#6 The Emergency of our Health System - How Neoliberalism is Making Us Ill

Column post from the 30th of August, 2024

It was probably 2009 and I was sitting at the doctor's office again. For weeks, or rather months, I had had stomach pains, back pain and couldn't eat properly. I was constantly sick and exhausted, in short: I just felt really shit. Teachers weren't happy about my frequent absences, caregivers suspected that I was refusing to go to school - but it more accurately was refusing to go to school sick because I couldn't do it anymore.

The doctor gave me a quick glance, listened to what I had to say and gave me the same diagnosis as the others before him: More exercise, because I was too fat and therapy for my battered psyche as my symptoms stem from too much stress and lack of exercise. It was very curious to me that people around me at the time were accusing me of being too lazy and too stressed at the same time. This was followed by a few more visits to the doctor, several outpatient and inpatient hospital stays and months in which I was not helped or in some instances not even properly examined. At some point, I insisted on being tested (again) for food intolerances and allergies and lo and behold: I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance and several allergies. Since then, my allergy pass has filled up even more, as has the list of things I'm no longer allowed to eat. And my anger at our healthcare system. This was just the pitiful beginning of my odyssey to find out what is wrong with my body and unfortunately it is by no means over.

This year is the year of 2024 and there are still a few things that need to be clarified in my case, which leave doctors baffled and cause me great health-related anxiety and exhaustion. There are very few specialists in my area and if there are, I have to pay for them myself. If I'm lucky, I get part of it reimbursed by my health insurance. If I'm unlucky, I don't get that and not even a helpful answer. The latter in particular is usually the case. Doctors' first impulse is still to send me to psychotherapy, ignoring that I have been for years, and to prescribe me more exercise (even though I am no longer fat and have not yet found a way to exercise regularly due to my symptoms, which I am not believed). This is just my story, and it is one of countless others. Why is that the case?