It's also a lesson in being very cautious what you say around doctors and authority figures. Don't give them any excuse.
I learned that, but it's not just what you say. All that scribbling the doc is doing while you're talking? What she's recording is not just your medical information, but her
impressions of your "attitude", and anything else she feels like writing there. This becomes part of your permanent records in her office, and anywhere else your records are transferred.
Same thing with hospital admissions. I'm figuring the admissions people in the ER are not trained psychologists, but they also make the same notes along with your medical data. The one ER visit I've ever had was as an adult, I was sick as a dog, barely able to sit upright or do much talking, and the data read "patient is anxious". The clerk didn't ask me if I was, she didn't write that I
appeared anxious, she just decided I was, and while barely looking at my face.
I found all this out when a doctor fired me and I obtained my records from her to find another; she also had a copy of the hospital admission data.
I don't answer questions on medical forms contained in the "social" section about "alcohol use", smoking, or guns anymore and there's probably a doctor somewhere that wrote "patient is hostile" about my refusal to do so. Heh.
