Being negatively judged by healthcare professionals because ur a user or previous user

[feelingood7282]

Hello guys , I am a bluelighter and user working on a small project about how WE as users and previous users have been treated poorly, judged or even discriminated against in a healthcare setting by healthcare professionals because of being a user or previous user. No names or places are necessary, just a brief description of what happened to you, how u were treated. Thank you!!!!

 

[feelingood7282]

This is one of my MANY personal experiences
I went to the dentist to have three teeth surgically cut out. As I'm sitting in the dentist chair waiting for him to come in the door opens and he does not say hello or introduce himself instead the first words out of his mouth is I will not be giving you narcotics. Just because I have methadone on my chart as medication that I'm taking he just assumed that I am seeking. Really crappy that he couldn't even introduce himself or treat me like any other patient that sits in that chair it's just wrong to be treated that way.

 

[crazyhairman]

My family doctor started having little conversations with me in my teens. First he would talk about the dangers of drugs randomly. The final straw was when he came in and told me I had indeed tested positive for an std. He looked and acted disgusted. I was already a nervous wreck and worried. He said I was in the high risk of my lifestyle and sexuality.

I couldn't even imagine what he assumed I was doing with my life. But my attitude went from sadness to anger. Before I left I told him what I thought.

I said "you have been my doctor since I was a kid , I get that you are looking out for my health and I appreciate that" " but the way you judge me over smoking a little weed or knowing my sexuality because of something I told you in confidence I won't be coming back here". Oh " and another thing I went to highschool with your son N, or is it step son idk , but he was a raging pill head, so think about that before you talk to me about WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW!!

"You think it's easy for - (he walked out of the room before I could finish) and that was the last time I saw my family doctor.

He was probably a dushbag all the time because his own kid was a drug addict. I shouldn't have used that against him like that. But I saw red when he was chastising me over my sexuality.

 

[crazyhairman]

I've watched my sibling try to call 911 for an ambulance because they were on withdrawal from heroin. 3 times all together. The paramedics always stayed professional, went through the basics. Checked their vitals, listening to the symptoms. There was just nothing they could do medically.

" So is there anything you can give me for the pain?? I'm just supposed to suffer like this? "

I remember my inlaws throwing a fit , claiming that "this is what's wrong with this country, I'm in pain but they don't care about us , we aren't even human to them". I tried to calm them down while keeping my cool.

I was kinda stuck in the middle, I didn't want to upset my family but I also wanted them to get into treatment. It was a fucked situation. But I didn't see how blaming the first responders was warranted.

I've seen it from both sides of the coin

 

[feelingood7282]

I've watched my sibling try to call 911 for an ambulance because they were on withdrawal from heroin. 3 times all together. The paramedics always stayed professional, went through the basics. Checked their vitals, listening to the symptoms. There was just nothing they could do medically.

" So is there anything you can give me for the pain?? I'm just supposed to suffer like this? "

I remember my inlaws throwing a fit , claiming that "this is what's wrong with this country, I'm in pain but they don't care about us , we aren't even human to them". I tried to calm them down while keeping my cool.

I was kinda stuck in the middle, I didn't want to upset my family but I also wanted them to get into treatment. It was a fucked situation. But I didn't see how blaming the first responders was warranted.

I've seen it from both sides of the coin

Thank you for sharing your negative experience !!! I am working with a community advisory board here in Pittsburgh,Pa reguarding the "bullshit". WE have deal with when it comes to this very subject. We currently are gathering ANY and ALL info to shed more light on truly how negatively we are treated and are working on actually forming type of BILL OF RIGHTS as a type of guide for healthcare professionals to better treat us. Every project and great thing starts small so we hope to grow this and spread throughout the healthcare system as a whole and mabey just mabey one by one we can change even a little this bias, negative judgement against us. THANK YOU AGAIN crazyhair for your time and experience. You just contributed to a great cause that has no limits much needed positive change for "US".

 

[LucidSDreamr]

That’s why I’ve never told those mother fuckers once that I use even when hospitalized for a using related reason.

Plus you’ll lose permanently access to pain meds even if you sack is ripped off they won’t give you any.

 

[Frog Dreams]

Depends on the drug. Doctors don't like meth. They hate IV meth addicts. I was treated horribly by numerous doctors when I told them that I was using meth intravenously. One time a doctor kicked me out of his office and banned me from ever seeing him again. I didn't raise my voice. I didn't say anything abusive. I wasn't physically aggressive... and I REALLY needed help. It was bizarre. I was in shock. I didn't understand what was happening.

