You’d think that all medical professionals have your best interests at heart and want to accurately diagnose you. While the world is full of talented, empathetic, and knowledgeable doctors, nurses, surgeons, and specialists, far from everyone is like that. It would be naive to think so. Unfortunately, there are some truly rotten apples in the bunch.
Medical gaslighting is what happens when your doctor dismisses your health concerns. And it’s a serious issue with real-life consequences. The Young Lung Cancer Initiative, a non-profit that empowers young adults in the fight against cancer, recently went viral on Facebook. It asked patients to share their real diagnoses, even though their doctors didn’t take them seriously. These professionals attributed symptoms to anxiety, stress, or mental health.
Scroll down for these real-life stories. It’s a reminder to trust your gut and if something feels off, always get a second (or third!) opinion.
Bored Panda reached out to the team at the Young Lung Cancer Initiative, and they were kind enough to answer our questions. You’ll find our interview with them below.
Image credits: Young Lung Cancer Initiative
#1
The 4 times I was dismissed by doctors in one month in extreme pain they were all male. Wasn’t until I saw the first female doctor I finally taken seriously and it was stage 4 cancer!
Image source: Jennifer Jaske, freepik
#2
Almost died. I was in middle of having anaphylactic shock from a chemical in middle of iron infusion that I was allergic to. A nurse said it was just me having panic attack until I was throwing up all over and pooping and rash on body until they gave me allergy medicine. Scariest thing I ever went through. I was near death.
Image source: Bee Joy, wavebreakmedia_micro / freepik
#3
A 400lbs+ provider in the ED on Christmas day told me my abdominal pain and vomiting was because “you need to lay off the greesy food” I was 130lbs at most! 3 days later I had a positive pregnancy test… I now have an amazing almost 9yo son. I was unaware greesy food caused pregnancy. Who knew.
Image source: Angel Strine, user10669693 / freepik
#4
When I was 14, my doctor diagnosed me with “child who has a parent abroad” syndrome. I had kidney failure lol.
Image source: Cristina Balcan, ashvets / freepik
#5
Hashimoto’s. It took me 4 doctors in large hospitals until I found this doctor in a rural town that took one look at me and was like, “you have a severe thyroid issue. Let’s get you some help”. He has been a god send. The man is brilliant and he went toe to toe with my insurance for me to be treated properly. I know when his Cuban Spanish starts flowing, he has had enough.
Image source: Brandy Anne, photoroyalty / freepik
#6
Bleeding every other week for 8 months: “that just happens sometimes.” Eventually switched docs. One investigative ultrasound later and it turned out I have 2 uteruses. Tada.
Image source: Lexy Yohey, user15145147 / freepik
#7
Leukemia, I was “too young to be that sick ” so I must be dr shopping.
Image source: Justin Hart, EyeEm / freepik
#8
Ulcerative colitis. Turns out, anxiety doesn’t make you s**t blood.
Image source: Karah Stevenson, zinkevych / freepik
#9
Lupus, but it really was me being too stressed and not sleeping enough.
Image source: Sarah Rae, Grinvalds / freepik
#10
Aplastic Anaemia (complete bone marrow failure) told I was probably stressed and running too much and to take a month off. Chemo, radio, and one bone marrow transplant later and the ‘anxiety’ has gone.
Image source: Laura Baker, garetsvisual / freepik
#11
Our pediatrician said my baby sister was making herself sick for attention… she had cancer.
Image source: Jillian Caitlin, DC Studio / freepik
#12
Welp I just got told it’s a brain tumor yesterday 😅 turns out they were kinda right when they said it was “all in my head.”
Image source: Brie Morrison, zinkevych / freepik
#13
Not anxiety, but gas… My apendix burst the next day…
Image source: Ingrid Elin Jakobsen, myoceanstudio / freepik
#14
Hyper active, anxiety, and self neglect. Been a nurse 10 years and just needed a vacation blah blah blah. I’m T1D and 1 year diaversary is in Oct. That 900 BG through everyone for a loop.
