Identifying other people as something they're not.

[Fatorthin]

This happened to me recently, and I still feel disturbed by it. I landed in Accident and Emergency due to a health crisis that was very probably weight-related. I ended up being seen by a senior doctor - a consultant. In the discussion about what might have caused the health crisis, I said to the consultant that I realised that I was overweight... (in fact I'm well into the obese range and that is quite obvious to anyone who sees me, and of course to me). The consultant immediately interrupted me and told me that I was not overweight. They then repeated that. They even used the word "thin". I was speechless. When they told me that I was not overweight, I felt confused (it made no sense) and I also lost trust in that doctor. How can you trust somebody who says something so obviously untrue to you, especially when acknowledging that the obesity might well have caused or contributed to the health incident was so necessary? Where does the patient go from there? Afterwards, I started to wonder whether this was an extension of doctors being told to accept a patient's gender identity as fact. Have they now moved to accepting (or pretending to accept) everything a patient chooses to believe about themselves? And then gone from there to anticipating what a patient would like to believe about themselves?

How tall are you, and what do you weigh?

i find it really bizarre that a doctor would tell an overweight patient that they weren’t overweight.

Was his name Zack or Dave?

Bizarre. I hope you're recovering.

What if you desire help and advice to get to a healthier weight? That Doctor is obviously going to be no help if he refuses to even acknowledge it.

Sounds odd, I can only suppose that he’s seen so many patients way more obese than you that his perceptions of normal has gone adrift.

I don't want to go into details, but as I've said I am very obviously at the high end of obese. Nobody would not notice that, let alone a doctor. That doctor cannot possibly have thought that they were telling the truth. So what was it about? Is there now some kind of ethos that you have to make patients feel good about themselves?

What is your BMI?

Approximately 40.

The doctor said it in front of a more junior member of staff too. Weird.

I’m not sure what your motive is here, but there is no way a doctor would tell a person with a BMI of 40 that they are thin.

It's because of the extreme oddness of what happened that I've posted this. As I was there, I know rather more about it than you do.

True. But what is your motivation for posting it in FWR?

I have to ask, but… is this a body dysmorphia issue, and your medical emergency was actually due to anorexia fuelled by the delusion that you are obese? Because otherwise this is all very bizarre.

I think the fact that the OP wouldn’t even tell us their height/weight means there’s likely to be something like that going on.

The only idea that's come to me is that all the staff training on accepting what patients say they are has led to this. Actually, a few years ago now I noticed a sign in a local NHS facility. It said "You are whatever you think you are". It's not there now, but that sentiment must have come from somewhere. I don't think I'm thin, but it's reasonable to assume that I would like to be thin.

No trace of anorexia. I enjoy food too much.

If you don't want to believe my extremely truthful story, you're wasting everyone's time being on this thread. I'm interested in why people think the doctor acted like that, based on the genuine facts that I have given you.

But you told the doctor that you were overweight, so they would have agree with you if it was accepting what you say you are.

I agree. That makes it even more perverse, surely?

I think you’re attempting a slight of hand here but I can’t quite work out what you angle is yet. I imagine it will involve some kind of gotcha at the end.

She’s given her bmi.

I could perhaps understand a very junior doctor being embarrassed and not wanting to be "rude" by agreeing that someone was overweight. But this was not a young or inexperienced doctor. The opposite.

You have the facts. It wasn't "thin" but it was "quite thin".

I'm 5"6 and weigh 16 st 2lbs and fall into the obese category going off BMI. Nothing to add just wanted to share how shit it makes you feel

If the OP is right in what she says, then surely that is very strange behaviour indeed, I would be concerned.

She said it was 40, which is definitely overweight.
The poster has every right to be concerned, no doctor should deny such an obvious health issue!