Thankfully, hysteria is no longer considered a viable diagnosis. But there are still so many synonyms for hysteria that are used regularly in the medical world, such as psychosomatic disorder, somataform disorder, functional disorder, and many more. I'm making a choice to push back against this language around illness. It's lazy science. It's harmful medicine. …
Continue reading Synonyms for Hysteria are Used to Silence Patients
When I talk about my disabilities, people pick up on my underlying stress, trauma, and grief about the subject right away. If they've never been chronically ill themselves, they often assume the illness was borne from these emotions. In other words, they believe that my illness is to some degree psychosomatic, something I could overcome …
Can you imagine how your diagnosis and treatment journey would have gone differently if you had been treated as a reliable narrator of your own lived experience right from the start? For me, so much suffering could have been avoided if I had been believed. My pediatrician could have easily diagnosed my migraine disorder when …
