When your health makes you anxious

Some time ago, I posted about anxiety and someone sent me an interesting article*; even though it is some type of publicity, and I don’t do publicity, it was a different dimension of anxiety that I didn’t know: when you have a health problem and you are waiting for a diagnostic.

Many years ago, I had a friend how was diagnosed with cancer, which he beat. He was so happy, he called me from the other side of the world to tell me the good news. And then, he started to have some problems again and I remember his anxiety, waiting for the response from doctors. It was not good news, but maybe the anxiety itself was the worst.

In his very influential book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman talks about his own experience when he was sent for a lab to do a test. Because of his background, he knew it could mean cancer… He analysed about the emotions he felt.

A study of patients in physicians' waiting rooms found that each had an average of three or more questions in mind to ask the physician they were about to see. But when the patients left the physician's office, an average of only one and a half of those questions had been answered. This finding speaks to one of the many ways patients' emotional needs are unmet by today's medicine. Unanswered questions feed uncertainty, fear, catastrophizing.

The focus of Daniel Goleman was about a change in the medical people’s attitude, but I think there are a few things we could do to minimize the anxiety that comes when there is something wrong with our body or mind, but there is no clarity about a diagnosis.

1. The first thing is to keep calm. Easy said than done, but meditation and other practices can help.
2. Stick to the facts, don’t overthink or try to be your own clairvoyant. Just wait and see what happens.
3. Talk to very good POSITIVE friends. They will surround you with their positive aura and that will be healing. I had that experience with a lady, a friend’s sister, while she waited for her diagnosis; about 10 people were there in the room with her sharing nice stories and just giving her good company.
4. Read and feed yourself with positive information. Avoid a reading about your current problem as much as possible.
5. At the day of your diagnosis, act normally. Routine has power in these cases and it will help you to focus your mind on the present.

If you or other people have anxiety before a diagnosis, I hope this may help.

 

* About scanxiety - https://www.asbestos.com/blog/2021/07/29/mesothelioma-scans-scanxiety/

Health does not start with the doctor

One of the big changes in our civilization that very few would foresee is the importance given to health and health care nowadays. In fact, in 2014, it is calculated every American citizen spent about US$ 9,500 and the general expenses for the country was up to three trillions dollars.

However, the roots of health are in more soft grounds than what we see today. The Greeks gave high importance to dreams in the healing process and Indians have their healing medicine – the Ayurveda – registered in old scriptures.

There has been an emergence of those types of medicine because it is time we give our ancestors some credit. Yes, they didn’t have the science behind, but here and there we hear about people getting healed without the use of allopathic medicine. We are still in the process of recovering that wisdom and a general advice for people is to follow their doctor, but to look for complementary treatment in other branches at the same time.

But, even that maybe won’t heal the person. I have seen two people I know and I watched their personal fight against cancer. Although they had different ages and different types of cancer, the initial effects were quite similar for both of them, and they even decided to follow similar procedures. With all of that, still just one survived and she is around to tell her tale.

Because there are things we don’t control and sometimes, our body is one of these things. Health starts from within, from a different perception of the world around you and how that world will affect your of will be affected by you.

That perception will give you the necessary guidelines you need to follow a healthy lifestyle and promote your health before a sickness emerges. That same insight will help you to accept that sometimes your body won’t be able to survive the time you wanted and you just have to rethink your aims and objectives in life, and keep living as worse than dying is to live with its fear.

When science fails

Nowadays you can have all you want, and talk to anyone you want. However, the big tendency nowadays is to live alone. Also, you have medicine in its state of art. And never before we had that many sicknesses.

Somehow, humans have tried to replace whatever they lack with science and its children, like technology. But it is not working. Yes, it gives you a temporary feeling that you are getting what you want, but then, after a while, you realise you still don't have it. And you cannot get anything only using science.

You can talk to people using science, but you cannot communicate with them only relying on science. You need to trust them too, you need patience, perseverance and a bunch of other values which will enable you to really forge a relationship.

You can use medicine - by the way, you should! - but you won't be healthier because of that. Real health starts from lifestyle, from the way you think and see the world, and your own relationship with your body and other people's bodies.

Science is good, and I use lots of it in my day-to-day life. But I am aware it can't replace reality. Reality is still outside this blog, this connection and this computer.

As an author, I like to provide new perspective.