Nov. 16, 2025 7 AM PT
To the editor: Lauran Neergaard’s article exploring the medical thriller that’s lupus (and different autoimmune circumstances) successfully highlights many sufferers’ journeys, together with mine (“The push to find help for autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus,” Nov. 10).
The “dismissiveness” and “gaslighting” talked about are very actual, particularly on the subject of girls’s signs. But I’ve been dismissed and misdiagnosed by each female and male medical doctors, all medical professionals with little bedside method and an lack of ability to really pay attention. Equally traumatic is being often dismissed by members of the general public, and even shut associates, because of the invisible nature of autoimmune circumstances. If folks can’t see it, they don’t consider it.
My saving grace has been discovering medical doctors (and different medical practitioners) with genuine compassion, an open ear and a capability to look deeper. Kudos to affected person Ruth Wilson for not solely standing up for herself to discover a correct analysis, but additionally volunteering to coach others about lupus and power sickness basically. It took advocating for myself, satisfactory medical health insurance, household help and braveness to lastly shine a light-weight by myself medical thriller.
Alexis P. Markowitz, Playa Vista
