> I slowly see why there are people who do not trust medical professionals.
I think the slider isn't between trusting and not trusting medical professionals - it's between being a passive and active patient. We have to involve ourselves in our care. Educate yourself, get second opinions, connect with fellow patients and national experts. And ffs, do not listen to yt/x/tiktok people for anything.
You don't have to be an "active" patient and "self-advocate" if you trust your medical professional to make the decision that is in your best interest. Ergo, if you're advocating active medical involvement, you don't trust your medical professional either.
I can't trust my own mother, so I'll look up things myself before committing to one decision. as far as I can remember, as an adult, I've only been to the doctor's once without diagnosing myself, and I've never been wrong yet (the handful of times I've needed medical care anyway).
That's great but the trouble is that as you get older medical conditions become harder and harder to find out. They also become more dangerous.
I'm telling you this because my father was the same way you are. he avoided going to the doctor at all and diagnosed himself.
He also smoked for 60 years. Yeah. He had his first heart attack in his 30s. Very avoidable. His second in his 40s. Then another in his 50s. Finally died of lung cancer in his 70s. Honestly a miracle he made it that far.
You can tell if you're feeling okay. But a lot of diseases have no symptoms. The reality is you cannot run your own blood tests. If you're young, maybe it's fine. But as you get older it no longer flies. What happens is you will become very sick, realize it's due to something like high blood pressure or diabetes, and you're WAY too far gone to fix it. The earlier you get on top of bad markers, the better. You don't want to live 30+ years with something like high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
Maybe you don't smoke (good for you), but that doesn't save you. Neither does living an active lifestyle. You can get high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart failure, etc regardless of your lifestyle. There're people who die MUCH younger than my father did while being much healthier.
oh it's not an issue for me, I've been suicidal since I was 12, but don't have the guts to off myself. a few years ago I gave up entirely and decided to wait it out the long way, but the sooner something takes me out, the better. but thank you for the concern :-)
This actually didn't do away with my concern. I'm much more concerned now.
If it helps, keep in mind most medical issues don't kill you. They just lower your quality of life, sometimes a lot. So, if you've decided to stick it out, you might as well try to live the best life you can. Nobody wants to be chronically fatigued, or have bathroom troubles, or lose their hair, or whatever.
I think the slider isn't between trusting and not trusting medical professionals - it's between being a passive and active patient. We have to involve ourselves in our care. Educate yourself, get second opinions, connect with fellow patients and national experts. And ffs, do not listen to yt/x/tiktok people for anything.