Thirty-four years. That's how long I spent going back and forth to see various doctors, during which time my symptoms — including agonising 'electric currents' that shot through my thighs, muscle weakness in my legs, hearing loss, constant fatigue and pain — were regularly trivialised or dismissed.As time went by I also developed crippling irritable bowel syndrome that became so bad I didn't want to go out. But still it was repeatedly implied that the real symptoms I experienced were down to anxiety, or, worse, I was imagining or exaggerating the problems.'Responds well to reassurance,' it says in my medical notes, implying that all I needed was a comforting pat on the head. When I was in my early 30s, one female doctor even said, 'Have you ever considered just growing up?'.
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