Healthcanc

Here's the snap : Impatient with Patients: The What Else Is New It often happens that someone (in therapy) will say, "I’m doing great! So much better!" And in the very next breath it is: "Actually, then (this happened), and (that happened). But still. . . I handled it so well. . ."  And you are waiting.  There is a pause. Maybe even a short one, the response could even be sans pause and pow!  The patient looks right at you, the mood has changed, the patient narrows his eyes, might even scowl, becomes a different person, his old self, for he remembers.  "I’m just really, really angry at . . ." and another story tumbles out, same story, same offender, or some other offender, on a good day there may be multiple offenders, persons who share the responsibility, the blame for the change in mood. Even if the patient attributes a good reason, an empathetic reason for offender behavior, the narcissistic injury stings.   A narcissistic injury, just to digress...

In my day you used a safety-pin to fasten a diaper. A really good safety-pin had a hard plastic head made of pink or blue, maybe yellow. A patient asked me, What's up with the safety pin? (The one on my blouse). I answered that it was a solidarity thing with minorities, people who are at risk. Then I remembered the Holocaust and that story. . .  Martin Niemöller In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist; And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist; And then they came for the Jews, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew; And then . . . they came for me . . . Should we be worried, fearful that the American way of life, liberty and justice for all, will disappear? Could America become more like Germany in the late nineteen-thirties and forties, or Russia, ruled by one leader, one party?  Rather than worry, some have taken to wearing safety pins...

I know, I know I said it. I said that both Mr. Trump and Mrs, Clinton needed therapy (last post). People are taking down their FaceBook accounts because of things they have said publicly, and this should worry me.  But that was yesterday. And the theme of this blog, remember, is that everyone needs therapy.  So it isn't an insult, okay? President-Elect Donald Trump acceptance speech Today, the day after the election, I'm thinking more of the President-Elect. No matter the personality we saw during the contest, he knows this country better, more intimately, than any of us . We underestimated him.   And this intimacy, this knowledge, is the reason he won the election without contest.  It is why he said he would give us hell if Mrs. Clinton had been elected, that he wouldn't accept the election results. He knew . He had his finger on the pulse of America all along, when nobody else did.  America, to most of us, has been the America that is outspoken, everyone shout...

Most of us have voted by now for the next President of the United States. The candidates have been talking for months about many, many issues, but mostly themselves, talking about, and defending themselves. If this were not an anonymous blog, I'd offer each my card . Social workers are generally democratic, and highly educated, and when educators get together, some 3,000 educators, as they did last week for the Council for Social Work Education (CSWE) annual program meeting in Atlanta, the synapses in the halls of the hotel burn so bright, the place might just burn down. (Social workers like to speak in hyperbole). When I told my son, who I consider a balanced man, about the topics presented at CSWE's # APM16 , he opined, "Wow, you guys must be the most pinko-liberal educators in the country!" Maybe. Yet we are a diverse group, not always predictable, and despite the mostly liberal leanings, nobody has it in for social workers anymore, not like the late  Mike Royko  d...

I watched most of the games, I'm embarrassed to say. Therapists should go home after work, tend to the people in their families (second shift), have a quiet, newsworthy, intimate dinner with someone they love. Be an example to the community. Don't shame-faced tell their friends, Yeah, at the end of the day. . . I watch the Cubs. But who wants to talk to anyone,  in the evening? We want to change into sweats, turn on the TV, and maybe, just maybe, if there's one on, watch the game. There's a knock on the door, it could be a friend who wants to power walk. Would this not be the better thing to do? No, it would not, you gently explain. You see, the Cubs are going to the World Series this year. You'll see. And this game counts. Then you go back to  it,  and during commercials toss up a huge salad, maybe bake a potato, check your phone, texts, email. You might even return some calls, straighten out drawers, even a closet. You might do an entire aquarium water change, al...