Patient (we know not what the diagnosis is):
"I felt listened to and understood"
*Feeling listened to and understood* and actually *Being listened to and understood* are two different things for new/newly seen patients in NHS clinics for ME/LC/ so called MUS/MUPS/PUPS/ETC ETC
I recall *Feeling* properly listened to *For the first time* at my first and only appointment at Bart's 'CFS clinic' 2002. The consultant gave all *The Appearance* of listening, and nodding in all the right places, the odd word of confirmation. The 'treatment'? Referred to local services for CBT and GET.
BUT, when I requested and read the consultant's write up, his letter to my GPs, I realised that his behavior and responses *WERE ALL AN ACT*. What he wrote bore no relation to what I had said to him at the appointment, or what he actually said to me.
I wondered if he was a graduate of RADA rather than a graduate of any medical school.
But he was so convincing in his deception, so warm, so sympathetic.
New/newly seen ME or LC patients are so vulnerable to that form of deception from medical and other health care professionals whose arrogance has led them to think that any amount of deceiving patients is justified.
I was still too cognitively disabled to be online at that time (year 7 of ME) and so was not forewarned. BUT my local group recommended referral to Bart's, thereby collaborating with the Bart's patented deception of patients which was an extreme version of gaslighting, ie it was not to my face, but behind my back in the letter to my GPs, which is of course indelible and cannot be removed from my records.
Edit Postscript:
I was too sick to attend any more appointments so too sick to go to local CBT and GET appointments. So Barts then dropped me like a rock, and would not write anything that gave a realistic view of how very sick/disabled I was. So, no evidence for IB. My sister took a day off work to get me to that Bart's appointment. Total waste of her time and my energy. That Barts clinic was a sham.
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