Medical Gaslighting: How it made me a better Health Advocate 

Thank you. This is a great message that's worth repeating daily.

I cannot thank you enough for producing this content. I am currently a stage 4 CKD patient who runs a support group for folks like us. Your videos have proven invaluable in helping me get the message out to my followers that they NEED to be their own advocates. Education is the key, and you provide a great perspective for all of us who are fighting this fight. Please keep doing what you're doing! It helps!!!

Thanks for your clearly given presentation. I too, was gaslighted by my Dr. after my heart attack. He had put me on all the usual meds even tho my heart attack was caused from 3 years of prescribed daily calicum tablets after I tore a muscle. (There wasn't any prescribed vitamin to keep the calcium from creating plaque like there should have been *Malpractice in my opinion) Anyway, I told the Dr. I was getting and feeling worse after about 6 months on his medications. He said I'm getting better. I replied that it's my body I'm living in and I definitely know when I'm feeling better or worse! He flat out called me a liar and said he 'knows' I'm getting better because I truly don't know anything about my body! Needless to say, that made me angry. But I bit my tongue and asked, Were you ever fired? He said NO! Then asked, Why? I replied, Then consider this your first time! I got up, grabbed my jacket and walked out the door. I never returned. That group of hospitals have blacklisted me and won't treat me to this day. I did go to a Holistic Dr. after 2 months and He put me on a vitamin regimen that I'm still on today 12 years later. I have had no issues since.

Thank you Another GREAT video. I love your disclaimer "I'm not a doctor". We may not all be doctors but we are all the best judge of how we feel. Thank you for your efforts. You really are helping a lot of people feel less alone and more confident. All the very best to you.

Thank you for sharing this very informative email. I know that you are helping many people 👍🙏.

Great video. Gaslighting in the medical realm is so sad but so true. They don't make the time to listen.

Thanks, this is an excellent presentation, You have a natural way to bring out the best thought processes to reexamine our relationship with drugs. Your honest and Accurate personal experiences will lead to many of us to now say " me too". About 5 yrs ago I was going to make a list of meds that I experienced side or adverse effects from for my Doctor and myself, but while on Tamsulosin, etc. I had a few falls and with one I had Concussive brain syndrome/ TBI , I may have the wording incorrect. After the head injury I had many problems, now at the 4 1/2 yr. mark, I feel I'm improving. But I have forgotten all the meds and their side effects. That's life. Thanks for standing up for everyone to authorities who are trained to defend the pharmaceutical industry and their propaganda. For tens of thousands of years humans ate plants and mushrooms for healing, now we have lost this great treasure of natural health wisdom . “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” Hippocrates. I feel most people have had unwanted effects on some meds but are unable to make the connection or too intimidated by the authority figure to speak up. The physicians may be under pressure by the industry to confirm that the meds are effective and safe. We may be under pressure and our complaints dismissed or marginalized by our doctors . Losartan is also problematic for me as is Metoprolol. We have to try to understand the risk -benefit issues ., We know and are ultimately responsible for ourselves and often the medical field helps with some issues, yet I feel we need to make our complaints clear for them to really " get it"

Thank you for describing this. I sense that this is what has been happening to Me my whole life but I didn't really know what it was or how to really put it to words.

Gosh, your videos just keep getting better and better! I'm so sorry for the way various doctors have treated you, but I'm thrilled for the strength and confidence you have now. You're a wonderful example. I'm so thankful for the passion you express. For the last 8 years or so I've noticed that I'm having more and more reactions to medications...such as eye numbing drops for eye dilations and bacterial infection medications. Even taking vitamins makes me nauseated, so I don't take anything. I'm really beginning to believe that low eGFR's (mine is 20) help cause these problems, but haven't found any articles dealing with this. Do you know of any? As always, many thanks.

I’m so sorry for everything you’ve gone through. I just want you to know that your videos are helping a lot of people and I always look forward to watching them.

Thank you for creating this video and sharing. It's very helpful!

