Most people visit the doctor to help get or stay healthy. But health care providers can only work with the information you present to them.

If you’re dealing with a chronic health issue, the last thing you want to do is undermine a doctor’s efforts to help you get well.

“It’s so important to have a good doctor-patient relationship because the more your doctor knows you and your health, the better your care can be,” said Dr Zachary Bittinger, a clinical assistant professor of family and community medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus.

“But healthy relationships have boundaries. Making sure that you understand your doctor’s boundaries and your doctor understands yours is a core piece of it.”

With that in mind, we asked primary care physicians how patients might unintentionally interfere with their own care and what kind of behaviour impedes a good doctor-patient relationship. Here’s what they shared.

1. You’ve predetermined your diagnosis and aren’t open to your doctor’s expertise.

Doctors are aware that you’ve probably already looked up your symptoms online to try to get some sense of what you could be dealing with – especially if you’ve been trying to get a proper diagnosis for a long time.

Many patients experience medical gaslighting, and sometimes the only way to take back control is to do the research yourself.

“It’s important to acknowledge that health information is everywhere,” Bittinger said. “Sifting through it independently is to be expected these days, and it’s unfair to expect patients to not do that.”

But there’s a difference between doing some research and insisting that you have a diagnosis without being open to what your doctor says. “It’s a careful balancing act,” Bittinger said.

Health care providers say they regularly hear from patients with a new health problem who think they know their diagnosis before they’re even examined.

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