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You really think people are smart enough to care for themselves? Of course. I know more than one person who was forced to diagnose themselves and then insist
by randallsquared 17y ago
You really think people are smart enough to care for themselves?
Of course. I know more than one person who was forced to diagnose themselves and then insist on the tests that would prove it to the doctor. People know more about themselves than their doctors do, and have a much higher incentive to get it right.
- physcab 17y agoJust because they...err we...have a higher incentive doesn't mean we have a better ability to diagnose. I'd like to think I'm a smart guy (3rd year PhD student) and I can't tell the difference between a cold, flu, allergies, or mono.
- stcredzero 17y agoMy girlfriend works in Public Health, and finds herself in the position of correcting doctors' misconceptions about illnesses she is monitoring. Seems like she gets to correct someone who should've known better about once or twice a month. What makes this even more ironic -- as a patient, she has a very difficult time communicating with doctors. When she was in graduate school, she did studies on disparities in health care based on race. Somehow she gets caught up in those mechanisms without seeing the patterns she once studied in grad school. (She's African American, and she constantly has problems convincing doctors that she's not exaggerating the degree of her pain, and at the same time constantly disregarding her doctor's instructions. A couple of days ago, I did a double-take and said, "OMG, a little voice in my head is yelling 'African American Health Disparities!' Do you realize you're living a stereotype?")
- gnaritas 17y ago> and I can't tell the difference between a cold, flu, allergies, or mono. Then you haven't had them enough to get to know them well. Get something often enough and you don't need a doctor to tell you which it is, you learn from experience to know exactly which it is.
- Evgeny 17y agoLooking at the number of people who are overweight/obese, who are smoking, who are abusing alcohol etc, I can not agree. It seems very simple to me to understand how to eat/exersice properly and how to not poison myself. All the information is readily available to anyone who needs it. Now if so many people can not even get this bit right, what chance is there that they would be able to diagnose more complex cases?
- randallsquared 17y agoYou assume that people actually prefer health to overeating, smoking, and alcohol. I would suggest we can tell what people prefer from what they do, given that everyone knows that overeating, smoking, and drinking too much alcohol are very bad for you. I say this, by the way, as an obese guy with a roommate who smokes, if that matters. :)
- Evgeny 17y agoBut would the people then actually prefer to actively prevent illnesses to just dealing with them as they happen? I have doubts ... I know I'm guilty myself - I need to make 2-3 visits to the dentist to fill some cavities, but I tend to delay this because of time issues, financial cost and pure laziness ... and I think I care about my health reasonably well compared to the majority.
- elai 17y agoObesity & drug addictions are significantly more difficult to fix behavior wise than a proper diagnosis and a non-addictive drug to cure it.
- Evgeny 17y agoMy point is - would obesity & drug addictions be so widespread if people cared about their health in the first place? Babies are not born being obese and drug addicted (the vast majority). And if they don't care that much already, how can we expect them to care enough to put some effort into diagnosing themselves?
- helveticaman 17y agoAt one point I told my doctor (a psychiatrist) I had ADD and needed ritalin. Stupid bitch said I didn't...cost me a lot of suffering before another doctor confirmed it.
- helveticaman 17y agoSorry about the vulgarity. It's just that the price I paid for that was enormous; I'd say it cost me a year and a half of suffering.