Indirect harassment from doctor.

I want to talk about something that wasn't serious abuse. I wasn't sure in what category to post this.


I had a GP a in 2019 where the relationship ended very badly. In the last couple of appointments I felt that I was subjected to indirect psychological harassment. He was trying to make me lose credibility/invalidate me. He acused me of forging documents without any grounds, acused of abusing laxatives without any grounds (I use them for severe chronic constipation and recurrent **** fissures because of it after recomendation by a specialist), acused me of abusing narcotic pain relievers without any grounds, intentionally chose to not acknowledge the fact that I was in pain and that pain had an impact on me and contradict my opinions on both of these subjective experiences, told me that he couldn't possibly ever trust me as a patient because of that I sent him my records a little late, told me that I had to change doctor and said that I should pay attention to not bother/irritate the next doctor by sending the records a little late. On top of this he refused to renew my prescription just so that I had enough until I was able to talk to another doctor. In Norway it takes a month before you can officialy change GP. He said he didn't want to be pushed into doing anything. Then he said, after having acused me of forging documents, faking my symptoms and pain and being an abuser of laxatives and narcotic pain relievers, that what he said was not about that he didn't like me as a person. I know that all of this doesn't sound as bad in writing, but it was very clearly manipulative behaviour intented to discredit and hurt me. The last thing he said was just not true, his behaviour was definitely motivated by emotional/personal reasons. I think he got offended (hurt ego) when I asked him to ask a pharmacist about a medication (instead of asking him directly) and that that was the cause of his behaviour.


What's even weirder was that I didn't bring up anything that was relevant to the things he said. I was there to talk about a new symptom that I had and discuss the cause (sexual dysfunction). He chose to bring up all of those topics, put me down and discredit me. I wasn't able to talk about the things I needed to discuss.

I felt horrible after that appointment and still do when I think about it. I have a prescription from him on laxatives that says 'you need to restrict the usage of these!' which makes other doctors incorrectly think that I have a problem with laxative abuse. As I said I was recommended the medication by a gastroenterologist because of severe chronic constipation and have never had a problem with abuse of it.


It's hard to complain about the behaviour of doctors also. Most people take the side of the doctor in my experience. It's even harder to report if it was something indirect and more subtle. Also he has put doubt on me as a person with the incorrect acusations of drug abuse which I think will make it harder for me to be believed if I file a formal complaint.

Do you think I should report/send a complain against this doctor? I want to forget the appointment as it makes me feel bad all over again when I remember it.

Hello LurenD: Thank you for bringing your concern here to PC. Not being familiar with the medical system in Norway, I don't think it would be appropriate for me to suggest whether or not you should file a complaint against this doctor. However I noticed this is your first post here on PC. So I thought I would at least welcome you to Psych Central. I hope you find PC to be of benefit.

I would report him I would have hard evidence against him. Tell them they need to walk in without his knowledge and watch how he treat patient. I had a doctor who slap me because I refuse to let him give me a shot and when mom question him he yelled at her about me not be disciplined. When I told the nurse she was mortified when she look at my chart discover that there was no reason for me to have a shot and when he was confronted he came in yelling at me in front of another doctor. I never saw him again. Another time because my dad told my primary doctor that my mom didn't give me one of the medicine that was prescribed to me my doctor begin to berate me in front of my dad thankful he transfer somewhere else. I believe you. I believe that you were abuse.

Welcome to pc. I'm not familiar with the medical system in Norway so I don't think it is appropriate for me to advise. I'm sending kind thoughts. Please keep posting if you might find it to be helpful.

What gave him the opinions about the narcotics? Did he prescribe them and then drug test you? Or was it blanket accusations?

That's sounds like pretty abusive behavior on the part of your doctor.
I went through something similar at the end of 2019 and I had to report it to the hospital/clinic and to the state mental health board. It is not easy to do but somthing that the person at the state agency I reported it to made me feel like it was definitely the right thing to do. He told me that the behavior was of a significant nature, but even if it ended up that nothing could be done for my case as that sometimes happens, that the records of my complaint would help protect anyone else in the future who may need to file a complaint about the same provider. He said if multiple complaints are filed then that gives their department power to act.
I don't know if the system works the same where you live but it's something that may help you decide what to do.
If you have not already you may want to request your full records from that doctor if that is allowed where you live. I requested mine from the abusive provider and found that he had made claims about things that he had no knowledge of, and he made very wild sounding accusations, that in my opinion could only serve to prove he acted in an inappropriate and abusive way.
Hope you can start feeling better from this. It's been hard for me and I'm still working through the feeling of betrayal, but I refuse to give up.