Nov 29, 2008

Since when does fat equal crazy?

I tried to submit this story to First, do no harm but I have failed. I have been subjected to the same fat hatred from doctors on many occasions. One of the worst was when a specialist recommended bariatic surgery for PCOS. When I asked whether it would cure my PCOS (knowing that it wouldn't) he replied that it might. It gets scary when I know more about my disease than the specialist. It's especially scary when a specialist tries to make a patient go for an expensive and dangerous operation based on misinformation. That's gotta be illegal, right? Should I sue the pants off that asshole?

What happened to me last week, though, just takes the cake. I suffer from depression and was going to see a shrink. She was manipulative and so I fired her months ago. Last week, my current physician needed a report from her. She had destroyed the records as I requested and was doing it from memory. So all of that is fairly normal.

Then I got the report. She pulled a diagnosis out of her ass of Borderline Personality Disorder and/or Narcissistic Personality Disorder and blames my depression on these "personality" disorders (instead of PTSD which is the actual cause).

And why did I get such a diagnosis? She thinks I have a personality disorder because I don't hate my body. She thinks I'm narcissistic and out of touch with reality because I am "morbidly obese" at 270 and I'm fine with it. Her damning report is because I am content with being fat.

I don't know how many ways I can say that before I can believe it myself. If I was living in a country with a medical board, I would report her but I'm in the developing world at present.

Basically, her point is that the entire fat acceptance moment is composed of people with mental health problems because we accept ourselves or at least try to accept and love our bodies. Now that's fucked up.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

That sucks. It's a shame that you had to go through that.

That's a perfect example of how psychiatry is used as a tool to oppress anybody who does not follow so-called "norms".

While I believe that under some circumstances, therapy targeted to address a specific issue (such as recovery from trauma) is useful, I think that psychiatry exists primarily to reinforce kyriarchy.

In a reasonably sane world, that shrink would not have a job.

Mór Rígan said...

I believe that GG. I don't see how any person could be diagnosed as perfectly sane in this world.

Psychiatry is oppressive or can be used for evil instead of good. I am intrigued at your point of psychiatry as a tool of kyriarchy. I never saw it from that point of view before, thanks for the enlightenment! Must ponder it.

The whole situation me of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where psychiatrists paid the Vogans to destroy Earth because it was producing the question of life, the universe and everything.

hexy said...

She said WHAT??

Good god, that's awful. I'm so sorry.

I fear for any other plus-sized person who stumbles into her sub-par "care".

Mór Rígan said...

Thanks Hexy, I found it particularly ironic because she outweighs me by 100kgs.

I think that diagnosis was a way of getting back at me for daring to disagree with her. It just difficult to believe that a "professional" would be so petty.

Anonymous said...

Holy crap, that's incredible! (Except that I guess it's NOT really that incredible, in the sense that it's not that unusual is it? Jesus.) I'm sorry there isn't anyone to report that shrink to, though; she should really be fired over that.

Found you through Lola Snow, btw. :)

Mór Rígan said...

Thanks Marste. There is no regulatory body in this particular SE Asian country. Hell there's a con man going around telling everyone he's a psychiatrist and he truly believes it but he is delusional. This is one of those lawless places.

My shrink is the only half decent one in town and I fired her. She wanted vengence!

Anonymous said...

i can empathise with you so much- i have been in treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder and PCOS for a number of years, having displayed symptoms of both condition sfrom an early age. i don't dispute the fact that i was borderline, because i really had those sympyoms, but i think the PCOS aggravated it. And in turn, the meds i took for BPD aggravated the PCOS. i have been told i may have PTSD because i was abused and when i self-harmed it was often because of it, but looking back now, one of the things my abuser did to me was taunt me for my weight issues. As a teenage girl i started struggling with my weight and was called "not normal" and "crazy" by my abuser. He would say he was ashamed of me for my size and implied that he was ashamed of me for having mental problems.

Mór Rígan said...

Schnitzel I'm so sorry to hear that you experienced such abuse. Some people take such pleasure in trying to destroy others.

The two conditions feed into each other and get into a vicious circle.

I just wish for competent affordable healthcare for all.