These days, I disclose as little as possible about my drug use... which sucks because it is relevant to so many things.

I injected drugs for 15 years. I don't want to say that to a doctor but I feel like I need to say it (or make up a lie) in order for them to approve a government funded heart / lung / kidney / liver examination.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

Forget about seeking mental healthcare also.

I’ve needed mental healthcare my whole damn life and maybe it’s tied to my addiction.

I’ve never even considered getting mental healthcare for addiction or suicidal ideation because I want wants left of my right to access pain medication in tact

 

[foodcrisis]

i've been treated pretty well by health care professionals. no one ever really judges me and they are all pretty nice with the execption of some of them are persistent that i take meds, but after a short period they always send me to another psychiatrist that seems to be okay with taking me off meds.

like i actually recieve social security money because of my disability of schizophrenia, but the thing is, while getting diagnosed, i had actually been hospitalized with lsd in my system twice, so i'm thinking they could try to make a case like "why would we give you disability money when you keep using drugs. this isn't even schizophrenia it's drug induced schizophrenia." like three other times i've been hospitalized i must've had really high levels of marijuana in my system too, so i really don't see how i'm being given money for pretty much screwing up doing drugs.. i'm thinking i might have a secret record where i had schizophrenia as a child, so maybe they are being lenient with me... but i'm pretty much surprised how okay the mental health system is with me. i've never really endangered anyone other than myself, so maybe that's part of why, but i could definitely see them being like "you need to be on meds if you want our social security money." doesn't seem to be that way. i'm pretty much staying away from using illegal drugs like i used to to not slip up again. probably wouldn't be the case if i had to work a job i hated all the time and wasn't on social security, then i'd be more accepting of going to prison or whatever. right now i just feel like they are giving me too much to mess up again and loose what they give me. life is too easy for me with social security. : /

i'd also never tell doctors i used something like salvia which i actually have recently. i'm thinking maybe they might not try to persecute me or whatever. i just see no reason to mention something like that... they are always accepting that i want to use weed though. seems way less controversial. who knows what the heck salvia actually is.

about pain killers. they stopped giving my father oxys at a low dose and he has almost every disk in his back herniated or ruptured and all he did was fail a drug test with weed. weed is even recreational in my state now. kind of sucks.

 

[Frog Dreams]

I find it interesting the number of people I encounter with schizophrenia who smoke weed.

I feel like, for me, that would be one of the worst drugs to consume.

 

[Juicewrldfan]

Yeah. It does suck to be judged and mistreated for having a disease (addiction) and I have had my own experiences myself though at times I realized I was just being projecting.

The most recent time I clearly wasn’t projecting though. My wife actually cried when the doctor left the room because she said she sees how some medical professionals treat addicts now. Basically, I set an appointment up when I completed inpatient rehab for follow up care. They put me in vyvanse in rehab and I knew some outpatient doctors would have issues with that.

So I called one of the places that left their flyer at the treatment center for aftercare and asked if they would have issue with it and they said no, taht it wouldn’t be an issue continuing my medication. Note I have trialed non stimulants before and they either weren’t effective or had intolerable side effects.

Well, she came in the room and after reviewing what I told the nurse regarding what medications I am on, she accused me of lying about being prescribed 60mg vyvanse and said she only sees the 10mg vyvanse. (They put me on a booster dose inpatient)

And I pulled up my cvs pharmacy profile and showed her my prescriptions being that they sent me prescriptions to bridge the gap between the appointments when I completed inpatient. And she said that doesn’t matter. She didn’t apologize for essentially calling ne a liar or anything and then went onto lie to me by telling me that vyvanse is only prescribed for children with adhd and that the only treatment for adults is Welbutrin and guancifine.

I explained the side effects I get from guancifine and how I trialed strattera (liver issues) and Welbutrin (ineffective) before which is why I’m in vyvanse. And you know what she did? She said “well I’m sending a prescription for guancifine and you can take it or leave it. Guancifine caused me severe crippling depression which is a known side effect. And I mean severe. And I was happy and things going well when I tried it.

So, yeah, I left the office and called and politkey canceled all future appointments and went back to my old doctor who I didn’t want to go to because he prescribed me adderral last time I used to see him last year and I wanted to stay in vyvanse.

