Ever wonder how doctors actually feel about you and if they’re genuinely interested in improving your quality of life? Normally its not that big of a deal when visiting for routine check ups or small injuries but that all changes the second you develop a chronic illness, especially when there’s no clear etiology.

From my personal experience its an extremely important consideration particularly when you’re doctor shopping. Over time even caring healthcare providers can also become disinterested especially if their hit & miss drug treatments are failing you or worse, they begin harming you.

So before you fall into their comfort-zone routine of collecting their fees while not improving your quality of life, here are a few tips to tell if your doctor has become bored with you during your short 15 minute visits.

You are often rudely interrupted mid sentence with, “So, what can I do for you today?” That line always cracks me up since they know darn well why I’m there, their care thus far hasn’t helped.

They continuously stare at one or more of their smart devices while making facial expressions unrelated to your comments or they rarely look up to make direct eye contact with you. This disrespect is a clear indication that its now time to seek out another doctor.

Depending on your symptoms, they rarely if ever physically examine you or the area in question. After seeing a doctor for nearly a year, I suddenly realized he never once laid a finger on me, ever.

Your self-diagnostics are routinely dismissed even when you provide supportive medical literature and/or test results that say otherwise. Insulting a patient’s instincts is always a bad idea.

Taking calls and/or repetitively looking at their watch is another clear indication that you and your chronic condition have become a bore and that its now time to move on.

The doctor often forgets your name or what you are suffering from, calls you by another person or neglects to follow-up on promised research. Yup, all of these and worse have happened to me.

The front desk keeps extending your follow-up office visits by a factor of 2x or more. Why won’t they just be honest and simply say, “Get lost!” … lol

Seriously, how many doctors have you seen that were genuinely willing to take the time to listen, to comprehend your symptom’s complexities, to seek out their root causes and most importantly to demonstrate their honesty by acknowledging their possible ignorance when faced with multilayered symptoms and/or intractable pain conditions that fit no known pathology?

I’m often reminded that the true test of a person’s character is how they respond to challenges they don’t always fully comprehend. I’ve come to respect doctors that say; “Hey, I’m really stumped here!” or “I really don’t know what to do about this!” or “I need help, allow me to reach out to my colleagues and do some research!” rather than the often encountered ego-driven narcissist that experiments with multitudes of drugs, unproven interventional procedures or unorthodox ethics in order to meet daily financial quotas. These are the doctors the pain community should try to avoid because if something were to seriously go wrong due to their lack of interest, the authorities will question your mental stability, not theirs. That doctor will then most likely deny their lack of attention in your case and will seek protection from their peers. Therefore it is vitally important for chronically ill patients like us to feel respected and comfortable with their doctor because only then will the trust be mutual if something were to go sadly awry.

Nowadays when I visit a new specialist I make certain to take note of their attentive demeanor when explaining my extremely complex condition. Then based on their response, I will often point to my mouth while pleading for them to consider my words as a very sophisticated onboard self-diagnostic program that is far superior to anything found on their so-called smart devices. This sets my standards as I am now the captain of my ship that had often run aground with inattentive physicians in the past.

So please tell us now about your experiences with bored pain physicians?

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