Category: Health

There will be a new day.
Even though it doesn’t look like it, these troubles will pass. They’ve come before and likely will again, but there is light in the morning.

Suggestion creates perception. The mind is a powerful thing.

Not feeling well today, right after a blood pressure test from a nurse and another from my mother.

Lewis wrote of the fallacy of appearances. “Madness frequently discovers itself merely by unnecessary deviation from the usual modes of the world” (Christian Reflections). Specifically, Lewis spoke of his friend Smart as showing his disturbance by falling on his knees and praying in the street.

Testified.

But he also said, “it is greater madness not to pray at all.”

I don’t know. Maybe I will know as I am known one day, in this world. But it seems a far way away. I believe I know the prayers. I know the pacing unsettlement. That inward turn.

I’m high functioning. But I know others who are not. Their lives are stopped, but maybe they attend support groups and then go back to the struggle when it ends. I was there.

Lewis thought that Smart should not be shut up because he was not doing anything detrimental to society. Smart insisted on people praying with him, and Lewis said he would rather pray with him “than anyone else.” He wore dirty clothing. Lewis, humorously, said he didn’t have any need for clean linen.

Abraham prayed to God. He sought forgiveness; the fervent prayer of a righteous man achieves much.

It’s been 15 years since I had any significant problems, but I believe I understand the prayers sent up with hope of an answer.

These stories are distressing. Watching the news can disturb your well-being, well at least mine. In every story is the possibility of further stress. Here are three sets of practices to cope with bad news, but I can tell you from personal experience that mental health is a day-to-day conflict; I don’t remember what exactly transpired on former days. As Christ said, the worries of today are sufficient. I can do a mental check–yes, “I remember that”–but the gravity of that day does not equal the gravity of today. There is not a great sense of self when you are struggling. Just the opposite.

Been having headaches, difficulty walking, and occasional nausea. Doc has asked for an MRI and did some blood tests. Had some anemia, which was weird.

I’m trying not to be negative, but I made the mistake of looking at online medical resources and now worry about this or that. Doctor said don’t jump to conclusions.

This brings up the question I asked at the men’s group this morning. Friends there say not to speak things in affirmation, but how do I ask for prayer if I don’t mention what it is.

Anyway. I need peace, will have to relax a bit more in the sun today.

You know the drill. You go to your primary care doctor and indirectly talk into an Electronic Health Record system. The doctor gives some bare attention as the nurse or assistant records the essentials. The doctor’s time is spent on paperwork and not on his/her judgment and diagnostic feeling; the patient just data. Worse yet, you may have a phone or video appointment (sometimes from silly vaccine mandates). The human is taken out.

As the late Charles Krauthammer wrote, EHR government mandates present you with just billing, legal documents, and degraded medicine. He pointed out that (in 2015) the supposed savings for the government with the move to EHR–$27 billion–was gone already. Unfortunately, EHR also made it easier for fraud with Medicare. Ease of use for the EHR system allowed cutting and pasting of data into data fields. Billing could be inflated.

At XiFin, I supported the company in the marketing department. Along with HIPAA compliance, we enabled form-fill features. Billing was simplified and waste rooted out. Still, there is still some waste, impersonal service, and the reflex to drug prescription.

As Krauthammer suggested, some tort reforms could improve the industry: No limits on a plaintiff’s lost earnings, a reasonable cap on pain and suffering ($250K), a similar cap on punitive damages, and serious penalties for frivolous lawsuits. These are tall orders, but he had the right idea.

He summed up with these suggested avenues for improvement: changes in public policy, malpractice reform in which loser pays all, separating routine treatments from major ones, and “allowing old age to take place.” (I don’t completely get this last one.)

Beyond the lack of personal care due to legal requirements, there is also the specter of Big Pharma. (Psychiatrists are one of the specialties in the prescription racket.) My views on healthcare have changed much from 30 years ago fresh out of college. I used to think that research and development were responsible for escalating drug costs, but the apparent collaboration in selling and prescribing is eye-opening.

In the U.K., my nan, uncle and aunt, sister and brother all of course get national healthcare. While I know my grandmother and stepgrandfather had various problems with scheduling visits and surgeries(!), I think my uncle, aunt, and siblings have had good services. My brother’s recent birth of his son was completely covered, my sister-in-law had in-home visits from maternity, and my uncle had successful hip work. I know the British are proud of their healthcare (they had dancing medical professionals in Olympic ceremonies), but I do wonder about more critical health needs. Some Europeans come to the top American clinics for advanced cancer care among other fields.

While I appreciate the advances here, I do feel a certain disconnect from a doctor looking down at a screen during an appointment that I had set up three months in advance. I think a redo is needed.

Why does the knowledge of human behavior suffer for those with fractured or dissociated apprehension? That’s perhaps an incorrect assumption. Are all those in mental turmoil unable to understand their fellow man? It’s we who are on the outside observing the man and making assumptions of the person we are looking at.

Working…

Evaluating oneself continually is not promoting health. I have to refer this back to the scripture “do not depend on your own understanding.” For me, this came into my spirit as to self-reflection. “The over-examined life is not worth living.”

I’ve found that there is great wisdom in this text. Trying to determine why I feel a certain way or going back in personal memory to repeatedly ask for forgiveness does not promote tranquility of mind.

At this point, I will refer to medicine, but also “mindfulness” may be helpful here. I never looked at that as a serious practice; just some hokum.

It’s easy to blame the pandemic for everything, but there was a 45% increase in self-injury and suicide cases among 5- to 17-year-olds in the first half of 2021. We can blame social media, and we’d be right to, but it’s not all due to that either.

Now I don’t have children, but my interactions with friends’ kids and my nephews have made me realize that there is intense need for understanding and importance in our youth at those ages. Then in college, young adults are trying to grasp their meaning and place in the world through a career. Both of these times are critical in self development–but the last thing they needed was a pandemic shutdown (imho).

https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2022/04/24/the-teen-mental-health-crisis-mystery

Two mental health articles.

A Dartmouth study found that major depressive, anxiety, and bipolar disorders can be recognized by the emotions of Reddit posts; the posts can reveal an “emotional fingerprint” for a user. They didn’t examine the content, just the emotion–so the study is an incomplete look at emotional disorders in my opinion. Also, what about the bomb throwers and trolls? Online mass movements?
https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2022/03/ai-model-detects-mental-disorders-based-web-posts

Continue reading “Reddit emotion; Psycho-physical pain”