There are a lot of what I would, if I were being generous, call "ineffective copers" in the world. These are the people who can't tolerate a punture wound without doing a crappie flop in front of triage.
deja vu to you..
They run to the ER at the drop of a hat and as they cross our threshold revert to behavior similar to that of a 2 year old. Here's the thing, they fill thousands of ER beds across the country. The public thinks ERs are full of people who are really sick or injured. Wrong. They are filled with these kind of people.
These are the people with "chronic pain". They will keep coming back until someone labels them with some kind of syndrome or dubious condition to try and get rid of them.
They have achieved their goal. Now they have finally have a title for themselves. They can tell everybody: see, I told you I had something wrong with me. Even drug companies are taking advantage of the thousands of ineffective copers by developing drugs for them.
Instead of dealing with their underlying depression and emotional problems, they become their diagnosis, it becomes their identity. Their lives revolve around it. They suck their family into it.
They suck the life out of the ER staff. They unnecessarily fill beds that seriously ill people could be in. They spend millions of health care dollars a year on their syndromes and conditions. They are part of the reason your health insurance is so high.
To be fair, there are a lot of commercials for drugs, but none for counseling or introspection. A lot of TV about the case of the week (it's never lupus) and how giving something a title means it will be cured shortly after the commercial break (usually by 2 pills or something in an IV).
ReplyDelete"It's not my fault" is the current mantra and it brings in $$$$ for both pharmacy and media to keep it that way.
It doesn't help that talk therapy doesn't happen as much as it used to. Psychiatrists tend to give pills instead of therapy. I saw an article that said psychiatrists used to spend 45 mins with their patients. They now only spend 15 mins. Apparently, it is easier to medicate.
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