Image source: Shyanne Thornock, wavebreakmedia_micro / freepik
#15
Multiple Sclerosis-my original presentation was “just an anxiety attack.”
Image source: Courtney Amanda, freepik
#16
I gotta lose weight to fix…. extra spinal fluid on my brain. Im sure that’ll work.
Image source: Rin Jones-Dawson, EyeEm / freepik
#17
Pulmonary Hypertension & COPD at 23 (yay me!!) Turns out I wasn’t just fat & lazy.
Image source: JacobandLydia Jones, HectorEmilio / freepik
#18
My friend had anaphylactic shock episode and the paramedics tried to tell her it was a panic attack – she nearly died
Image source: Nikki Tinsley, fentonroma143 / freepik
#19
Told me I couldn’t catch my breath and was having chest pains because I was having an anxiety attack (never had an anxiety attack in my life). Had a heart attack in the ER.
Image source: Bridget VeVerka, kues1 / freepik
#20
SVT after being told it was just anxiety and even once after fainting in HS being told “well you know, 16 year old girls ‘swoon’ all the time.”
Image source: Kaitlin Baker, Wavebreak Media / freepik
#21
I was heading into heart failure by the time they listened to me and my PCP who helped sent the first rheumatologist (a male) an envelope of glitter with my diagnosis and lab reports because he had told her I was an overweight female with mental health issues.
Image source: Sarah Peacock, jcomp / freepik
#22
Multiple sclerosis. Told I had health anxiety and I replied ‘I’ve anxiety because no one is f*****g listening to me!’
Image source: Lynsey Mooney, KamranAydinov / freepik
#23
The wildest time they told me I had anxiety was when I went to the ER because I couldn’t breathe and my hands were going numb and it was moving up my arms and legs. They literally treated me like an idiot and like they felt sorry for me because I was so ignorant…. It was Aniphilaxis… I have Alpha Gal (allergy to mammal products and by products) it’s a miracle I’m still alive at this point. Also, the Dr tried to get me to lay down and go to sleep. He said “it will go away if you just go to sleep” I said, yeah cause I’ll be dead… I laugh now but it wasn’t so funny at the time.
Image source: Carrie Gossage-Stearns, DC Studio / freepik
#24
Chiari malformation, said it was just hormonal headaches. No sir my brain is shoving out of my skull!
Image source: Christina Schlueter Keith, photoroyalty / freepik
#25
“Just a headache” and ” hahahahahah you can’t have a hole in your head, it’s a solid bone”…. come to find out, I had a 6 inch rotting draining tube in my skull (the bone had started to grow over it) that was left in there from when I was a baby and had surgery.
Image source: Megan Corwin
#26
You’re pregnant….after just telling him I’m a lesbian, turned out to be a tumour.
Image source: Ruth Mortimer, lifestock / freepik
#27
My daughter: Dr said “POTS, Anxiety, Food allergies, In your head” Actually “Type 1 Diabetic”.
Image source: Sara Schwartz
#28
3 years to get a dx for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Given enough Ativan to choke a horse. That was 25 years ago.
Image source: Angela Woods-Sweat, freepik
#29
My husband had 5 doctors say ‘well everything is coming back normal, so it must be anxiety’. We refused to accept that as his diagnosis and found out it was mold toxicity. In an instant, mold changed everything in our lives… never saw that on the bingo card for 2025.
Image source: Krystle Burrows Scroggins, EyeEm / freepik
#30
The rarest form of Lung Fibrosis…
Doctors in the ICU scolded me, called me a lot of bad things and said it was anxiety, I was faking it and so on.
And last Monday morning paramedics didn’t believe that I fell unconscious and had bad convulsions on my kitchen floor even though I bit my tongue and everything… Went to the hospital later and it turned out I DID have convulsions AND I actually also broke my back, sprained my tailbone and pressed at least 8 ribs from the fall.
So yeah.
Image source: Christina Guddi Gudtmann, namii9 / freepik
#31
Gall bladder stones. They said I was imagining the pain. 😂 They said I was too young at the time to have gall bladder stones hence why they didn’t bother doing an ultrasound and just assumed I was imagining it.
