In the March issue of Ode Magazine, David Servan-Schreiber, a French psychiatry professor, writes about facing a medical diagnosis with hope. He emphasizes the the importance of controlling stress, and how research has shown that facing illness with a calm and hopeful attitude can greatly increase survival. In my experience, dealing with stress begins with acknowledging emotions, even the scary ones like fear and anger — feeling the feelings — so that you can move beyond them. Feelings don’t go away, and they don’t have to control you.
Recently, an article on patient decision-making appeared in the New York Times. The article discussed how physicians may not be presenting newly-diagnosed patients with all of their treatment options, especially alternatives that might require that they leave their current physician. I have long been concerned, for example, that newly-diagnosed cancer patients may stay with an oncologist who treats multiple types of cancer rather than going to one who specializes in their specific diagnosis, or to a cancer treatment center that might provide care by a team of leading experts.
Human beings attach themselves to the illusion of control!
Friends and family getting on your nerves with their constant advice?
Let’s focus moment on the irony of being faced with the news of a condition that you don’t know anything about, yet are being expected to make decisions about. You might be wondering: Why not simply take my doctor’s advice?
When a child has a chronic condition, the whole family has a chronic condition. Other family members are often faced with making their own lifestyle adjustments – diet restrictions, limits on family vacations and other cost-cutting, and coping with looks and insensitive comments from others. It is important for family members to all acknowledge the ‘elephant in the room,’ which is their own sense of helplessness that can result when a family member is ill.
Society has taught us to look at the aging process as a series of losses and, ultimately, physical decline. But are we experiencing loss, or change?
When we define ourselves as diminished, we reduce ourselves to a set of biological process that requires the intervention of the medical establishment to maintain. It’s as simple as that. This is the end product of taking stock of our lives and placing all of the checkmarks under the heading of “Deleted.”
There is an excellent Website for young women facing chronic health conditions. It is called www.ChronicBabe.com. It contains a wealth of information, including a huge library of links to other resources like newsletters, patient stories, articles, and an excellent blog. If you are facing a chronic illness this is a good site to check out. While developed for women, there is a lot of great information and resources for men as well.
There is nothing more gratifying than doing as much as you can to take care of yourself. At the risk of sounding like an Internet junkie, research the disease or condition you interested in so that you are armed with facts and not scare tactics. In these days of managed care, it is increasingly the responsibility of the patient to be their own healthcare advocate. This begins with learning how to make informed decisions about your own treatment. The Internet has become the repository of both good and bad information on health and medical treatment. So beware.
There is nothing more gratifying than doing as much as you can to take care of yourself. At the risk of sounding like an Internet junkie, research the disease or condition you interested in so that you are armed with facts and not scare tactics. In these days of managed care, it is increasingly the responsibility of the patient to be their own healthcare advocate. This begins with learning how to make informed decisions about your own treatment. The Internet has become the repository of both good and bad information on health and medical treatment. So beware.