Why oh why would you lie?
Here’s an unfortunate truth that doctors learn: Many patients fib.
I can’t read minds. To tell you the truth, I don’t know any doctors who can, but that’s beside the point.
Now, don’t get bent out of shape that I might be accusing you. On the contrary. Let’s bring it out into the open where it can be discussed. There are many, many reasons behind why patients would not tell the whole truth, but researchers have come across a few main ones.
One big reason? Most folks want to present themselves in the best light possible. I think we all want to do that, and it’s understandable. Best foot forward, right? Well, it has its time and its place.
And that time and place is not in your doctor’s office.
When doctors ask their patients if they are taking their prescribed medications, a lot of patients will say yes. But neither side is elaborating in either the questioning or the answering. The doctor needs to know if you are consistently taking it. You might say you’re taking it, but you leave out the part of not taking that one dose at night because it interferes with your sleep, or that it’s making your stomach hurt.
Or, you may be seeing a specialist for a one-time problem, and when asked what medications you are on, you leave out the part about taking medication for depression. What’s it this doctor’s business, right? Wrong. The specialist will prescribe a medication based on your answer (or lack of), and unknowingly create a pharmaceutical cocktail for disaster in your body.
Some other reasons that people give misinformation in their doctor’s office is due to the clinical surroundings. They feel intimidated, sitting in a sterile environment with the equivalent of a tissue covering them. They feel their doctor is rushed, and in the race to get out of the office, the patient often has trouble remembering everything they want to bring up. Or, they keep their answers to a minimum so as not to appear “troublesome.”
I have always been very conscious of the effect of environment on my patients. For this reason, I recently converted my practice into what I refer to as “living-room-talk-medicine.” It’s not the actual doctor’s office that 99.9 percent of patients have come to expect. While I still have the machines and various paraphernalia necessary for a medical practice, I also provide comfortable surroundings—a living room space. I’ve asked my patients what they’ve thought of this, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. While a few were at first surprised by the set-up, they quickly adjusted and did what I hoped they would d They got comfortable and shared information regarding their health, at length and as a partner. But I’m just a country doctor, trying to keep alive the memory of when medicine was all about just that—practicing medicine, and benefiting the patient in the best way possible.
I’ve said before that you need to be your own advocate in matters of health, and in order to do that, you need to be completely upfront with everything pertaining to your health and habits. If you can’t tell your doctor, then who can you tell? And if you aren’t comfortable telling the particular doctor that you have, it’s time to find a new one.
