5 ways to stand up for yourself at doctor's visits

STEPH FOWLER CAN TICK OFF A LONG list of conditions that doctors initially chalked up to mental health: endometriosis, a stomach infection, insomnia, and more.

- - BY ANGELA HAUPT

She was sent for a full neuropsychiatric evaluation before her doctors eventually diagnosed her with Long COVID. Figuring out what was really going on filled Fowler with a "combination of relief-that somebody knows I'm not making it up, and that I can trust myself," and "the grief of knowing it could have been different." After the ordeal, Fowler shifted her therapy practice in Chicago to support clients with chronic and misunderstood illnesses, helping them advocate for themselves when dealing with doctors who dismiss their symptoms as anxiety. "It's been alarming to discover how common this is," she says.

There are a variety of reasons why that's so, says Dr. Robert Gee, a behavioral-sciences professor at Ross University School of Medicine. Anxiety symptoms overlap with those of other medical issues, which makes it easy for both patients and clinicians to mistake a physical condition for one related to mental health. And if a patient has a history of anxiety, their provider might assume that symptoms are a recurrence, rather than a sign of something new.