What is Medical Gaslighting?

In the full episode of Spotlight On Migraine, Dr. Melissa Geraghty highlights examples of medical gaslighting and offers suggestions for dealing with this challenging issue.

Watch the full podcast or read the transcript at migrainedisorders.org/podcast/s6ep7-migraine-and-medical-gaslighting

TRANSCRIPT 👇
Medical gaslighting is when a healthcare professional dismisses your concerns to the point where you question your own beliefs, reality, judgment, memories. It's where people don't take your medical concerns seriously or blame your physical symptoms on something else, such as anxiety or needing to lose weight. And like you mentioned, you can also experience medical gaslighting from family members, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, bosses, and the general public. So a few examples of medical gaslighting is things like this. You're over exaggerating. No one can have that many symptoms and still talk and smile. Or you just need to exercise more or lose weight, and all your problems will go away. Or it's all in your head, go see a psychiatrist. Or this procedure typically isn't painful, so you shouldn't have had that response. Or I never had a patient with that diagnosis, so you don't have that. Or, my favorite, all your labs came back fine, so you're fine.