Why Do We Find Doctors Intimidating?

Going to the doctor can be an intimidating experience. Obviously, you make an appointment to see a medical professional because you are experiencing physiological issues that you cannot explain or classify. Doctors, of course, have years of study to prepare them for even many more years of experience to properly help you determine what is wrong.

And knowledge can be intimidating. Trying to talk to someone who has more knowledge than you can certainly make you feel inferior. The same thing goes for experience: trying to talk to someone who has vastly more experience than you on a particular topic can make you feel inferior.

Well, the feeling of inferiority comes from valuing the knowledge or experience of another person over your own. So it is important to remember that there is no need to feel inferior when speaking to your doctor because that is the reason you are seeing them in the first place: because they have knowledge and experience that you do not have.

However, if you have a good doctor, they should be able to communicate with you in a way that feels casual and personal. This is another reason people sometimes feel intimidated by their doctor: because they use language that is hard to understand.

Well, it is important to remember, too, that the world of medicine has a bit of its own language and, more importantly, doctors are human. This means that they are going to use the language they learned when describing your condition or the procedure.

But even if your doctor might have trouble communicating with you as a patient, you can always be proactive and just ask your doctor for clarification. Be aware that your knowledge of the medical world is, obviously, limited; embrace it and use it as a launching point to invite your doctor to communicate with you in a way that makes sense to you.