Fortunately, when I went back to him he asked me if I wanted to stay in the vyvanse or go back on adderral IR. I stayed in the vyvanse. And he is an addiction specialist board certified. Has his own methadone clinic at his practice and suboxone clinic.and I know I said doctor but the one that was rude to me at the previous place was a NP and I think it’s just that people that are actual specialists in addiction know that untreated ADHD can lead to self medicating.

I did relapse though if I’m being honest but I’m back on track with my meds.
I just went to a lower dose that doesn’t cause euphoria but treats ky symptoms. Euphoria caused by medications is a major trigger for me so we corrected that.

Anyhow, I feel your pain man.

 

[Juicewrldfan]

I find it interesting the number of people I encounter with schizophrenia who smoke weed.

I feel like, for me, that would be one of the worst drugs to consume.

Yeah, that’s surprising and now that I think about it I knew of two people. One who had schizoaffective disorder and one had schizophrenia who both smoked weed.

I would think that would trigger psychosis

 

[Juicewrldfan]

Depends on the drug. Doctors don't like meth. They hate IV meth addicts. I was treated horribly by numerous doctors when I told them that I was using meth intravenously. One time a doctor kicked me out of his office and banned me from ever seeing him again. I didn't raise my voice. I didn't say anything abusive. I wasn't physically aggressive... and I REALLY needed help. It was bizarre. I was in shock. I didn't understand what was happening.

These days, I disclose as little as possible about my drug use... which sucks because it is relevant to so many things.

I injected drugs for 15 years. I don't want to say that to a doctor but I feel like I need to say it (or make up a lie) in order for them to approve a government funded heart / lung / kidney / liver examination.

Damn man. That sucks. Where I live you can find compassionate doctors. I mean I see a board certified addiction specialist physician and he treats my adhd and opioid addiction with no judgment at all. And he knows I used to do meth and propylhexidrine. He says he thinks I was self medicating partially and even told me of a couple studies that were small but showed that people with meth addiction treated for their adhd were less likely to relapse. They used vyvanse in the one study he described to me.

I have ran into the judgemental types tho.

 

[Juicewrldfan]

This is one of my MANY personal experiences
I went to the dentist to have three teeth surgically cut out. As I'm sitting in the dentist chair waiting for him to come in the door opens and he does not say hello or introduce himself instead the first words out of his mouth is I will not be giving you narcotics. Just because I have methadone on my chart as medication that I'm taking he just assumed that I am seeking. Really crappy that he couldn't even introduce himself or treat me like any other patient that sits in that chair it's just wrong to be treated that way.

Ridiculous, like vicodin would do anything euphoric while your on methadone.

 

[Juicewrldfan]

I've watched my sibling try to call 911 for an ambulance because they were on withdrawal from heroin. 3 times all together. The paramedics always stayed professional, went through the basics. Checked their vitals, listening to the symptoms. There was just nothing they could do medically.

" So is there anything you can give me for the pain?? I'm just supposed to suffer like this? "

I remember my inlaws throwing a fit , claiming that "this is what's wrong with this country, I'm in pain but they don't care about us , we aren't even human to them". I tried to calm them down while keeping my cool.

I was kinda stuck in the middle, I didn't want to upset my family but I also wanted them to get into treatment. It was a fucked situation. But I didn't see how blaming the first responders was warranted.

I've seen it from both sides of the coin

Yeah nothing they paramedics can really do. I
Where I’m at (USA) you can go to the ER and they can give you a three day supply of suboxone but doubt the paramedics could.

 

[TheUltimateFixx]

In general my experience is I'm always severely undermedicated for pain. About 10 years ago I was in hospital for acute pancreatitis. Anyone of you who've had that knows how ridiculously painful this condition is. They basically wanted to fob me off with some paracetamol. I could hear a nurse and the attendant physician arguing about me in the corridor and he kept going 'we can't give him morphine, he's an addict!'

... which I found ridiculous for two reasons. One, with the massive tolerance I had at the time, it's not like a standard therapeutic dose would get me high ; and second, what exactly did they think they were gonna prevent from happening by not giving me any? That I'd like it just a bit too much? I was like, y'know that metaphorical horse has already bolted and disappeared over the horizon quite a while ago.

Plus an astonishing number of medical staff seem to be ignorant of the fact that opiate-dependent patients have a LOWER pain threshold so require MORE by way of analgesia. I had to argue with 3 different docs to finally get my morphine, and pretty much had to graphically point out that come next morning they'd have to be doing A LOT of cleaning up after me if I wasn't to be given any. It was infuriating.

