Dr. Ingela Thuné-Boyle
Health Psychologist
Online Practice

Medical gaslighting is a term used to describe situations in which healthcare providers dismiss, minimize, or misattribute a patient’s symptoms, concerns, or lived experiences, often suggesting that the problem is psychological or not real. This can involve telling patients their symptoms are “all in their head,” exaggerating, or caused by stress, despite clear distress or evidence to the contrary.

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Medical gaslighting is a subtle yet deeply damaging phenomenon in healthcare, where a patient's symptoms or concerns are dismissed, minimized, or attributed to psychological causes without appropriate investigation. Often rooted in implicit bias, power imbalances, or systemic issues within the medical system, this behavior can lead to misdiagnosis, delayed treatment, and a loss of trust in healthcare providers.

Living with a long-term illness can be difficult on so many levels but one aspect sticks out: being minimized and dismissed by healthcare professionals. This is unfortunately fairly common for those living with a rare, 'invisible' or poorly understood condition. When someone in a position of power treats us badly, we usually end up feeling pretty stupid, embarrassed and ashamed and knowing the unfairness of the situation and our inability to deal with it at that moment, we ma