One particularly toxic form of care is symptom management at any cost. This is when people try to cure you even if it kills you. I actually remember a neurologist describing a possible epilepsy medication for Linda. When she asked about side effects he said, “One of the rare side effects is that sometimes people die….” I just met a 23 year old woman yesterday who told me that she had been told after one year of zyprexa that she was getting ready to become diabetic. She literally didnt know what way to turn.
Providers often seem incapable of realizing that too often their attempts to control symptoms are as painful, as life disrupting, as dangerous as the symptoms they attempt to control. What they also dont realize is that controlling symptoms is not the same thing as making life better.
It may be part of making life better….Indeed it should be. But as any alcoholic can tell you the absence of alcohol in and of itself does not make life better- at least not in the long run. Life becoming better means finding purpose and significance, becoming a welcome part of others lives and them a part of yours, finding personal success as you define it, finding something to look forward to in each day, a growing faith in your own ability, knowing that you count and can be counted upon, learning that life offers opportunity and not endless deprivation, that you are safe, that hope is real and so many more things.
This is what I like about the recovery model. It is about life becoming better. The medical model is about life not being as bad. It seems a clear choice to me.
Treatment is really about 2 things::
One particularly toxic form of care is symptom management at any cost. This is when people try to cure you even if it kills you. I actually remember a neurologist describing a possible epilepsy medication for Linda. When she asked about side effects he said, “One of the rare side effects is that sometimes people die….” I just met a 23 year old woman yesterday who told me that she had been told after one year of zyprexa that she was getting ready to become diabetic. She literally didnt know what way to turn.
Providers often seem incapable of realizing that too often their attempts to control symptoms are as painful, as life disrupting, as dangerous as the symptoms they attempt to control. What they also dont realize is that controlling symptoms is not the same thing as making life better.
It may be part of making life better….Indeed it should be. But as any alcoholic can tell you the absence of alcohol in and of itself does not make life better- at least not in the long run. Life becoming better means finding purpose and significance, becoming a welcome part of others lives and them a part of yours, finding personal success as you define it, finding something to look forward to in each day, a growing faith in your own ability, knowing that you count and can be counted upon, learning that life offers opportunity and not endless deprivation, that you are safe, that hope is real and so many more things.
This is what I like about the recovery model. It is about life becoming better. The medical model is about life not being as bad. It seems a clear choice to me.