Letter to the RATS Editorial

The RATS Newspaper has a column for letters to the editor and a recent comment on doctors not listening to their patients touched a not so melodious chord in me. So I wrote this as I waited for 3 hours in Uni... hospital to see a doctor which took only 10 minutes to deal with my case. I was further subjected to waiting another 1 hour for the nuclear appointment counter to open as it was lunch hours then and another 30 minutes for the medication. In all I was at the hospital from 9.30am to 4pm. Even the dead will groan impatiently and the sick will have more reasons to be sick!

To The Editor, 11/12/08

I refer to MBA’s emotive letter in ‘Try lending patients an ear, too, doctor’ and Edward Wong’s informative supporting letter. Edward had helpfully highlighted that 50 medical schools in US had incorporated the subject of ‘spirituality’ into their courses. This is probably due to the dawning realisation that man is not just a biological machine but also a ‘spiritual being’. We possess conscience and emotions which until today medical science had not been able to locate its existence in the biological brain even though they can tell you which part of the brain controls which specific body functions. Empathy is part of this spirituality. ‘I feel your pain’ is not a metaphor or just words to console. It is literal. Some who turn to complementary medicine do so because they are treated as ‘spiritual being’. Advanced complementary therapist can even feel the patient’s emotions emphatically during the course of their treatment. This ability to monitor their patient’s feelings effectively helps them in their treatment.
Edward Wong mentions that Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia had created an ‘empathy index’ to measure the physician’s effectiveness in dealing with their patients. Incorporating spirituality and developing empathy index is not clinical medicine going backwards but it is to be considered progressive and an advancement in medical care that is holistic. Patients will tell you that they prefer to be treated as human beings with feelings rather than machines to be repaired. Waiting 2 to 4 hours in the hospital to see a doctor (which is what I am doing now as I write this letter) only to be abruptly asked a few diagnostic questions and bundle out in 5-10 minutes without a word of assurance does nothing to the emotionally anxious patient. It instead leaves a sense of being ignored, deprived and ‘miss-treated’. Yes the doctor has all the medical knowledge but it is the patient who is experiencing all the pain. Their complaints should not be dismissed as a waste of time and ignored but should be considered as part of their clinical symptoms which will help in their diagnosis. If doctors wonder why patients turn to alternative and complementary medicine I advise them to just ‘listen to their patients’.

Isaac Lim
Emotional Freedom for All -PJ

Mental Doctors? So What's New?

The *RATS Online (*spell backward) reported as a front page news:
At least five doctors to suffer from mental woes every month
Every month, at least five doctors are found to be suffering from mental illnesses, director-general of health Tan Sri ........... said.

I am not surprised.The simple fact is that 30 %, yes that's one third, yes that's 1:3 people around you are having mental health issues. This is the findings of the UN report applicable for almost all countries.
Think about it 30% of the teachers in your/children school are suffering mental health problems, so are the barbers snipping your head with scissors and razors, so are the bus and taxi drivers, so are the politicians that govern our country (that explains a lot), so are the law enforcers, so are the ....well I could go on all night but lets faced it we all have our mental issues, it's just that we are afraid to let others know. Hello, are you still there? The question is 'How do we resolve this problem?' Simple says a mathematician, 'All you need to do is get another 21 % to join the mental health problem group and you have 51% that makes them as majority ....normal! All the rest would then be considered abnormal.'
That is so rational. But seriously this is no laughing matter. As a therapist I am so put off with people who think they are a 'problem'. The reality is that society has learn to ignored their pleading emotions crying for help because of stress until we reach a stage of mental burnt out. Something like ignoring the blinking red light on our car dashboard until you car engine suffers a sizure and the radiator begins to froth and gush. We are not suppose to admit, talk, show our emotions and feelings because it makes us look weak and what will others think about us? So we soon find ourselves in the 30% bracket. Doctors are not immune they are only human, so are teachers and all of us. Our brains are so fragile it is encased in a natural helmet call the skull but our mind which is the seat of human spirit, emotions and consciousness have no natural protection. We need to learn to treat our emotions as guardians of our health not something to be hidden in shame and suppressed. Emotions are energy that must be process correctly or it will remain in a stuck state in our bodies and negatively impact our health. EFT or Emotional Freedom Techniques (http://www.eftwonder.com/) are one of the leading energy psychotherapy that is in the forefront of helping us process our emotions effectively. Parent will be able to use it to bring up emotionally balanced children and adults can use it to heal themselves and cope with lives many traumas. We need to learn to control our emotions before it controls us.