Image source: Selin Hankali, dmitrytph / freepik
#32
My mother, after her ‘initial anxiety’ diagnosis. Brain tumour, 9th documented person in the world to have this particular tumour in that spot in her brain. But hey ‘good news it’s not dementia.’
Image source: Morgan McDonald, zinkevych / freepik
#33
I had an alergic reaction called esophigitus from an oral medication for my asthma. The paramedics said I was over reacting and it was probably the flu.
Image source: Sarah Marie
#34
Graves’ disease.
A regular customer of mine told me while serving him martinis.
Took one look at me and knew.
He saved me.
Nina Aleeah Prince replied:
its insane that its almost never doctors that figure it out. My most serious issues were figured out by friends or myself. I just asked the right doctors for the right tests, or showed them tests they’ve already done and missed to get a diagnosis.
Image source: Talya Robbins
#35
Ankylosis Spondylitis, Fibromyalgia. But “I’m too young to be dealing with pain.”
Image source: Callie Boswell
#36
I was told a broken rib was heart burn. 2nd ED visit and another Dr. said if you can put your finger on it, it’s a rib.
Image source: Vicky Noviello
#37
Breast Cancer…the shortness of breath and chest pain, just anxiety…oooookay!
Image source: D'Arcy Valentino
#38
Graves disease. Oh yeah..and 7 weeks solid of heavy bleeding and pain to the point of passing out was also brushed off 4 times as just “normal perimenopausal changes” until they removed a massive pendiculated fibroid from my uterus.
And when I kept trying to get help for my (then) infant daughter they told me my daughter didn’t have any problems and it was just me being an “over anxious first time mother” and actually wrote in hospital records that they thought I was potentially suffering from “paranoid delusions subsequent to post natal depression” because I told them I was sure she had a genetic disorder.. and gee..turned out it wasn’t just anxiety or delusions.
..she has a rare genetic syndrome.. Kabuki syndrome.
Also was told I had reflux when. I had gallstones and inflamed pancreas..shall I go on? So many horror stories.
Image source: Sophie Rose
#39
Secondary bacterial pneumonia with an SpO2 of 88 but I just needed “to calm down and breathe.”
Image source: Chanci Oyler
#40
Got told I’m healthy and there is nothing wrong with me, like 3 months later, Lyme disease…2 different types plus found out of a genetic mutation that can cause me to end up in a wheelchair by the time I’m in my 30s…
Image source: Elizabeth Red
#41
Vitamin b6 toxicity! My nerves were literally frying. But I was told for weeks to just relax. 2 years later and I’m finally ok!
Image source: Amber Nicole
#42
Severe Mitral Stenosis & Regurgitation. I coded on the table twice after a crna told me I was having a panic attack… and she never gave me Versed so I remember ALL of it.
Image source: Amanda Gibson
#43
A doctor once told me (and documented) he wouldn’t scan my knee because he “didn’t want to feed my delusions”. I left ED in agony, got a private scan and had entirely cracked in half the cartilage in my knee.
Image source: Elisa Flynt
#44
Diagnosed with Complex regional Pain Syndrome after I was told I’m “just dehydrated and need to suck it up.”
Image source: Zack Adams
#45
Atrial Septal Defect and open heart surgery that week.
For years it was “🙄 She’s so dramatic when she has to run.”
Also telling the Dr I thought I had asthma because my lungs burned so bad. “Just because your friend has asthma doesn’t mean you do.”
Image source: Janey Atkins
#46
I ended up with sepsis- went to the ED & the doctor barely looked at me and I was coughing up literal chunks of blood & had a super high fever. He sent me home, within hours I was nearly unresponsive & my mom begged the ER doctor to run more tests but they refused just saying I was being anxious & dramatic.
Image source: Mady Toelle
#47
Pulmonary embolisms, lung cancer. Because apparently if you’re 30 those things don’t happen…
Image source: Lily Mihai
#48
Bipolar 1 with psychotic features 🤣 they also told me if I lost some weight it would help.
Image source: Jenna Constance
#49
I got told if I lost weight my asthma would get better. He was really s****y. Turns out I just needed the cat to die.
