I must be an anomaly! I have never come across an "attention seeking" patient, only "care seeking", "comfort seeking" and "reassurance seeking" ones. #Stigma
But these patients must surely exist! Clinic letters and hand written notes talk about them & colleagues mention them. Have I not been looking in the right places for them? #attentionseeking #Stigma
Or do "normal" patients attract the "attention seeking" LABEL when they are more unwell, more distressed and in more pain? I wonder about this! #stigma
And what exactly is my role as a clinician, as a doctor, as a psychiatrist when I come across someone who needs my attention? Isn't "attention seeking" a normal behaviour? #Stigma
Then I start thinking if I as the clinician and the system I work in with its rigid structures & processes forces people to become "attention seeking"? #stigma
To think about the priveleged position I hold as a doctor, surely I am the one someone in distress would "seek attention" from? #Stigma
If the experience has been short of acceptable EVERY SINGLE TIME, wouldn't the degree of "attention seeking" keep increasing? To find relief, to be heard, to be understood #Stigma
And finally, if there was no "attention seeking" there would be no doctors, no nurses and no system! #Stigma
EVERYONE SEEKS ATTENTION! Let's not propagate the #stigma by making this a diagnosis! Let's do what we do best, let's listen, let's comfort, let's heal! #SayNoToStigma
