechanic looks at your car, and decides nothing needs fixing, you still pay him for his time. Why should it be different with doctors?

I have to say, the general distrust of doctors is often caused by media and bad-mouthing rather than actual reality. There are, of course, bad apples out there who give all doctors bad names, who don't care, who don't try, and who aren't any good. The same in all professions. But my boss in particular works SO hard - 80 hours a week at least, he has people's lives in his hands, he studied 17 years to get where he is, he has dozens of patients, he doesn't have the luxury of being able to make the odd mistake like other people in other jobs do, he has ridiculously high expectations placed on him constantly and yet he continues to work his fingers to the bone, bend over backwards and wear himself out helping people.

The majority of people are very demanding when it comes to doctors. They forget that doctors, amazingly, are human too, and are actually out there trying to help and working their butts off to do so. Yeah they earn a lot, but they deserve it! They're DOCTORS! We waltz in and expect them to cure us instantly, to be nice and kind and thoughtful, to treat us right, not to make mistakes, to be perfect, to be miracle workers, and yet we do not in many cases afford them the same respect.

And, in actual fact, they don't really earn that much when you look at what they do. My boss might earn (and yes, I mean EARN - he doesn't just sit back and twiddle his thumbs for this money) $800,000 a year. Yes, a lot to you and me. Nearly half of that goes in tax. Another $200,000 in medical indemnity insurance and membership to the Australian Medical Association, more in rent, and overheads, and equipment. He has to pay me, he has a wife and three children to support, so on and so forth. I would think that he doesn't see nearly 80% of what he earns, and for how hard he works, that's hardly fair. He studied, as I said, for 17 years to become a specialist. He had to support himself through all that time, and later on a wife and children.

Last week I watched him surgically place a tiny tube through someone's mouth, right down into their bile duct, in between two metatstatic tumours, in order for that person's bile to drain properly again and give them another month's relief from their pain and suffering. He literally had millimetres to work with. The biliary system is so complicated and difficult. It took him two hours. This person's jaundice disappeared before my eyes. When he woke up he smiled and had some lunch - the first he'd been able to eat in days. My boss will make $300 for that - a skill that saved someone's life and that only a handful of people in the world can do. $300????? What a joke.

We whinge and whine if they dare to take a day off or go on a holiday or have lunch or do anything, because then they obviously don't care or are unfeeling etc. You should see the sighs and huffs and puffs I get if I happen to say my boss is eating some lunch, or (God forbid) is on leave. Unbelievable. I think people generally are pretty ungrateful and demanding when it comes to doctors, and the doctors for the most part just put up with it as part of their jobs and go on because they're in the business of trying to help people, which it's all too easy to forget.