People who don't go to the doctor...

By Leca
@lecanis (16647)
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
February 21, 2007 11:42am CST
Does anyone else have a spouse/friend/family member who doesn't go to the doctor when they need to? Or are you the person who never goes to the doctor? If you are the one, then what's your reasoning? My lovely husband, who is wonderful and kind and always wants me to be healthy, was sick for almost a week. He said he wasn't going to the doctor because he caught it from his coworker, whose wife had it before him, and whose wife was told by a doctor it would just have to run it's course. So my husband just kept getting sicker... and today he finally went to the doctor. And he has pneumonia! Grr... if only he had gone earlier they might have caught it before it got that far! Stubborn man! Anyone else have thoughts on this issue?
21 people like this
67 responses
22 Feb 07
Some people just don't like doctors. I only go when it is absolutely necessary. I went to the doctor because I broke a bone in my foot. They didn't believe me. It took them 5 years to getting around to repair it. Do I like or even believe in doctors? NO. I can understand why your hubby didn't go. That kind of seems like a male thing. My brother doesn't go and neither does my hubby. I don't go to the doc because most of the time I can take care of myself. I am a Reiki master/teacher so unless it is a broken bone, I can treat myself. I don't believe in popping pills. For me it is a 2 mile walk just to get there so it needs to be important.
2 people like this
@shywolf (4514)
• United States
21 Feb 07
I don't have a great reasoning behind not going to the doctor besides the fact that I am so painfully shy and am getting to the point where i feel really silly taking my mother in with me when I'm.. well, you can see my age on my profile, lol, I don't want to say it here right now because I feel embarrassed. So I haven't actually been to a doctor, outside of an eye doctor for my prescription for my glasses, in many years. Maybe even 10 years now. I know that it's been a long time. One time my eye was so red and hurting that I did go into a clinic and got some eye medication, but even that was probably five years ago, and that's the closest thing that I've done in years. And yes, I do have health problems. I have a lot of problems with sugar, my mother is somewhat diabetic, and I suspect that I really need to be tested. But.. I just can't get myself to do anything. I'm so shy and nervous. So I've just cut almost all sugar out of my diet. It's helped a lot, and I've lost a lot of weight in the last couple of years due to changing my diet so much and cutting out so much junk food that was bad for me. But I really do need to see a doctor, eventually.
2 people like this
@classy56 (2880)
• United States
21 Feb 07
i never go to the doctor.i also wait till i cant take it anymore. an have to go.by then it has always gotten worse no matter what makeing me sick.but i dont go because i dont have any insurance to help pay the bill.
1 person likes this
@teison2 (5921)
• Norway
21 Feb 07
that's too bad. I believe everyone should be entitled to necessart healtcare, regardless of personal economy or insurance.
1 person likes this
@sigma77 (5383)
• United States
21 Feb 07
I don't go to the doctor unless I am terribly sick. That doesn't happen very often. If it is the flu or a severe cold, there is little they can do. If I really needed to go, I would go. When I do get sick, the last thing I think about is going to the doctor. I will always try to get better on my own. Think healthy! That is my mantra.
2 people like this
@teison2 (5921)
• Norway
21 Feb 07
My grandfather never wanted to go to the doctor. My gradmother has had different conditions through her life, and goes regularely. When my gradfather became ill and could not properly take care of himself we all tried to get him to the doctor. His reason for refusing was that if he went he'd get sick. That was what had happened to his wife. He thought the best bet was to sit tight and wait until it got better. If something was wrong with him Jesus would help. we tried to talk to him about this: maybe Jesus would use the doctor in helping him. Nothing helped. i agree with you: Stubborn man! Why wont they just go before it gets too far? It must be better to go and get help, instead of staying ill and suffering a lot longer than necessary.
• India
22 Feb 07
I dont think going to doctor is a much of fun. it only adds abit stress to our mind.but at same time it is better to check once a maonth because you might not know u might be effected bye some unknowing hazards
• United States
21 Feb 07
I'm one of those people who never goes to the dr. I figure why waste the money, unless i'm in a state where i just can't take care of it myself then i'll go. I hate dr's, they're humans, they don't know everything IMO. My husband is the same way.
@dana234 (2114)
• Spain
28 Feb 07
Yes, my husband will avoid seeing a doctor unless he has one foot in the grave. He´s always telling me he knows his body better than anyone else and he will only see a doctor when it´s absolutely necessary. Well, this term is subjective. What I feel is necessary means a waste of time to him. He´s had serious problems with his eyesight for about a month now and there is no way to get him to see a specialist about it, even though he get´s terrible migraines, feels dizzy and his ability to concentrate has diminished considerably. There you go, another stubborn man. He looks after his family, but not after himself. I hope your husband gets better soon.
@bronie123 (4587)
• United States
28 Feb 07
I would have to say that I am the one who doesn't go to the doctor when i need to. I have to be really sick !!!! To go and then i might wait to see if it goes away. On the other hand my fiance is the one who if he starts to feel sick will run to the doctor right away. I guess it runs in the famly what you do because my mther is the same as me. My fiance's family runs to the doctor almost every week :) I swear
1 person likes this
• United States
22 Feb 07
I personally don't go for myself because I'm strapped for cash right now. I take my kids the second they have a fever though. I also don't have insurance that will cover it so it's really hard.