Image source: Nicola Owen
#50
I had a doctor tell me nothing is wrong I just need to loose weight. PTSP, Major depressive disorder, Anxiety.
Image source: Sissy Forbes
#51
Allergies, then bronchitis, then atypical pneumonia, then lung cancer.
Image source: Heather Prather
#52
Dysautonomia, POTS, Ehlers Danlos, MCAS, ME/CFS, Endometriosis and PCOS
But just anxiety and need to lose some weight… right?!
Image source: JB Ashley McCoy
#53
Passed out while driving (with my kids in the car!!) and said it was just anxiety. SVT.
Image source: Hailey Patterson
#54
First it was gas LOL. Then it was a heart attack, then in was a hernia…..6 months later we were on a beach trip on the back of the Harley when the doctors at Myrtle Beach found out it was my gall bladder all along. Such an easy fix!!! Wish it hadn’t taken 6 months!!!
Image source: Nicole Murphy
#55
Got admitted to the hospital for 5 days, on oxygen for 3, for severe asthma exacerbation–on my 2nd visit to the ER that day. The nurse came in to pass me a medicine cup and said “The doctor ordered Ativan.” I pulled my hand back and asked why. She said “to calm me down.”
Image source: Atsukobo Athena
#56
“They said it was ‘just anxiety.’ Turns out it was:
– Mild TBI (19 head injuries)
– Central vestibular dysfunction
– Post-trauma vision syndrome
– Visual midline shift
– Sensory processing disorder
– Hyperacusis
But sure, let’s keep calling it anxiety.”
Image source: Alena Freeman
#57
I called the GP as i had a big lump under my arm pit. The GP receptionist told me to wait a month as it was nothing and would go. She then told me to wait a further 2 weeks for a phone call. Spoke to the GP she had me at the surgery inaide 30 mins and an urgent referral sent. 6 days later I was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer, 6 weeks later scans showed I was stage 4. That was almost 4 years ago now and im 45. I hate GP receptionists lol. Don’t worry, my GP still doesn’t understand my condition and they refuse to do my bloods ordered by oncology so it has to be the health board.
Image source: Michelle Cullen
#58
Sepsis. . . I was literally dying.
Image source: Amanda Harte
#59
Anxiety / muscle pain, turned out I had three blood clots in my lungs.
Image source: Giacomo Fitzmaurice
#60
Gastritis…after probably 8 different doctors suggested anxiety meds – even the gastroenterologist.
Image source: Alisha Gladbach
#61
My first son…3 years old…”Constipation, give him MiraLAX.”
Took him to ER that night…Complete Intestinal Malrotation with obstruction. Two big surgeries later and he’s nearly 12.
Image source: Jessica Wilkerson Phillips
#62
Stage 4 endometriosis and a fibroid the size of a melon. “I just needed to lose some weight and eat more spinach to get my iron up.”
Image source: Lisa Dolgoff Peri
#63
Sudden onset SOB in the mornings less in the afternoons. “Maybe you just need to get in shape you’re not hypoxic”. What about a pulmonologist. “You can if you want to….”
Allergic asthma to unscented hairspray I’d used for years. Not just out of shape.
Image source: Max Engler
#64
Massive heart attack two fully clogged arteries, four stints at 39. Sarcastically got to look at my Dr. And tell him you couldn’t diagnose an ear infection.
Image source: Kyle Maus
#65
Soooooo my heart rate taking off while laying on the couch at home was ‘anxiety’.
Given Xanax script that I ripped up. I actually had Atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia and was properly medicated until successful ablation.
Image source: Kathleen Gaither
#66
I couldn’t even catch my breath walking around the house and I was told I just had post nasal drip (no runny nose at all). Next doctor sent me for an X-ray and it turns out I had pneumonia.
Image source: Emily Jean
#67
AVP-D, previously known as Diabetes Insipidus! I was told I was anxiously drinking 12 litres of water a day, and that it had become a habit.
