The healthcare here is so awful people have developed a cultural conditioning to be afraid of medical care. I’ve had a handful of experiences in the last month and I can never imagine how miserable it must be to go through it constantly if you’re infirmed or disabled. And I’m supposed to have ‘good’ health insurance.
Recently I had an old injury in my wrist flare up and it has kept me from doing any form of actual physical activity that keeps me in shape. All the orthopedics in the area are either never able to pick up the phone despite making $300k+ per year, or are out of network entirely. If I’m gonna get it looked at, I better get it looked at soon because we paid our deductible this year after my father almost lost his hand.
Aside from the wrist pain, I’ve recently wanted to get tested for a couple mental conditions. Everyone who’s ever been close to me (other than my parents) kind of believes I’m neurodivergent of some sort. My ex girlfriend, current girlfriend, sister, and closest friends are pretty much convinced I have ASD. I involuntarily stim by rocking back and forth, whispering my words back to myself, and flicking my hands, if I’m not looking for it, I don’t understand sarcasm, and when I was a kid all I ever wanted to talk about was bugs, sharks, and science. I took the RAADS-R and CAT-Q tests online and my results were essentially so high I’ve been considering getting tested for some time now. I also have ADHD in my family history. Problem is, my family wouldn’t be so thrilled about me getting an exam for Autism, so I tried to soften the blow by asking for an ADHD exam, hoping that I could communicate my issue to the test practitioner and get them to subtly ‘recommend’ an autism exam for me. For like three or four days my mom was trying to discourage me from ‘getting on medication’ and repeatedly explained why she believed it was unlikely for me to have ADHD until I dropped the issue.
I tried to get around having to go through their insurance by asking my college to see if I could get diagnosed through the school because they’d never see that charge. When I finally got into the psychology department and asked the front desk about examinations, they said it’d cost me $300 and it would take several months to get off the waitlist. In no world can I afford that, so I decided I’ll just live in ignorance for now.
Christ, add this last week to the mile long list of reasons why, if I could change one thing about the past, I’d drill a damn hole into Columbus’ boat. I can’t wait till I move out of here.
“B-b-but ELECTIONS ARE RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER! THE REPUBLICANS CAN LOSE SEATS! If the Dems win more seats, then more of Trump’s awful shit will be blocked for at least a week before he weasels his way out of it and does it anyways. You can’t just move, if you do you need to keep voting Democrat overseas. I swear bro pls just vote one more time for the Zionist pro-capitalist party that promises no significant change. Bro I swear we’ll change shit up. We’ll give tax credits to Private schools to accept one more minority or something.”
The state of healthcare in the US is one of the things that makes me wonder about just how long the state can hold together without fundamental change. I think the stuff to do with insurance and medical bills is a very important issue, but is also such an outsized issue, it ends up obscuring other issues. Like it’s not just that. It’s also the extent to which clinics are turned into conglomerates for profit. It’s not having enough staff for the number of patients. It’s areas of the country where profitability taking precedence means a place may get shut down while also being one of the only places for miles in the area. It’s medicinal practice that seems to be largely based on popping pills, which is not inherently bad or something, but often has hard limits and can turn people into profit in the form of having to pay for expensive meds regularly for their health (which means the industry is motivated to treat chronic symptoms rather than putting more energy into fixing underlying problems).
Basically, capitalism, but the damage is more pervasive than a look at the symptoms of privatized healthcare might suggest. It’s probably more pervasive than I realize, honestly. I’ve had more than one time where I was more trusting than I should have been that the process and the decisions of medical professionals was a reasonable one, and it was not. I still think the field as a whole knows way more than me as a layperson, I’m not gonna go around saying I know more than a doctor. But the consequences of turning healthcare into profit are not to be underestimated.
I’ve got a spine surgery coming up next week and I had a sinus surgery a few months ago. The diagnostics alone for those things ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, not even accounting for the procedures themselves.
And everything takes months to get done because somehow everyone is overloaded and extremely busy at all times.
The next time someone tells me the US has the best healthcare system in the world I’m going to punch them in the mouth.
