You know how everybody hates on Dr. Drew for talking about celebrities he’s not treating? And remember that one time that I so nobly came to Dr Drew’s defense for such statements, declaring that he’s a great dude with a heart of gold and bangin’ body? Ok, I don’t think I said that last part, but he’s an attractive man. That’s neither here nor there at the moment, because the good doctor recently came to his own defense in his typical eloquent way:
“It’s bizarre to me that you can have political commentators, sports commentators, weather commentators, but with medicine, people go, “You can’t do that.” It’s like, if you show me a picture of a rash, I don’t have to know the person to tell you what that rash is. There are lots of medical conditions that you can diagnose never having met the person. Soon enough, we’ll have telemedicine and do it through the Internet — that’s the future. You can educate people about politics, criminality, the law, but not about medicine? It’s just silly … I really don’t want to hurt anybody, but to say the truth and to offer words that might be helpful in understanding what some of these conditions are. I can’t see any reason not to do that. That’s changing things for the better.”
Did you get that message? Dr. Drew is ushering in the future. All you naysayers can become believers now or wait until your physician requests that you Skype him your junk when you get a weird outbreak. The choice is yours.
I’ve got a few problems with his statement. Dr. Drew uses telehealth as an example. The difference between a telehealth conference in which a physician diagnosis someone via skype and Dr. Drew ‘arm chair diagnosing’ a celebrity in the media is this; consent and privacy. A patient consents to a telehealth assessment and this information is confidential but a celebrity does not need to consent for Dr. Drew to label them with a mental illness or with addiction/substance abuse and his opinion is available for the public. Also, when diagnosing someone with a mental health condition (substance abuse included) you must speak to and assess the individual; tabloid media is not suffient. And lastly,
oops!
… and lastly telling me that Lindsay Lohan needs help is not ‘educational’ and he claims it is. Telling me what addiction is, the signs and symptoms, and available treatments is education. and you do not need to attach that information to an individual to teach it to me.
i think its pitiful that anyone would go on tv to air someone elses personal problems. its a violation of confidentiality and a reminder that the people won’t feel good about themselves if they continue to watch. Yes i can turn off my televison set change the channel (which is now easier because viewing like this is becoming more unexceptable) The question is CAN YOU we have to live in a world people