MEDICAL TRAUMA IN WOMEN WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS: A PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL OF GASLIGHTING, DELAY AND SELF-DOUBT

Abstract

The longest-lasting scar for many women who have a chronic illness is the experience of not being believed. Many times, when they have ongoing pain and fatigue or autoimmune flares or reproductive symptoms, they will have their symptoms downplayed, treated as a psychobabble problem or put off until they have another appointment. When a clinical environment does this consistently enough, it changes the way one feels about themselves (identity), affects how much they trust their own thinking (epistemic confidence), and ultimately creates an instability in their relationship with their own body (distrust).

The purpose of this article is to present a psychological framework for understanding how women with physical disabilities suffer from medical trauma. The framework presented in this review is based on three interrelated processes that impact the woman's experience with medical trauma: institutional gaslighting, diagnostic delay, and internalised self-doubt. The results of the literature described above relate to medical trauma as a cumulative relational harm that occurs within a context of power-based systems rather than being solely viewed as a negative, isolated event.