What day of the week is it? IT'S NOT IMPORTANT, because all that matters is that today it's time for another...
SECRET of the MEDICAL PROFESSION!
Doctors have a difficult job: you come in with symptoms and you expect a diagnosis. And sometimes that's really hard! Hate to break it to you, Chuckles, but there's always the chance it's all in your head.
There's also the chance your symptoms represent a new and terrible disease unknown to medical science!
And in both these cases a doctor may feel pressured to come up with a reassuring label!
So what do they do?
They MAKE IT UP!
It's called a wastebasket diagnosis: a disease with symptoms so broad as to be effectively meaningless. But it can do real good! Having a named disease can lower patient anxiety and even help alleviate symptoms!
Diagnosis as therapy?
Exactly! It's like the placebo effect!
...in that now that we know about it, IT CAN NEVER HELP US AGAIN
OH WAIT, I'M GOING ON A DATE