When Being Dismissed Hurts More Than the Illness

A patient once said to me, quietly and without anger, during a conversation about medical gaslighting and Lyme disease:

“The hardest part wasn’t the Lyme. It was being told it couldn’t be Lyme.”

She said it carefully, almost as if she were still weighing whether she would be believed.

I’ve seen this pattern repeatedly in patients with Lyme disease and other post-infectious illnesses.

For months, she searched for answers. She saw specialist after specialist. Imaging was normal. Blood work raised questions but delivered no certainty. Each visit ended with a different explanation — stress, perimenopause, anxiety. One clinician eventually suggested she stop pursuing medical causes altogether and seek psychiatric care instead.

By the time her Lyme disease was confirmed, she was not only physically depleted. She was emotionally undone. She doubted her body. She doubted her memory. She wondered whether anyone had ever truly believed her.

This is the hidden injury of medical gaslighting and Lyme disease — not simply delayed diagnosis, but the cumulative psychological and physiologic toll of repeated dismissal while a patient is actively seeking help.

PTSD-Like Symptoms After Medical Gaslighting in Lyme Disease Dr Cameron’s blog post

How Medical Gaslighting Happens in Lyme Disease

In mental health, gaslighting describes a process in which a person is led to doubt their own perception of reality. In medicine, gaslighting rarely looks intentional or cruel. More often, it emerges when uncertainty becomes uncomfortable.

Medical gaslighting occurs when clinicians minimize, misattribute, or dismiss symptoms without adequate evaluation or validation — especially when test results are inconclusive or fall outside rigid diagnostic frameworks. Curiosity is replaced by reassurance. Complexity is reframed as anxiety.

For patients with Lyme disease — particularly those living with fatigue, pain, or cognitive dysfunction — this pattern can be devastating.

For more on how common myths shape patient care, see Lyme Disease Misconceptions: What Patients and Doctors Get Wrong

Over time, repeated dismissal reshapes behavior. Patients describe preparing for appointments with intense vigilance, replaying conversations long after they end, or avoiding healthcare altogether. Some lose trust not only in clinicians, but in their own internal signals.

Many patients refer to this experience as “gaslighting PTSD.” While not a formal diagnosis, the phrase captures something real: the emotional injury left behind when disbelief becomes routine.

What Patients Are Told — And What They Hear

The language varies, but the message is strikingly consistent:

Your tests are normal.

This sounds like anxiety.

Chronic Lyme doesn’t exist.

You’re focusing too much on symptoms.

Maybe you should see a psychiatrist.

What patients hear beneath these words is not reassurance. It is erasure.

Being told “you’re fine” when you know you’re not isn’t comforting — it’s destabilizing.

When Medical Gaslighting and Lyme Disease Become Trauma

What patients describe emotionally is now being recognized in the medical literature.

Research on clinician-associated traumatization demonstrates that repeated negative medical encounters can produce lasting psychological harm. Lyme disease appears frequently in this work, with patients reporting years of misdiagnosis, symptoms labeled psychosomatic, and deep emotional distress by the time answers are finally obtained.

For individuals already coping with infection-related inflammation and neurologic stress, invalidation compounds the burden.

The body is already under strain — and disbelief adds fuel to the fire.

Why Lyme Patients Are Especially Vulnerable

Lyme disease is a multisystem illness. It can affect the nervous system, cognition, mood, and autonomic regulation. When these changes are dismissed as stress or depression, patients often internalize shame and self-doubt.

Over time, confidence erodes. Vigilance increases. Trust dissolves.

Being unheard does more than delay care. It alters how a person experiences safety, authority, and self-worth. The healthcare setting itself can become a source of threat.

Healthcare-Induced PTSD: A Cumulative Injury

This pattern is sometimes described as healthcare-induced PTSD — trauma that develops not from a single catastrophic event, but from repeated dismissal, prolonged uncertainty, and adversarial medical encounters.

Unlike traditional PTSD, which often follows one discrete trauma, healthcare-induced trauma accumulates slowly. Each appointment that ends in disbelief reinforces the same lesson: your experience is not reliable.

This reflects trauma responses described in the literature, not a psychiatric diagnosis.

Why Naming Medical Gaslighting and Lyme Disease Matters

Naming medical gaslighting is not about assigning blame. It is about acknowledging harm.

Validation does not pathologize patients — it restores dignity. It re-anchors trust. It allows healing to begin not only at the biological level, but at the human one.

Recognizing this pattern also challenges healthcare systems to do better: to tolerate uncertainty, to listen longer, and to remember that disbelief can be as damaging as disease.

The Bottom Line

Medical gaslighting and Lyme disease often go hand in hand. It is not rare. It is simply underrecognized.

Many patients carry not only the physical consequences of infection, but the invisible scars of not being believed.

As clinicians, our responsibility is not only to treat disease. It is to repair trust.

Learn more about recovery, PTLDS, and rebuilding trust in care in our cornerstone guide: The Chronic Lyme Disease Education Gap.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is medical gaslighting and Lyme disease? Medical gaslighting occurs when clinicians dismiss, minimize, or misattribute Lyme disease symptoms — often labeling them as psychological without adequate evaluation. It is common in Lyme patients due to diagnostic controversy and invisible symptoms.

Is this article saying medical gaslighting causes PTSD? No. This article describes trauma responses that resemble PTSD and have been documented in the medical literature. It does not diagnose PTSD or suggest that all patients with Lyme disease develop trauma.

Is “gaslighting PTSD” a formal diagnosis? No. The term is descriptive, not diagnostic. It reflects how patients and researchers describe the emotional impact of repeated medical dismissal.

Is this blaming clinicians? No. Medical gaslighting most often arises from systemic pressures, diagnostic uncertainty, and time constraints — not malicious intent. Naming harm allows improvement.

Why discuss trauma in Lyme disease care? Because repeated dismissal affects trust, follow-up, and recovery. Trauma-informed care improves outcomes and strengthens the therapeutic relationship.

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References

Healthcare (Basel). Fagen JL, Hall C, Middaugh J, et al. Medical Gaslighting and Lyme Disease: The Patient Experience. 2023;11(23):3098.

SSM – Qualitative Research in Health. Halverson CM, Penwell M, Francomano CA. Clinician-Associated Traumatization From Difficult Medical Encounters: A Qualitative Interview Study.  2023;3:100227.

Current Psychology. Pérez-Algorta G, Orive G. Medical Gaslighting as a Mechanism for Medical Trauma: Case Studies and Analysis.  2024.

American Journal of Preventive Medicine.  Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Nordenberg D, et al. Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults (ACE Study). 1998;14(4):245–258.

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Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. Fallon BA, Levin ES, Schweitzer PJ, Hardesty D. Inflammation and Central Nervous System Lyme Disease. 2008;20(2):123–135.

HopkinsLyme.org. Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Research Center. Research Substantiates Lyme Disease Is Not a Psychosomatic Illness.

Lyme Disease and Medical Gaslighting: A Barrier to Care Dr. Cameron’s blog post

PTSD-Like Symptoms After Medical Gaslighting in Lyme Disease Dr Cameron’s blog post