Medical treatment is just an absolute scam and racket and I’ve never met a doctor who actually cares about their patients. It took them nearly 4 years to diagnose my cancer because they kept refusing to do tests, telling me I was just depressed or just a hypochondriac. The only reason I got diagnosed in the end was because my employer paid for me to get tested at a private hospital. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. It took 17 years, yes SEVENTEEN years of begging before they sent me for tests to find out what is wrong with my bladder and I’m still on the waiting list for surgery for that, god knows how many years I will have to wait. And don’t even get me started on physiotherapy, years of this nonsense hasn’t made a difference, I still can’t walk properly or do basic things after my stroke. Everything got so bad I made a suicide attempt, I was in intensive care for 5 days, then discharged with no further help, asked for therapy and ended up on the waiting list for 5 years before being given 8 sessions of absolute nonsense therapy then discharged. Then the government wonders why there are so many incapacitated people who can’t work.
My theory is every doctor is given more patients than they can possibly care about, so they become as alienated from their work as any factory worker. Healthcare is an assembly line. They care as much about their patients as I care about the car parts I make.
My theory is that people don’t go into medicine because they care but for the status of the job, or because their parents pressured them into it.
That definitely plays a role, but it really depends on where they work and what they’re specialized in. They can work incredibly long hours because hospitals want to have as few workers on staff as possible in order to minimize costs. Almost no one in medicine is working as little as 40 hours a week, most are working 49-58 hours on average and some are working up to 80 hours a week. In those conditions, where’s the room for care? You’re a car part on an assembly line to them.
I guess both aspects play a part.
That’s awful, but I guess what’s new for the healthcare systems of the West? I’ve known people who’ve been denied pain meds for hours because the doctors think they’re just ‘junkies’ looking for a ‘fix’ instead of real people in real pain. The lack of care doctors have for their patients is a real issue everywhere that doctors are minted, especially in the US where the average salary is hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. By virtue of being around many members of the petty-bourgeoisie during my upbringing, I’ve known many of them decide to go to med school — not for fulfillment or to save or improve lives, but rather for nothing more than greed. Like seriously, most of these people have no aspirations, no interest in a ‘valuable’ field like engineering or something. Instead, they’d rather go into medicine solely for money. The way some of these people talk about playing with peoples lives like it’s an investment decision is honestly disgusting. That’s who these doctors are.
I know it’s not much of a consolation, but I couldn’t imagine where I could find the strength to keep going if I had to deal with half of the shit you put up with in that comment. Stay strong comrade, we are here for you <3.
When I was having my stroke, I was sitting in the hospital ward’s waiting room all day long. During that time my period started, and despite asking multiple doctors and nurses, none brought me paracetamol or a pad. So I was sitting there all day, having a stroke, drenched in my own blood and in horrible pain, being totally ignored. They just do not care at all. It’s the tip of the iceberg, so much other stuff like this happened.
Thanks for the moral support, this is the only place I find any.
What are you hoping to gain out of a diagnosis of ADHD or autism?
I guess just an answer as to whether or not I have it? I don’t believe it’d make a difference to me whether or not I’d have it. I’m still me. What it may do is teach me to be kinder to myself in periods of long procrastination or inability to do much, assuming I am diagnosed. If I find out I do not have either, then I suppose I can determine what deeper issue is affecting me—whether I have some form of depression or burnout. It’ll just allow me to understand myself further, really.
If your raads-r is high it is highly likely that you do. But it might be disadvantageous to have a diagnosis in some cases, like if you are planning to emigrate at some point. Please research potential impacts before proceeding.
A diagnosis of either adhd or autism does not diminish chances of immigration, and does not need to be disclosed at any stage of the process. Turning people away from potentially lifesaving treatment with outright false information is harmful and extremely rash.
No part of the immigration procedure involves the disclosure of disabilities, unless the disabilities render the person incapable of caring for themselves or holding a job. Even then the person must choose to disclose their disability of their own volition, and only if they fail to establish how they plan to earn enough to survive or contribute to the society. The physical checkup part of the immigration process also checks only physical health, and will not explore or request any information on mental disabilities.
A diagnosis further aids in securing treatment as no one will provide adhd medication without a concrete diagnosis.
