I just read an article about a man who had AIDS and died because he had stopped taking his treatment and was treating himself with salt water ...
I find that very sad! This makes me angry!
In my care journey, many times I have crossed paths with people who offered me alternative care, medical professionals who wanted to send me to alternative care ... And that wakes up my fears, my alarms of danger, my anger against everything that is sectarian or that I perceive as such ...
Here is the article I read:
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/recit-numerique/2523/bernard-lachance-conspirationniste
The real question to ask myself I think is why so many people are turning to these "alternative medicines"? Why do they have the quota?
I think that society in general, governments and professionals in particular have a huge responsibility in this.
The problem of medicine and the "robot" doctor.
All-powerful general practitioners who do not listen, who do not explain, who make a simple very rapid physical diagnosis without taking the whole human into account during consultations.
This kind of "alternative care" offers that. Listening that seems benevolent, and human ". During consultations with a general practitioner, one has the impression of being just a piece of meat. He does not look at us, does not listen to us. The preliminary interview is very short. and the doctor just focuses on the physical symptoms Everything comes down to a physical symptom and a miracle drug that will make it go away The consultation is sloppy in 10 minutes ... The medical desert and the difficulty of finding a general practitioner. ... We are a defective piece of meat and in 5 minutes we are prescribed a prescription for chemical drugs. As if that alone is the solution. The impression of disturbing, of coming for nothing, of exaggerating our symptoms ... The impression of being transparent, invisible ...
The "alternative care" have understood this problem well and this is how they "hook" their clients! They listen, they watch, they take the time ... They put back the relationship, the exchange, the human being where traditional medicine has completely forgotten ...
The problem of the division of specialties.
Another shortcoming of classical medicine is the cleavage and the non-communication between the different specialties! A general practitioner will not communicate with the psychologist, the dentist, the nutritionist, the physiotherapist who follows the patient. Classical medicine and the field of care wanted to separate the body from the patient as if it was not a whole, one and the same unit. A sick patient usually has several comorbidities. He will be seen by a dentist if he has damaged teeth, an addiction specialist if he smokes, a general practitioner if he coughs, a physiotherapist if he has muscle pain, a psychiatrist or psychologist if he is depressed ... But he there will be no communication between the different people he consults. As if his mouth and teeth are separated from the fact that he smokes and coughs and that he has an addiction due to a psychological problem ... not only does classical medicine dehumanize us but it makes us feel exploded, torn to pieces ...
Here again, "alternative care" have seen this flaw and are exploiting it! Make us feel reunited, find a cohesion between all our symptoms and our psyche ... Classical medicine denies and conceals the fact that everything is linked. A patient who treats the real reasons for his addiction with quality follow-up from a psychologist, who can discuss it with his addictologist and his dentist and his attending physician will greatly improve his health and quality of life. A real communication between caregivers will allow the patient to take his life in hand and find a unity in his body, a respect for his body and wanting to heal himself ...
And this also applies to quality of life and patient safety! So there should also be communication between professionals in a broader sense. A patient who is on the street or who lives in deplorable conditions (financial, violence at work, domestic violence ...) will obviously find it difficult to improve his health if his daily life is not optimal ... A doctor who does not does not know that his patient suffered violence will still be able to prescribe chemical drugs, this will not resolve the patient's state of stress, his depression or any other symptoms for the rest ... Without all the factors, nothing can be done heal! Without putting in place all the right conditions for healing, the patient's daily life and quality of life will not be able to improve.
"Alternative care" provides this, they listen, take into account the body, touch, manipulate, take an interest in nutrition, to the family situation ... The patient feels listened to. He has the impression of being finally seen as a human being ... And the seduction and manipulation are therefore easily operable afterwards ...
The problem of the "sufficient doctor and imbued with his knowledge".
Classical medicine has forgotten an important thing. Without the patient's total decision, no treatment can be done. No one can be treated against their will. No one can be "saved" without the person himself deciding to do so.
Healthcare professionals treat patients by infantilizing them. They scold, lecture as if they were dealing with ill-behaved children .... They present themselves as having the knowledge and overlooking the patient. They say and the patient must obey.
A dentist who lectures because his patient is not taking care of his teeth is doing the opposite of what he should be doing. No one likes to be scolded, ridiculed or infantilized! If this dentist asks with kindness and empathy the underlying reasons for this letting go, I am sure that he will have much more cooperation from his patient. No one wants to lose their teeth, die, suffer, lose a leg or anything! What is needed is to put dialogue, exchange and cooperation on an equal footing in care!
"Alternative care" offers this "belief" at the beginning that the patient regains control over his life, his care, his decision-making power and his ability to do so ...
Care professionals must also be more humble and simply recognize when they are wrong, when they do not know or only have some answers ...
Putting yourself in a position of "I have THE knowledge", "I have THE solution" constantly, will push the patient to believe that a "miracle" solution exists and to look for it perhaps elsewhere ... Educate people in fact that we are fallible and that we have to live with it, it also helps to accept the reality of life and not to put our life and our existence in the hands of a single person thinking that we will be saved ... It helps educate that our human condition is like that, life is like that. And that teaches you to beware of "gurus" who say they have "THE solution", "THE answer", "THE knowledge", "THE truth" ... Educate to the fact that the absolute does not exist, that nothing does not exist. 'is all black or all white but life, existence is complicated, complex and plural ...
The problem of knowledge and knowledge reserved for an "elite".
Patients need to know, to understand their disease in order to appropriate it and to become a favorable actor towards recovery.
Specialists and doctors should popularize their knowledge more. If not, the result is that patients turn to the internet, Wikipedia or other platforms for answers and knowledge ...
And the people who offer "alternative care" have understood this well. They make videos, sites to explain and argue their treatment proposals ...
We need real professionals to educate society! That the research results be explained by the researchers who conducted them, that journalists popularize these discoveries so that people can access and understand them.
But we also need people who explain what the scientific approach is, its excesses, its limits ... We must popularize how to analyze the results of research, how to dissect if there is a consensus in the scientific community, which has proof value or not ... We must popularize how to spot a study conducted in the rules of the art and those which have biases ... We must popularize science!
General practitioners or caregivers who take people for idiots, infantilize them, dehumanize them ... This leads to mistrust, anger, a rejection of the population! And to health and human disasters!
Improve the perception of "psychological" care.
Our society perceives psychologically ill people as dangerous, crazy, weak ... But psychological well-being is essential whatever the illness we have!
People can turn to religious sectarian drifts for answers or to be reassured in the face of their imminent death ... People can turn to shamans or people who will listen to their moods because the domain of French psychology does not allow them to be listened to properly ...
The psychological should be at the center of all care!
But a healthy and benevolent psychology. An up-to-date psychology of scientific discoveries and knowledge. A non-sexist, non-patriarchal psychology. A psychology which does not sum everything to "neuroses" and "psychoses". A psychology that would be humble in the face of the little that we know about the brain and how it works today! A psychology that listens to its patient, which does not present itself as all-powerful and above the patient but as being in a bond of equality and mutual collaboration. That she is empathetic and attentive to what the patient's life and feelings are like, put herself in her shoes ... It would also be good for her to agree more to collaborate with "helping pairs". People with the same pathology being cured or in the process of recovery who could make the link outside the consultations, who would help to improve the dialogue and the understanding of the patient because having lived it himself, giving his return, a hope on the steps to be taken towards recovery ...
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