Are you ready for another Thought Provoking Thursday?
I am looking forward to the responses to this question because as you can imagine as a Clinical Psychologist and a person who suffers from chronic pain and myriad of other weird and wonderful diagnoses and symptom, some understood by the medical community and others not, this question intrigues me greatly.
The fact that the matter is psychology (thoughts, emotions and behaviours, in addition to subconscious and unconscious process) are an integral part of our physical well-being. Our mind after all is also our body. It obviously varies a great deal depending on our individual circumstances and genetics but I think we can all agree that psychological factors play a part in numerous diseases from strokes, heart attacks, cancer, stomach problems, neurological illnesses, well I could go on forever.
So why is it that certain physical presentations/chronic illnesses, less understood by our current medical system, are more readily assumed to be psychological in nature by health care professionals and society as a whole?
As usual let’s share openly, yet respectfully. Remember it is okay not to understand too. Let’s take it as an opportunity to learn from one another.
I really look forward to hearing your thoughts.
To check out or share previous #thoughtprovokingquestions just click the link below.
Thought Provoking Thursday #TPT
Much love
Krissy
Musings of a wounded healer 
I am a mental health therapist with a chronic illness. I’ve had a thyroidectomy and if my levels are out of balance I have severe symptoms of depression and anxiety. Once my levels are good the symptoms go away. But everytime I see the NP she is convinced that the depression and anxiety are inherent parts of me that must be addressed with more antidepressants. She has been taught by her education that anxiety and depression are illnesses that exist on their own. If they don’t resolve with antidepressants than its the wrong antidepressant. I used to work for an HMO and I would get patients all the time who had been referred to psychiatry for issues that were clearly being caused by a biological problem with the body. Especially the thyroid gland. Often its done because the PCP has thousands of patients to see, little time, slap a diagnosis on and refer. On to the next patient. I think it is also part of the top down mentality of western medicine which says that the doctor tells the patient what is wrong and treats it without their input. I think it is also caused by the extreme specialist mentality in today’s medicine. The body is a whole system, but each individual part has an individual doctor. Any expression of sadness or anxiety? Antidepressant and refer to the psychiatric specialist! I hope this makes sense, I’m really having trouble stringing thoughts together today.
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This is fantastic advice, my boss & friend suffers greatly from hereditary essential tremor , chronic fatigue, and so much body pain and emotional subconscious pains , this really helps me understand how to help her more .
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