Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

When a doctor acts like a pill salesman

Rasha-al-Raisi
Rasha-al-Raisi
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Rasha al Raisi -




2018 wasn’t a great year for me. It felt like wadding through a great swamp, where everything either moved super slow or sank to the bottom, never to be seen again. Life had taught me to be warrior, always ready for whatever comes in my way. But being in the swamp for too long, I let go of the fight.


That was when all the stress-related illnesses appeared in the form of unexplainable rash followed by a severe gastritis that never subsided day or night. I decided to visit the young doctor whose clinic was a two minutes’ drive from my house. He recognized me at once as the “the lady who was bitten by her own cat.”


He was right of course. I came to see him almost two weeks back with a painful swollen finger that I couldn’t bend after being bitten by a kitten I was trying to help. He asked about my finger and then we moved to the reason behind my visit.


I told him about my gastritis and that I knew that it was stress-related, I’d always suffered similar pains. The doctor frowned and asked if I was anorexic and I told him that I wasn’t. I’d always had a healthy weight and my sudden thinness was due to the ongoing stomach ache. He leaned forward and asked if I was depressed.


I was surprised and told him that since I hit my thirties, I trained myself to see the silver lining in all situations. I also exercise regularly which helped in relieving whatever stress I felt. He smiled sheepishly stating that sometimes over doing positivity could do more harm than good and that denying depression wouldn’t help resolving it.


He offered to prescribe some mild anti-depressants that would help me. “But I’m here for my stomach pain!” Ignoring my comment, he leaned backwards and asked about my sleeping pattern. Do you sleep well? I answered that I’d always had issues with sleeping but I always managed. “I could prescribe you a mild


sleeping pill that could help you sleep better.”


I told him that years back, I tried sleeping pills and they knocked me off to a dreamless, restless sleep. I could get better results with exercising. The doctor wasn’t really convinced by my answers and reminded me that classic solutions don’t always help. That’s why drugs were made: to help elevate these problems.


Forgetting my stomach ache for a minute, I stared at him with a big frown considering my female friends who were prescribed those pills without a serious need for them. The comment they had after using these pills was: “feeling numb”.


Now I understood the process of prescription: by visiting a doctor who seems to be more of a pharmaceutical company representative than a professional practitioner who’d suggest counselling and other natural remedies as a first step.


The doctor was looking at me expectantly as I asked him about the relationship between my sleeping pattern and the stomach ache I felt? He peered at his screen and suggested that as I’ll be hitting menopause soon — I’m not even forty — things will just get worst if I don’t sort them out now.


And the stomach ache? “Oh that! You could take some anti-acidity pills for it. And you could always come back for the medicines we’d just discussed if you change your mind.” As I got up to leave, I remarked that as I’m hitting forty in less than a month maybe I’ll reconsider his generous offer. But for now, I need to focus on curing my tummy ache.


Rasha al Raisi is a certified skills trainer and the author of:


The World According to Bahja. rashabooks@yahoo.com



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