December 23rd, 2011 by PreparedPatient in Health Tips, Opinion
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Talking About Side Effects With Your Health Care Team
Side effects may occur with any new treatment, including new medications, placement of a new medical device, surgery, or even physical or occupational therapy. We usually think of side effects when we begin to experience bad changes —when the treatment introduces new worrisome symptoms or problems. Most treatments have some sort of side effect associated with them, and many of us may wonder if side effects are simply the price we must pay for a necessary treatment.
But side effects shouldn’t be taken lightly, for a number of reasons. At their most extreme, side effects raise the alarm when you are having harmful and even potentially fatal treatment reactions. Even somewhat mild side effects like a dry mouth, sleepiness, or minor muscle aches may still interfere with your daily life. Sometimes side effects bother some people so much that they skip doses or give up a treatment altogether, which can derail care and put them at risk for both short- and long-term complications.
Before treatment begins, here are a few questions you can discuss with your health care team: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
November 20th, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Opinion
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Psychotherapy is, by it’s nature, a narcissistic endeavor. That’s not to say that the patient is a narcissist, but the journey itself is meant to focus on patient’s interior life, and it’s not always about the greater good. In my last post, several commenters said they feel uncomfortable talking about themselves or worry that their therapist will mistakenly think they are narcissistic because they talk about themselves in therapy.
It’s not at all unusual for people to express some discomfort about talking about themselves in therapy, or to comment, “all I do in here is complain,” or “You must get tired of hearing people complain/talk about their problems, etc….”
I won’t talk for other psychotherapists because I only know how I feel. It seems to me that the mandate of therapy is for the patient to talk about the things they have been thinking about. The truth is that most people think about themselves, and issues of the world are interpreted by individuals as they impact them. Some people Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
October 13th, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Opinion
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Oh, we’re not kiddy shrinks, so this post is not really about children. But I like the term, it implies that the person needs something more, that they have special– presumably increased– needs. It says nothing about potential. I use the term often, and sometimes with a bit of humor, to remind people that the playing field is not always level. There are people who start any given race with a handicap– a learning disability, dyslexia, major health problems, mental illnesses, horrible childhoods, addictions — and these set them on a slightly different course.
Some people overcome tremendous adversity. They function ‘as if’ they had no special needs. They have stories that would let you understand if they didn’t do very well in life, stories that would explain burying their heads in the sand, or crawling under a large rock. Sometimes these special needs people are Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
