It's Normal to Be Nervous at the Doctor's Office

Almost everybody’s nervous when they come to the doctor’s office. It’s normal, it’s OK. There’s no reason to hide it, and there’s no reason to fight it. Believe me, you’re not alone. There are good reasons why people are nervous when they come to the doctor’s office. If they have a problem, first of all, they’re not at the top of their game and, second of all, they imagine and fear that that problem is something much worse than it’s probably going to be. And even if you’re just going for a routine visit, just a screening examination, you’re afraid that the doctor’s going to find something that’s abnormal. The whole situation certainly can be intimidating. Let me give you an example.

When I see a patient for a screening examination to check that their moles and growths are normal, I come into the room, they’re sitting on the table in a gown, and I tell them, “Lie down on your back on the table.” Half the time, they lie down on their stomach. The problem is, they’re nervous, it’s not that they can’t understand me. But they hear me say, “Lie down” and they block the rest , so there’s a 50/50 chance that they’re going to lie down on the right side, but that’s a very typical example of how people get nervous in doctors’ offices.

Picture this, believe it or not, doctors become patients and have to go to other doctors’ offices and, you know what happens when doctors become patients? They have the same anxiety, the same nervousness, and they make the same mistakes that you do, because you see, under that white coat, doctors are people just like you.