Over on the You’re So Brave podcast, two trans men share stories of how nearly every time they try to access medical treatment for something unrelated to transitioning, the topic is inevitably changed to transitioning. This can be a particularly harmful practice since it often involves leaving the problem as originally described untreated. In some cases, it can even exacerbate the problem by throwing in invasive trauma on top of whatever the trans person was trying to get help for:
You can also find them on SoundCloud at @youre-so-brave-podcast
-Shiv
Is a transcript available?
Not all of us can view videos.
@AMM They’re on iTunes and SoundCloud if YouTube isn’t an option, but no, I don’t think anyone has transcribed You’re So Brave episodes.
*twitch* So much of this podcast was familiar, but that’s the one that makes me want to throw things. Dismissing your experiences, focusing on your genitals/surgery status instead, prying for information that has nothing to do with the visit… and then the cherry on top is the least helpful and sometimes actively harmful advice.
Shortly after an assault, I started seeing a therapist who dismissed my emotions and experiences every time they came up, insisting my “illogical” thoughts were the root of my problem. Preeeeeeetty sure that’s not the issue here.
@AMM I watched it. It’s an hour long conversation with some digressions and interruptions. I can provide a summary, though.
One guy suffers from depression and self-harming, the other likely has Borderline Personality Disorder. They both had horrible experiences with the same therapist, and they both tell their own story, and then discuss the problem generally.
The guy with depression went in out of desperation. The conversation he had with the doc was about his surgery, and future surgery plans. The doctor asked a lot of questions about the details of phallioplasty. When the guy tried to describe his symptoms, the doctor seems not to be listening and didn’t take notes, but he DID take notes about the surgery details.
The doctor ended up diagnosing the depressed guy as having Borderline Personality Disorder and gave him a prescription for mood stabilizers. The guy is rather sure that if he had taken those, he would have ended up dead of suicide. The doctor also forged his GP’s name and signature on the diagnosis.
The other guy, the one that probably DOES have BPD, has been trying to get that diagnosis so that he can move on with treatment but it can only responsibly be diagnosed over time and he’d been having trouble getting the same therapist to provide care for long enough to get the diagnosis. He was *floored* when his friend got it after talking to this guy for 20 minutes.
His own experience with the doctor echo’d the first guy. The doctor seemed uninterested in helping, asked them ‘well, what do you want me to do?’ sorts of things. They both went there for mental health care, and left with nothing. Even worse off, by some measures.
They are galled that the only reason they are alive is because they had self-diagnosed and knew something about their conditions ahead of time; at least enough to know what care they were receiving was inappropriate and dangerous.
There is a lot of joking around using the BPD diagnosis as the punchline.