When a doctor looks at a list of your medications/ hospitalizations and sees you were admitted to New York Presbyterian five times in two years and that you are now on thirteen medications, their tone might change. Suddenly, you are no longer presenting as the bright, intelligent woman that walked into the office. Now you are a nutjob, a headcase, an unreliable narrator. Respect turns to that of a condescending nature. And because you are said nutjob/ headcase/ unreliable narrator, they think you won’t pick up on it. But, of course, you do.
I have met many wonderful doctors- both in private practice and public emergency rooms. I have met kind EMT workers, and sympathetic mental health workers and I have an amazing psychiatrist. But contempt and ridicule of the mentally ill, indeed anyone who is perceived as “handicapped” or “disabled”, is entirely too common. In my 26 years, I have seen doctor after doctor warm to me after an initial greeting only to visibly change once viewing my medicine sheet. I am bipolar, not a moron. I can read the expression of someone’s face when they are just humoring me.
As I said, respect doesn’t just apply to people with mental illness. It relates to those with muscular dystrophy, autism, down syndrome, really any human being because everybody, no matter what their physical, emotional, or intellectual capacity, is deserving of the kind of respect that so many of us take for granted. Wouldn’t you want that for your brother/ sister/ child/ friend/ partner? Wouldn’t you want that for yourself?
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