Sublime

Groves wrote, if a patient repeatedly makes a doctor angry, the patient is likely a “demander,” whose unreasonable expectations simply need to be redirected into a desire for good medical care. A patient whom a doctor finds depressing may be a chronic “help rejecter,” who needs reassurance that the doctor won’t abandon him or her once a symptom

They very likely have an allergic or chemically mediated trigger and are related to stress. They vary in severity, sometimes

There is evidence to suggest that people who have anxious or neurotic personalities, those with a tendency to worry or feel anger, guilt and depression, are more likely to develop somatic complaints.

I knew that these patients, the so-called worried well, no less than the very ill patients I’d once taken care of, were worthy of my compassion and reassurance, but I found myself struggling to provide it. Didn’t these people understand how lucky they were? The gap between what I knew I should feel and what I actually felt distressed me.

something like autoimmune disease or long COVID falls into the third category of illness; it combines biology and biography in ways that are difficult for most of us (whether scientists or laypeople) to conceptualize.

Ms. Hart’s complaints of abdominal bloating and gas were of primary concern. These symptoms prompted my suspicion of a possible malabsorption disorder.