i treat them like anybody else really. i keep it brief and don’t question them really unless i have an issue. honestly, i don’t know if it’s my false confidence or what, but i don’t think of them as being any smarter than me. if i was interested in psychiatry i assume i could’ve become a psychiatrist, had i actually gave a damn about school. psychiatry or medicine has never been an interest of mine.
my default is treating people with respect, even when they disrespect me. ((personally, i dont think that anyone deserves special treatment for how much money they spent on college debt. people who do deserve special treatment are those you care for)) this typically works out for me
I treat all my doctors, gp’s, pdocs, and specialists with very great respect because they all have 10 to 12 years or more of higher education and I believe that deserves respect. And I always address them as Dr. Last name.
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I talk to her like a regular Joe. At my last appointment I said, “Man, your secretary has a set of nice knockers, you sure know how to pick ‘em.”
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I treat them with everyday respect, but as equals. I acknowledge they have education and experience in the field and I don’t, but I don’t see them as authority figures and won’t treat them as such.
Besides er doctors who have saved my life I treat doctors better than they treat me, most of my experiences with drs is them being disrespectful and dismissive and braggy, every now and then I get a good one.
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You have to consider it’s not just about how much money they took out in college debt. It’s also about all that hard work and sacrifice they made studying for so many years and all those 24 hour shifts and sleepless nights. I strongly think they deserve a lot of respect.
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But dont you think it is unfair if, for example, a nurse gets much less respect than a doctor? He or she has all the hard work and night shifts and drama too, often much more so than a doctor, and minus the money and status. Were i live, the psych doctors go home at 4 or 5 pm and the nurses do evening and nightshifts (there is a pdoc on call at home for emergency). And the nurses are often more kind and humble, which makes me respect them more.
I disliked i was to call the nurse “Janice” or “Tom” and the pdoc “Doctor so-and-so”. They also did that among each other. This inequality felt very disrespectful to the nurses in my eyes.
I dont mind calling someone doctor Lastname, but then he can call me Drs Lastname or Lastname Msc - and i will call the nurses who work their ass off mr/mrs Lastname too. 
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I also think some of the experienced nurses know a lot more, in practice, than the doctors.
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IDK. Doctors go through more schooling to get to where they are. To be in their position you have know a whole lot more crap then a nurse does. But I see your point, it’s just one of the inequalities of life.
It’s just kinda the same with teachers. Many, many people besides themselves would tell you that they are overworked and underpaid. And under-appreciated.
Also, the doctor has more responsibility and more is expected from them than nurses. It may not be fair but this happens a lot in the working world and it happens in many other professions.
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I found I could get my healthcare workers to like me better if I was kind to them.
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Last time I talked to my pdoc on the video phone I yelled at her for a half hour and said the f word. I don’t know if they are going to make me go to another agency. I’ve done this about five times before over the 25 years I’ve been with them. I see people there five times a month.
Golden rule applies.
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How are you defining respect? I respect everybody equally regardless of their education or titles. A factory worker deserves as much respect as a doctor as one isn’t better than another. My respect goes out the window if it is not mutual and then I will do enough to get by professionally.
Having worked in retail and dealing with some of the worst people I’ve ever met, I often wondered why people think anyone wouldn’t deserve respect regardless of their social status.
I’ve come to learn that I’m not better than anybody, and nobody is better than me. I think this is the foundation to both giving and receiving respect.
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I push people away sometimes.
When I cancel an appointment, and the pdoc calls regardless after I have been categorically told by the secretary that the appointment has been cancelled and will be given to someone else, I lose my ■■■■.
Honestly, I am not proud of it, but I really should treat these people with more respect. The trouble is I have had a fractured relationship with mental health services
I know they’re trying, underfunded and very busy, but I remember all the broken promises people make - and all the things that go wrong with my treatment. It makes me angry
It got to a point where I told the pdoc on my last call to stop apologising for other clinicians misgivings as it was not his fault.
Last review I questioned what the whole point of the review was.
Problem I have is I need this people, and at the same time I don’t want to have to deal with them
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i talk subserviently and deference because i am afraid if i dont they will hospitalize me faster should i go into a downward spiral. also, a lot of it is just my past with pdocs and not all the relationships were ideal or healthy.
trigger warning/abuse, sexual assault, inpatient:
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one inpatient doctor i had for almost a decade routinely [spoiler]
gave me long hugs, which at the time was relieving because i thought the cia was going to torture me and my family and i thought it was the last hug i’d get, but in retrospect, it was unprofessional of him since he didn’t do that with any other patients he saw and i was in and out of psych wards like biannually for years, at minimum. He also did abusive things like keep my attempted rapist on the ward with me for two more weeks after i reported him and showed them proof, and the guy threatened me daily until I started using the ward phone to call for legal help, at which point the guy was shuttled off somewhere else. nobody was able to help me, btw, that pdoc is still in practice even though i filed a complain online with some agency or watchdog, i forgot it was years ago.
i always wonder if he kept me in for months at a time because i deserved it or because he thought of me as a ‘pet’, which i felt very strongly was true for a long time. that wasn’t the only unethical pdoc i have had, although i have had at least 3 very good and trustworthy pdocs, one a man and the others women,
but yea, that inpatient unethical pdoc was my first pdoc from age 19-27 or 28 and i saw him for months at a time being locked inside psych wards for most of my 20’s
[/spoiler].
i am always too afraid that they will send me in quicker or keep me in longer if i were to act normally to them, or snap at them. i have brought up those experiences to a couple therapists, but they say those were horrible experiences you had but you shouldnt dwell on them, you need to move forward, and im like can i just vent about it…so yes, seen therapists, no not really healed lol.
but i treat them like they have my life in their hands.
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