Okay, I’ve thought about this question for most of a day, because the obvious answer is “….why would I?”, but it’s clearly not obvious to you.
Now, I know exactly what you’re thinking. They’re a doctor. They’re a professional you’ve gone to for help. And pain and fatigue are, like, medical things, right? Going to a doctor about medical stuff and then saying “LOL NOPE” to what the doctor says is like hiring a plumber and then arguing about how to fix your sink, right? If you’re so smart, why’d you call the plumber over?
Okay.
But now imagine your basement is flooding and you call the plumber. While on the phone, the plumber asks you what the problem is and you say that there’s a pipe in your basement that’s burst and it’s now flooded.
And the plumber—still on the phone—says “LOL NOPE.”
And you say, “Excuse me?”
The plumber says, “Look, a flooded basement is a really severe problem, okay? Usually, these calls, they’re a clogged toilet or a leaky u-bend under the sink. Trust me, this is better. Those are a lot cheaper to fix.”
And you say, “I’m sure they are, but I’m telling you, my basement is flooded. I’m looking down the stairs and I can see the water.”
“I’m just saying, there are other things it could be. It won’t hurt anything to eliminate them first,” the plumber says.
And you say, “But I need my basement fixed! Look, I can’t go down in my basement and do laundry right now, and I have important keepsakes down there in boxes… some of them are already ruined, but maybe I can salvage some if we can just fix the problem.”
“Well, then it will be in your interest for me to check your toilets and your u-bends,” the plumber says.
“The problem is not in my toilets or my sinks,” you say. “I am looking at the problem. I called you because my basement is flooded, and I need you to help me fix that.”
And then… now, I’m not assuming you’re female, but I just want to emphasize that this is a starkly though not exclusively gendered phenomenon, so if you’re not female then imagine you are.
“MA’AM,” the plumber says, in a way you recognize. It’s the voice of putting you in your place, the voice of unearned authority, and with this voice, this word, ma’am, is not a title of respect, it’s a reminder and a command. “MA’AM, if you’ll just calm down. I’m sure what you’re experiencing seems terrible to you, but the truth is, it’s probably not as bad as it looks from where you’re standing. And that’s a good thing! Trust me, have been a plumber for 27 years. Now, when can I come over to check your u-bends?”
“It’s not my u-bends!” you say.
“Ma’am, if you don’t want to be helped, I’ll start to think you’re calling for attention.”
You see?
(Now for bonus points, imagine the plumber refuses to help you until you lose a statistically improbable amount of weight just to rule out that this might be flooding your basement, or is acting on the subconscious but deeply entrenched idea that people with your skin color are less susceptible to flooding and in less need of help, or believes that as a feeeemale you’re more likely to be suffering from emotional distress than a physical problem and suggests the preferable course of action would be for you to take a nap every time the supposed flooding in your basement bothers you.)
As I said in that post, pain and fatigue — like dysphoria — are qualitative experiences. This means they happen in your head and they cannot be directly observed or measured by anyone else (which would make them quantitative phenomena).
The doctor talking to you about dysphoria —or pain or fatigue — is not a plumber in your house, they are a plumber on the phone. The only input they receive about the problem is your account of it.
And if they’re not willing to listen to what you say and aren’t willing to take you at your word, then all the expertise and experience in the world doesn’t matter. You can have the most powerful calculator in the world but if you type the wrong numbers into it it will still give the wrong answers. Someone can be the best doctor in the world but if they’re ignoring the information they’re not going to give you the right answer.
Thx, @clinicallydepressedpug!
This is so good. I’d add, too, that in my experience, sometimes you are talking to the plumber because, well, your basement is full of water! OBVIOUSLY it’s your plumbing, right? I mean, something in your plumbing has to have ruptured for that to be like that, right?
… except what’s actually happened is that you have a secret aquifer off to one side of your basement, and the wall has exploded inward, and so a thing that no one is even looking at is causing the problem. Or maybe your sump pump failed and your cellar door is leaking water, so it’s a dead sump pump.
But since you’re talking to a plumber, they’re like ‘WELP, I RAN ALL THE TESTS, THE PIPES ARE ALL FINE’ but your basement is still full of water and you’re like ???? But it’s not fine???? and they’re like I hope you don’t want any help with how uncomfortable it is having a basement full of water! Because you are clearly just doing this so that I will give you assistance with the symptoms here.
So you can be telling the truth, but because a plumber is only focused on the plumbing, and the problem is not at all with the plumbing but with some other system within your house, they will miss the problem entirely, aka ‘when you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.’
Thoughtfulfangirling 