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Articles by Joyce Griggs
Unfinishedness in medicine: When a good visit feels incomplete
Most clinicians can recall a visit that technically went well, and still didn’t feel finished. The history was taken. The exam was appropriate. High-risk diagnoses were reasonably excluded. The plan followed guidelines. The note was clean. The visit ended on time. And yet, something lingered. Not alarm. Not guilt. Something quieter and more familiar. We rarely talk about this state in medicine, even though we encounter it daily.
How system strain contributes to medical gaslighting in health care
Medical gaslighting has become a widely discussed concept in health care. The term is often misunderstood as implying intentional dismissal or manipulation by clinicians. In reality, most encounters that patients later describe as gaslighting do not arise from ill intent. They arise from something far more common and far more complex: communication breakdown under system strain.
How to handle medical gaslighting
You are the expert of your body. You know when something isn’t right. Yet many patients leave an exam room feeling worse than when they came in, not because of their illness, but because they were told, directly or indirectly, that nothing is wrong. Their symptoms are minimized, reframed, dismissed, or worse, attributed to anxiety, stress, age, or weight. They are left questioning their own experience and perception of reality.
Why health self-advocacy is an essential life skill
Money management and career planning are considered life skills (but the skill that shapes health self-advocacy) deserves the same status. Without it, care suffers. My family member was recovering from surgery, facing medication safety concerns, severe anxiety, and the need for constant care. At the same time, I was managing my own records and preventive health. Like so many women, I had become the family’s chief health executive, carrying responsibilities that stretched across every part of care.
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