@happymommy3 (2012)
• United States
27 Feb 07
Well I hope that your husband is better now. It's awful to be sick with pneumonia. I also have a some family members that won't go to the doctor's when they are sick. My mother being the main one. I think she has something seriously wrong with her, I pray to God she doesn't but I just have a feeling she does. She's been sick now for a couple of years, alot of things are wrong with her but she just won't go get checked. She's in her mid 40's now and by than you should start getting checked for certain things and she won't go. We've all tried to tell her in so many ways to go to the doctor's but she's afraid they're gonna tell her she's got cancer or something serious like that. I will never understand why people don't go to the doctors. I'd be running to the doctors if I felt sick and knew something was wrong with me and I could get better instead of lying at home in bed suffering.
1 person likes this
@coolsid2007 (1030)
• India
28 Feb 07
I have not gone to any Doctor in my last 6-7 years.. i think all the medicines you take makes you weak... i dont think we need all that chemicals entering our body... i let my WBC do all the work and increase the resistent power that way... there are lot of people living on the street ... they never catch any terrible diseases .... even if they do ... they survive it out ... if we have healthy food and if we excercise regularly i dont think anyone needs to go to the doctor... i think its waste of health, time and money, the only benefit we get here is that we get a tax exemption to that extent...
1 person likes this
@Profetu (1253)
• Romania
1 Mar 07
OOhh i sure do know what you mean!My girlfriend had pneumonia and wouldn't want to go to the doctor either. Not to talk about her lack of calcium. It took me 5 days of continuous talk to convinge her.
1 person likes this
• United States
28 Feb 07
I would like to go to the doctor. I am supposed to get a shot every month to help me to digest food properly. Unfortantly I can't because I can't afford to pay a doctor the $200 they want for an office visit here. Even when we had insurance it was a pain in the butt to get my husband to go. Good question lecanis.
1 person likes this
• India
22 Feb 07
God, tell me about it! My dad too is exactly like that! To make matters worse, he is a naturalist and so refuses to take any medicines also! He claims that the body is capable of healing itself without the need or necessity of external agents like medicines! Can you beat that??? The other thing that I notice is that people hardly visit dentists either, unless they are writhing in pain! I wonder if they have not heard about the saying 'Prevention is better than cure'!! If only they visit dentists and doctors for periodic checkups, many problems can be nipped in the bud and the suffering too will be done away with it, but do people like my dad and your husband really listen? Sigh!
• India
22 Feb 07
well i never went to da doctor myself ....coz my mom knows a lot abt homeopathy ....& well it seems like it takes time ....but cures it all da same ...u can know abt homeopathy ....by reading sum books for da beginners ...mymomom started it tht way ....checking out da symtoms u can help out a lot of ppl ...hoping this info will work out for u ......
1 person likes this
@kalav56 (11464)
• India
22 Feb 07
I do agree that you cannot convince people---we can only thank God that he finally went to the doc today. If it has to happen it will happen. You should be grateful for one positive outcome---the next time a similar thing[of course I do not mean the same pneumonia] happens he may be wary of postponing the visit to the doctor. Don't rub it in this time.- but you can start gently reminding him the second or third day itself in future.He will see sense and realise that 'God helps those who help themselves.'
@babystar1 (4233)
• United States
22 Feb 07
I never go to the doctor unless I am very very sick. When I get sick its mostly a cold, and I take care of it myself by taking cold medicine and drinking plenty of fluids and getting a lot of rest. Most of the time its gone in 5 days. Now my husband never goes to the doctor,He said if he goes to the doctor they always fine something wrong with you and want to give you pills that you dont really need. He says the doctors are in for the money. And I heard this comment many times before.
1 person likes this
@Chele2k2 (241)
22 Feb 07
I am one of those people that rarely visits the doctors. The only time i'll go is if I was pregnant to have regular check-ups or if I felt extremely unwell. The reason I choose to go rarely, I feel there are people who need the doctor more than me, who would appreciated an appointment slot more than myself. I think doctors are over-stretched as it is and I don't want to add to it, if I can avoid it I will.
• India
22 Feb 07
That is the very same problem I am having with my fiance. He is soo, afraid of going to a doctor. He would get sick like hell, but won't go to the doctor ever. I get tired of pleading him. He has Migrain, and suffers a lot due to it. But whenever I get into the topic of seeing a doctor, he avoids me, gets angry, or ewven stops talking. I don't know why some people are so afraid of doctors.
1 person likes this
@silvaz (33)
• Israel
22 Feb 07
Well I never go to the doctors unless I pretty much have to, and neither does anyone else which is close to me, basically almost every time we get sick it's just going to the doctors, them telling us its a virus and that it will go away on it's own and us wasting around an hour on the visit (driving there and back and in the waiting room). However I'm not sure what would happen if someone got really sick... It would probably be similar to your case.
1 person likes this