This is so true! Doctors telling us that we aren't on a strong enough dose to have that sort of side effect..ugh. BP medications can REALLY mess you up! I've been on 6 medications in the past year, and NONE worked for me. I'm now on two new medications and my BP is much lower, but my body is used to my BP being so high..so I'm crashing (laying down) Steroids is another great one to discuss! I got extremely nervous on this medication and was changed to cyclosporine. I'm so glad you shared your stories to bring this topic to light!

I've had so many doctors act like things are in my head that I lost count of then. Of course at first, I questioned myself, but then I started figuring things out and realized that a lot of doctors do this. Unfortunately I sort of have let them win due to me just not wanting to subject myself to them mentioning how it is probably ptsd or just anxiety at my appointments or er visits.

I always look at a few RU-vid presenters before l find one l can really relate to and your down to earth teaching style is super helpful! Thank you for all your efforts!

❤ I am also very sensitive to medication. I have a hard time taking just about anyting . Thank you for this video. It sounds like your experiences have helped you to become more confident in your continuing experiences of your illness. God bless you!

Please don’t ever stop doing these videos. You’re amazing and explain everything in a way that are understandable. Thank you!

Fat, age, and cancer shaming by doctors is totally unhelpful! And, it happens far more often than one would think.

Tip: sometimes blood pressure pills are better to take at bed time if there is any dizziness. My Ramipril caused dizziness so i switched it to bedtime. ( meant to say my dr switched it to bed time)

It can be difficult to talk to a Doctor , thanks for sharing

Doctors do more harm then good how would they know about side affects unless they take the same meds even then they would have to be you change Doctor hope for the best lol

Perfect!!!

So that story where you felt dizzy and nauseated in the Walmart store, And you saw the sparkles as your vision started to disappear. Did that happen because blood Pressure dropped? Am I understanding that right? Do you know what caused that?

My ex-husband has some type of reaction with nearly all medications! It's a wonder that he can take any at all. Myself, I'm totally alergic to codeine! Yikes! Also, a few months back, my cardiologist put me on a third medication. I started feeling very weak and dizzy all the time! I told him about this because I related it to the new med. He basically said the benifits outweights the symptoms. HA! My pcp did a comprehensive blood panel about 2 weeks ago that showed that I'm slightly anemic even though I take an iron supplement. I also researched the med and it said that it can cause kidney damage. GREAT! I already have ckd! And that it can jave a reaction to one of the other meds the heart doctor has me on. Why has my kidney doctor or pharmacist or my pcp or heart doctor mentioned this? I immediately stopped taking the medication. I'm starting to feel better, but am not back to my normal self quite yet. I can imagine what my heart doctor is going to say, but what's the since of being alive if you aren't even able to stand up long enough to live any kind of life? Even while sitting I felt so weak that I felt that I could just fall over.

Thank you for sharing your story about the doctors. I have experienced an very assuming doctor IMO and my meeting with him is so quick and done in just few minutes, I was given a prescription and thats it, it was first to learn that I have a diabetes. And that's affect me too mentally, I was so confused, I felt like I need know what going on with me, is the doctor was wrong? I end up not taking the medication and research more about the diabetes disease, glad I did. Just like you said it makes you a better advocate, in my case I'm now working towards reversing my disease with out any medication. I took my older sister sister's advice whose a nurse.

I'm not allowed to talk. If I do no one listens. Because of my insurance, I'm not allowed to choose my doctor. It's been ten years with diabetes and several years of kidney and heart problems. I'm not treating my heart or kidneys because I am sensitive to medicine too. It's been a nightmare with insulin. Now my doctor will not refill my insulin. Ten years of 'you don't take enough. You don't take what I prescribed ' I keep telling them about the side effects. They don't believe me. I'm afraid to take anything. Metformin, I kept saying hurt my stomach. It HURT. My concern was dismissed and the dose was raised. It caused bleeding. I immediately stopped using it. I am terrified to take anything now. But all of my concerns are dismissed. Everything I say is dismissed. My current doctor actually told me ' I'm not going to learn anything from you ' I have been to several different doctors in several different hospitals and different 'groups'. All the same. I feel abused. I don't feel safe. For ten years. What can I do? I've been to pretty much all of the hospitals in my area. My insurance wants me to go to doctors working from hospitals. I feel like a guinea pig. I feel like I'm prescribed such high doses so they can sell more of the prescription. I was supposed to take monjaro. I have kidney problems. That's not for people with kidney problems. I'm not trying to lose weight. I was lied to and told that it was insulin because my doctor wanted to study it. I was supposed to go in every week to have a check to see what was happening to me. I had side effects and looked at the manufacturer's website and found out all of this horrible stuff. On the manufacturer's website! Because my doctor didn't inform me. Just injected me in the office. I threw my sample kit out and I haven't been back to the office. I requested a refill of my insulin recently. They won't refill it even though I am supposed to have two more refills for this year. I feel like I'm being gaslighted and retaliated. What can I do? I can't afford to pay for anything without insurance.

