doctors_are_more_harmful_than_germs duh I think is what you mean. 141117 ... epitome of incomprehensibility It depends. When I was a kid I had a lot of ear infections, and my mother looking back on it now says that the doctors (the pediatrician I had then or a clinic doctor) would prescribe antibiotics too often. Taking too many antibiotics can lead to resistance and antibiotic-resistant infections - but I'm not sure people talked about that as much fifteen or twenty years ago. On the other hand, when I was thirteen and I had a persistent cough for more than two months and was starting to have headache every evening, it definitely helped me to see a doctor and get my problem figured out. It was good for emotional as well as physical reasons, because I was freaking out that I had something fatal like lung cancer (despite being, well, thirteen, and never having smoked - it'd be rare, albeit not impossible - but I was a bit of a hypochondriac). I had an appointment and then an x-ray, which showed that it wasn't a lung problem but a sinus infection. That time, prescribing antibiotics was probably a good decision since it finally got rid of the thing. (An aside, but another problem with antibiotics I've heard about is that they make some people constipated by temporarily killing off "good germs" in your intestines, making digestion take longer. So it can help to take probiotics at the same time. On the other hand, a friend of mine said that when she took antibiotics for an unrelated infections, her lactose intolerance seems to have disappeared. I'm a bit skeptical about the cause and effect there, since I don't know how a particular strain of gut bacteria would stop you from producing lactase (the enzyme that digests milk sugar). It seems that the enzyme just stops getting produced in some adults, especially if they don't drink a lot of milk, and that's okay. (But but I miss ice cream, and lactase-added milk is expensive.) Anyway. Human bodies are complicated.) I would feel a bit more secure if I had my own doctor, though. It's hard to get your "own" GP - my father has one, my mom's on a waiting list - and it would probably take me a few years to get one if I tried. I know I'm privileged to live in Canada, where a lot of medical expenses are covered, and to be fairly young and healthy even if I'm not rich... but I still can get a bit of hypochondria in my anxiety phases, and it would help to be able to discuss potentially embarrassing medical questions with someone who (hopefully) knows what they're talking about and is patient. Still. Maybe it's all for the best that a doctor is spared my whining every few months. (Oh look! I have a mole on my foot! Maybe it's cancer! No? Okay? But it isn't beautiful. Doctor, why aren't my feet beautiful?) I exaggerate. I hope. 141118 ... e_o_i Sorry for the barrage of words, but I also remember a more negative example: a GP I saw when I was doing grad school in another province prescribed Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine dymesylate) rather casually when I told him I'd been diagnosed with ADHD - and all the while I was under the impression that he was a psychiatrist, not a general practitioner. Partly that was my fault by not asking questions, but I was a bit mad when I found out, since the drug didn't work that well for me: basically, it helped me focus for a longer time on things that were in front of me, but only meetings with an academic adviser made me finally get a handle on managing my workload and finishing my final project. Also, when he upped the dose I had problems with loss of appetite and a faster heart rate (not sure whether to put anxiety and temper problems here, as those already existed.) In the balance, it did more harm then good... But maybe I needed some experimentation with drugs! I was a little disappointed in my teenage years when no one offered me pot. Maybe I wasn't cool enough? I was at least looking forward to saying no... Seriously, though, this just reinforces my idea that having a doctor with a knowledge of your medical history who seriously considers what's best for you can be a great thing. And that it's also important to be informed and critical and ask questions. 141118 what's it to you? who go blather from