Image source: Ffion Evans
#68
Ambulance crew said “you’re just having an anxiety attack.” Er Dr diagnosed it as a stroke. Quite a bit different really.
Image source: Mary Draper
#69
Super ventricular tachycardia, oh and a broken back on a separate occasion. The paramedic told me I was being “hysterical”, (wasn’t even crying) and that there was absolutely zero chance my back was broken.
Image source: Jennifer Pass
#70
Dr told me that my 4 month old son was refusing his bottle as he could feel my anxiety – after refusing to leave and demanding another dr see him he was diagnosed with cows with protein allergy and bottle aversion, but yeah – it’s was all me!
Image source: Rebecca Powell
#71
My just “anxiety” ended up being a blood cloth that almost took me out.
Image source: Adela Shikatani
#72
A stroke. Had a massive headache over weeks, nobody took this seriously. „You‘re only 18, it‘s your anxiety that makes it worse!“
Image source: Sina Katharina
#73
Freakin epilepsy. Turns out I wasn’t just faking it.
Image source: Jasmine Christine Cureton
#74
My daughter even after fainting and she stopped breathing on THE ER. They said anxiety. It’s frikken POTS!
Image source: Jessica Gould
#75
“You’re just constipated”. Me, 3 weeks later getting emergency surgery because my gallbladder is about to explode.
Image source: Jamie Collins Weidner
#76
Blood Clot and a mass on my uterus..I kept being told to lose weight..eat less sodium..because that’s why my Right leg was non stop swollen for 6 months..lol
Image source: Whitney Hay
#77
Cancer. Literally cancer💀 dude still said it was my anxiety with the biopsy results in his hand lmao.
Image source: Montana Renee Alldread
#78
Was told im just getting older and literally “welcome to the bad back club”
turned out i had an L5 fracture, dislocated hip and pelvic area, sclerosing in multiple of my joints (arthritis) and to top it off i have flatback syndrome all while my spine tilts to the left side to compensate for the hips. I should be the poster child for the bad back club.
Image source: Kirstine Wüpper Mikkelsen
#79
A blocked widow maker artery!
Image source: Alison Van Gunten Reed
#80
Endo, PCOS, AU/ADD, perfectionism, CPTSD…. just had radical hysterctomy, thrown into full blown menopause … welcome to womanhood….😭…”here’s another pill… it’s just anxiety’…
Image source: Emma-louise Walker
#81
They diagnosed me with Colon Cancer and I had Giardia and E. coli.
Image source: Old School Farms
#82
Liver disease (which, thankfully, I ended up beating).
Image source: Savannah Ballard
#83
Severe iron deficiency which was another rabbit hole in itself.
Image source: Amanda Michele McGarry
#84
Seizures. No, I wasn’t twitching because of anxiety.
Image source: Stephanie Garlick
#85
Myocarditis, heart failure, and POTS after covid. ER PA wouldn’t even look at me in passing after he found out… He had said that after effects of co vid weren’t a thing anymore. Sad part… I’m an RN and I told him that something felt majorly wrong and requested an echo after an “Normal abnormal EKG”, he didn’t care and refused to order one.
Image source: Brianna George
#86
POTS and gastroparesis. I was throwing up multiple times a day. When I finally did a gastric emptying test I bombed it completely. Literally 0% of the food had been digested after 4 hours. (But no, I’m just nervous.)
Image source: Emily Schofield
#87
Chronic bronchitis when the ER doctor told me it was “just a cold, go home and eat some chicken soup (yes that was his actual advice… and I was vegan at the time which was also noted in my medical records)”…. I’d already had that “cold” for several months, which I HAD ALREADY TOLD HIM. It’s been 8 years since then.
Image source: Amanda Lucky
#88
Irregular heart rhythm. Finally seen it on holter monitor reading after several times of being put on holter, and years of doctor visits with the same complaint: I literally feel my heart skipping beats, having extra beats, and beating off beat. They kept saying your heart looks normal it’s just anxiety.
Image source: Dee Rosario
#89
Chronic appendicitis over a 9 months span LOL they almost k**led me, I went to the ER 3 times.
Image source: Bella Camille
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