I'm a person, not a disease.

It’s funny being a patient because in the beginning you're desperate for help and answers, you then, eventually, find some answers and get diagnosed, start medication/treatment and have medical professionals who deal with your care. However, you somehow reach a point where healthcare professionals start looking at you and speaking to you and about you, like you are your condition; like that is all you have and are now. Whether it's from a self protection place for them to not get too attached or it's plain ignorance, they stop seeing you as a whole person. As a response, we may end up identifying as our disease.

As patients, is it our job to show our whole selves to doctors?

What if they're not interested in that?

Should we stop identifying as conditions and start introducing ourselves otherwise?

How can we work together to fix this?

Patients are people too. They have lives, people in thier lives, a past present and future, whatever that looks like for the individual. Yes they're unwell in some sort of way but it is so important to treat them as whole and not only their disease. They may be bed ridden but that still doesn't make them less of a person.

This is so much deeper than this one post, which i will be touching on in future posts. Some may feel certain doctors lack empathy and the ability to humanise healthcare. However the other side we need to think about is how doctors see illnesses, diseases and very low points in people's lives, multiple times a day and they, as humans, would need to find their own way to not get too close and have a level of desensitisation. Again, another part would then be, how much of it is them protection themselves and how much of it is their personality?

Personally, I would have a better relationship with a professional who asks about my life and how they can add to it, than someone who doesn't care about any other aspect of my life and how my condition may impact it, because they only care about the condition itself.

If we take me for an example. I'm in my mid 20s, a Women of colour from a very minority community, born and bred in the UK, went to university, have a full time job, have siblings and friends, am a big homebody but also like to socialise, love music, dancing, cooking & baking, travelling and art. On the flip side, I have multiple chronic illnesses, I struggle with basic tasks sometimes, I'm in pain most times, I take a bunch of drugs to function and have gathered a handful of specialists i see.

2 people or 1? I have my health stuff but i also have everything else. Somedays the health stuff is much bigger than the other side and sometimes it's the opposite. One doesn't equal out the other but my poorly self is not my identity.

Medical professionals need to see and speak to people as a whole and not just spend the 5 minutes on their condition and giving them treatments. Working with patients as a whole can improve their health and wellbeing because you are focusing on how you can support them to thrive as a person and not which bandage you can use today to close off an issue. It is important to understand how things effect each other and the difference it can make to treat the whole individual.