'It’s All in Your Head': The Dangers of Medical Gaslighting

Anna, a woman in her early 40s, was experiencing a host of body aches and pains. She visited a doctor, who put her concerns down to “stress” and “getting older,” advising her to get more sleep, eat a healthy diet, and exercise. It reassured Anna to hear that nothing was wrong; although over the months her symptoms persisted and then worsened, despite following the doctor’s orders. She went back to see the same doctor, who now dismissed her symptoms as mental illness and referred her to a psychologist. This psychologist, believing the cause was instead organic, urged Anna to get a second opinion. Anna saw another physician, who guided her through the process of seeing a specialist, which ultimately resulted in a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

Anna realized that her first doctor had been gaslighting her.

Medical Gaslighting

Medical gaslighting is a phrase used to describe physicians or other medical providers who wrongly blame a patient’s symptoms on psychological factors. Of course, some patients present with non-specific symptoms and it can be difficult to pin down a diagnosis. But in the case of medical gaslighting, the doctor is too ready to downplay or dismiss the concerns of their patient as insignificant. Symptoms may be brushed off as psychosomatic. Signs of medical gaslighting can include victim-blaming or denying a patient’s illness entirely, for example, wrongly telling them they are not sick. It can refer to a doctor who doesn’t listen or appear to care. Commonly, medical gaslighting involves attributing the patient’s symptoms to age, race, sexuality, gender, or other factors.

As in the case of Anna, women are often the victims of medical gaslighting. The medical industry has a long history of disregarding women. In the past, their health concerns were frequently minimized or trivialized as “women’s complaints” and “female hysteria.” Until quite recently, hysteria was a common medical diagnosis for women considered to be “too emotional.” This diagnosis included a wide array of symptoms, such as anxiety, nervousness, insomnia, and irritability. Today, women’s legitimate health concerns are often still blamed on stress, hormones, and their imaginations. If a woman gets angry, she is asked if she’s about to get her period. If she complains about weight gain, she’s told it must be hormonal.

“Just Lose Weight”

Being overweight can affect the quality of medical treatment that larger people receive from their doctors, who focus on their weight but ignore their health concerns. At 23 years old, plus-size Canadian model Elly Mayday (Ashley Shandrel Luther) suffered severe lower back pain, although her doctors blamed her weight for her symptoms and suggested she exercise more often. After several years of persistence to find the real cause, she was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer. Sadly, Mayday died of the disease at the age of 30. Gaining weight can be a symptom of many diseases too, and simply being told to “lose weight” can ignore medical conditions, including thyroid problems and ovarian cancer.

There can be serious repercussions for biases in health care. Assumptions about patients, based on their weight, age, gender, or other factors, can lead to misdiagnosis and prolong suffering. When patients are ignored and their symptoms not taken seriously, it can take months or years to receive an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan. All too often, the condition can be something serious, such as heart disease or cancer. Medical gaslighting, like social gaslighting, is a form of emotional abuse. It is traumatizing for patients, causing confusion, self-doubt, and helplessness, which, ironically, can lead to anxiety and depression.

How to Combat Medical Gaslighting

There are a number of measures to protect patients from the harmful effects of medical gaslighting. People should trust their instincts about their bodies; symptoms are signs that something is possibly wrong. Those who encounter medical gaslighting should push back and advocate for themselves. They should not be afraid to be more vocal and persistent with their health concerns. If a person feels their doctor is not taking them seriously, they need to find another provider. They should seek a second (or third) opinion or ask to be referred to a specialist. Ultimately, a patient is also a consumer, who deserves quality health care and to be treated with respect.