And yeah I've been met with a lot of prejudice from GPs. The most annoying thing is that once it's known you're a user, whatever complaint you come in with is gonna be chalked up to the fact you're a user, which can have severe repercussions if as a consequence you won't receive proper diagnosis and treatment for an array of physical and mental health problems.

The shittiest attitude however I've generally encountered from pharmacists for whatever reason. I've had them refuse to fill my script, act like they couldn't find it even though I'd been to the surgery to check and they told me they'd definitely sent it down, been made to wait while 10 people who came in after me got served first, snide remarks made about me in front of all the other customers etc etc.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

I find it interesting the number of people I encounter with schizophrenia who smoke weed.

I feel like, for me, that would be one of the worst drugs to consume.

The amount of them that smoke meth is off the charts.

Like I get that meth basically causes a form of psychosis that is almost exactly like schizophrenia…but I also have met hundreds of heavy meth users that were normal again when they stop.

 

[feelingood7282]

This is one of my MANY personal experiences
I went to the dentist to have three teeth surgically cut out. As I'm sitting in the dentist chair waiting for him to come in the door opens and he does not say hello or introduce himself instead the first words out of his mouth is I will not be giving you narcotics. Just because I have methadone on my chart as medication that I'm taking he just assumed that I am seeking. Really crappy that he couldn't even introduce himself or treat me like any other patient that sits in that chair it's just wrong to be treated that way.

Suffered from depression since i was a child, at times to the point of being suicidal. I'm also diagnosed with common anxiety disorder and an "unspecified personality disorder" (i have no idea what that is even supposed to mean).

Psychiatric services won't even book an appointment for me because i made the mistake of being honest about my drinking and drug use back in my younger days. This i can understand, because a psychiatrist can't give an accurate diagnosis to someone who is on drugs, but back when i was still on psych meds, i couldn't even discuss my medication with a doctor because of this, which is a bit much IMO.

One time i had been having constant panic attacks for many days in a row so i went to the doctor. When i finally got into the doctor's office i was put in restraints, which made my panic worse. I tried to reason with the staff at first, but then lost my shit, threatened a doctor who tried to put me on lithium without even speaking to me first and got taken into the drunk tank by the police. No charges were ever pressed, but i spent the night literally beating my head against the wall in the cell. Cops have a nurse on staff, but the pigs simply didn't give a fuck.

We are supposed to have one of the best public healthcare systems in the world, but if you have problems with addiction, you will always be treated as a second class citizen (especially when it comes to illegal drugs. Alcoholics get a bit more of a free pass as long as they are employed and pay their taxes.)

Sorry to hear about your experience but THANK YOU for sharing. No one truly understands what users go through in the medical field but other users UNBELIEVABLE that they actually restrained you during a panic attack....I can't even imagine..WTF !!!! Of course you lost your shit... ANYONE absolutely would in that very situation. !!! No soup!!! Messed up that they don't listen, understand and treat you after all isn't that the whole purpose they go to medical school to TREAT THOSE WHO NEED TREATED!!!. No wonder we all end up treating ourselves...most of them sure CHOOSE not to.. THANKS Humanityisthedevil for your time and experience !!!!!

 

[feelingood7282]

That’s why I’ve never told those mother fuckers once that I use even when hospitalized for a using related reason.

Plus you’ll lose permanently access to pain meds even if you sack is ripped off they won’t give you any.

We definitely are the ones that pay for being honest. Pretty fucked up that we have to lie about our own health to get better treatment if even.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

We definitely are the ones that pay for being honest. Pretty fucked up that we have to lie about our own health to get better treatment if even.

The ER is by far the worse and nastiest group of nurses in particular. They have this power trip they think their remedial 4 year degree that was covered in the first year of my 10 years of higher ed makes them some sort of experts. It has to come from some feelings of inadequacy or self esteem by having to work under MDs. The MDs are always chill and way more respectful and willing to listen in the ER ime.

I’ve shown up at my primary care doctor without an appoint instead of going to the emergency room because I just don’t want to waste a $200 co pay to be told im lying about whatever it is that’s wrong.

Any trip to a hospital in my future I have a kit packed in the freezer ready to go with illicit clean urine, warming pads for it, and my own opioid supply. There is nothing illicit even in my urine besides weed but I know that’s enough for them to treat you like shit. If the situation is organ failure related or not some sort of physical trauma I’ll give them my real urine as it could show them useful information like kidney or liver problems. But for a broken bone or something? Nope

That’s what it’s come to but im ready if I ever need to go to the hospital.