😯🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻✌️

I've neen gaslit for over 4 years, it just keeps happening because I have long covid and doctors love to gaslight when there's a new illness. I just don't understand why they're doing this to us.

Hi Bethany! Hope you are well. I have never heard of ppl with ckd needing steroids. Does it have to do with type of ckd you have ?.

i have had the same simptons and im 38 and m6 test all come back with 60< stag 2 kidney disease but no one seems to help im dieing i cant get my pont across are the way inam smtelling them my simptons

Once upon a time drug doses were only tested on men It's only within these last couple of decades that the mandates have changed to cover both sexes. If you are taking a medicine that's been around for 40, 50 years then your doctor is going by documentation of dose symptoms that are out of date.

'Promo SM'

Just curious, are you in any way, shape or form a medical professional?If so, then you know how much schooling physicians go through, how much chemistry, physiology ( do you know what that is?) and anatomy they understand? Again, I have no idea your education background. However,on the other hand, IF you don't have any PROFESSIONAL medical background, you should provide a disclaimer stating such. At least mention, if you are indeed NOT a medical professional, the proceeding statements are OPINION only, AND YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL. You provide a lot of good GENERIC information, that's good. But everyone's PARTICULAR health situation is unique, there is no one size fits all. A while ago I did what you apparently often do, second guess my g.p. ( general practitioner). I won't go into details, but it turns out I was wrong. I began following their advice, and am feeling better.I like the way you phrase your sham intro "can doctors be wrong?" instantly casting a unwarranted negative light on the whole profession. Of couse, Anyone can be wrong ( even you!) Lastly, when I venture on to various medical information sites that are written ( upfront stating such) by MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS ( i.e. doctors, licensed therapists, e.t.c.) even though they are experts, they state you should always check with your medical professional FIRST. Curious why you don't say that. Lastly, I'm sure these videos make you a TON of money, I guess in the end it's about the all mighty dollar, isn't it? Thanks for sharing this, your video production quality is very good, I would have no idea how to do it. Maybe I'll learn one day., One of The best things about life, you never stop learning. Cheers!!!!!

I have stage 3a CKD. I just had 2 eye exams for eyeglasses, from WMart VISION CENTER. THE 1ST Rx lenses were unusable. The Optometrist rechecked my eyes and the lenses came back wrong again! They said if I didn't take them home and get used to them, I wasn't doing my part. Therefore, they couldn't help me. My copay was refunded. Because I didn't take them home, there will be zero difficulty accessing my eyeglasses benefit. The errors was with the Rx, the LAB, or my eyes(ME). So, I'm wondering if my CKD is a factor? One month before this nightmarish experience with WMVC, I had pink eye symptoms. Redness, irritation, weeping, and what I described as "seeing through Vaseline". ( In 1 eye). Yesterday I found this video about a woman discovering she had an Occulorenal inflammatory autoimmune disease called Uveitis.(TINU) She described her symptoms exactly like mine. But she didn't know she was on the verge of kidney failure. So, I am relying on Foster Grant tri-focals. I have an appointment with an opthalmologist for a "medical eye exam". God. I hope I don't have a cataract. Wouldn't the Optometrist noticed that? You really are a Godsend for doing these videos. You're lucky to have a family to help you when needed. What do you think is the average cost per year out of pocket $$$ to pay for your care, meds, treatments, supplies?( If it's not too personal)