Category Archives: Healthcare

The Problem With Functional Medicine

Functional medicine presents itself as a more complete approach to health, but, like mainstream medical treatments, it focuses on individual physiology and treats the body as the primary site of explanation and intervention. Distress is framed as the result of … Continue reading

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Trauma in a White Coat: Why Survivors Are Blamed and Predators Protected

The most dangerous predator is not the stranger in a dark alley, but the familiar one in a white coat, protected by institutional walls, bureaucratic scripts, and a system trained to look the other way. Medical institutions, licensing boards, and … Continue reading

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“How Would You Like to Proceed?”: The Role of Agency in Safe Medicine

A recent visit to my dermatologist inspired me to write about the relationship between safety and agency. We’d already had four appointments before this visit. She always asked permission before touching me. Every time, she explained what she was doing … Continue reading

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Medical Sabbaticals: Reducing Exposure as Harm Reduction in Healthcare

It’s awful to be disbelieved, unseen, minimized, and dismissed, particularly by the people we turn to for support and help. It’s also really bad for the nervous system. This is part of why I cut way back on seeing healthcare … Continue reading

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Practitioner Certainty Blindness: The Problem with Wrongful Reassurance

Six years ago, I was dying from hypercritical allostatic load: far too much stress with far too  insufficient support for far too long. My body was shutting down. I spent much of my 60th year in bed. The strain had … Continue reading

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Beyond Credentials: The Non-Negotiable Key to My Recovery

I had a years-long period when my functionality was so low that it was hard for me to leave the house. I was severely isolated by disability from repeated medical harm. My relationships with practitioners became my default primary social … Continue reading

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Always in the Direction of Life: Eight Years of Medical Harm and My One Prospect for a Future 

I have been fighting for my life daily for 8 years. Before that, there was already a lifetime of abuse from people in positions of power, most often from caregivers. The medical and psychiatric abuse of the last eight years … Continue reading

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Empathy is Crucial in Medicine, But the Healthcare System Undermines It

Prioritizing efficiency and financial goals over empathetic care has detrimental effects on both patients and healthcare practitioners.  Empathy Improves Patient Outcomes Enhanced Communication: Empathetic healthcare practitioners build better communication with patients, leading to more accurate diagnoses and more effective treatments. … Continue reading

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Why Internet Doctors Push Habits Instead of Recognizing Conditions

Doctors on the Internet stay at the level of individual behavior because their authority holds and the solutions stay marketable. Medical social media influencers focus largely on self-management: Scroll less, eat better, try harder, and regulate yourself under conditions that … Continue reading

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What Happened to Empathy in Medicine?

Empathy in healthcare is strongly shaped by the conditions practitioners work under and the training culture that forms their habits of attention. Most medical education emphasizes hierarchy, speed, and diagnostic authority. Students learn early that their role is to control … Continue reading

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