What I’d like to say

Dear doctor, I bruised your ego and that upset you. Maybe, I did more than that. Maybe, I made you afraid, a little less secure. I get it. Lives are in your hands. But that wounded ego is just a little boo boo. Slap on a superhero bandaid and listen, really listen, to your patient. Not just because you owe me that, but because I actually have something to teach you. Severe withdrawal and protracted injury syndrome from prescribed psychiatric medications is very real and it is a serious medical problem. Medicine is not religion. It is science. Some doctors “believe” in withdrawal, some don’t? Disease does not go away because we choose to deny it is really. Didn’t work with Covid, doesn’t work with withdrawal. Which brings us back to “lives are in your hands”. You are human. There will be times when you don’t know. But, you do not have the luxury of choosing to continue to not know. When you made the choice to protect your sense of self by silencing me, you took your place in the long line of doctors before you who have allowed the harm of inappropriate prescribing to continue for forty years. It will continue  as long as doctors pretend they have nothing new to learn, especially from patients. Learning requires humility. And humility requires courage. If I can stand up to three years of what low dose Klonopin has done to my life, surely you can tolerate a little discomfort in pursuit of a greater good.

A very poignant letter esperanza, you make some very good points. 

Thank you for an eloquent and moving post, esperanza.