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The problem really is the stigma associated with mental illness as opposed to other kinds of illness. There are clearly mechanisms through which psychiatric effects manifest as real physical symptoms. If there's no obvious physiological cause to symptoms, working with it having a psychiatric basis seems perfectly reasonable. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to understand more about it though.

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Person with Schizoaffective Bipolar Disorder here:

You know, doctors told me for years that the pain in my chest and back was all because of my mental illness, even though my brother and mother both needed spinal surgery for Anklysoing Spondylitis by the time they were 60.

They dismissed me till I told them I wanted an MRI of my spine and chest and there it was, Non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis, the precursor to AS. So not I can treat it so it does not process into AS. They all told me there was " physiological cause to symptoms".

There is a HUGE stigma in medicine against any pain in people with mental illness, it is their best excuse to not even look. That is why there is no progress.

It is amazing how doctors continue to get away with gaslighting their patients because they refuse to believe them/look at family history, even to the point of not even attempting to rule those things out.

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