What's New on IJHC (February 2008)

DIAGNOSIS SHOCK: THE UNRECOGNIZED BURDEN OF ILLNESS

Judith A. Swack, PhD

"Diagnosis shock is the phobic reaction people experience the moment they first suspect or are told that they have a serious physical or emotional illness. Researchers have found that patients diagnosed with serious illness experience shock and trauma which can result in irrational reactions and behaviors and in some cases lead to serious psychological illness. This retrospective study of more than 100 patients was designed to help psychological and physical healthcare practitioners recognize, prevent, and treat diagnosis shock. This paper is the first report of diagnosis shock in patients with no clinical illness and the first report of the use of Energy Psychology techniques to successfully prevent or clear diagnosis shock from the unconscious mind and body.
 
This study found that, untreated, patient's phobic reactions to diagnosis shock could cause compliance problems including failure to follow through on instructions or participate in prescribed treatment plans for dealing with the disease that was diagnosed, behaviors possibly leading to adverse health outcomes.  Diagnosis shock also adversely affected relationships of some patients with their healthcare providers, caregivers, and family members and diminished overall quality of life. This study also describes how diagnosis shock may interfere with doctor-patient relationships and cooperation, and can contribute to caregiver burnout.  Based on these findings, healthcare practitioners are given treatment suggestions for preventing and, if necessary clearing, diagnosis shock from patients and their families."

  
Living with Life Challenges

SUFISM ­ ON JOY AND PAIN
Betty Smith, MSW

 Life is one in joy and pain.
      Pir-O-Murshid Inayat Khan
 
How much the Beloved made me suffer before the Work
Grew entwined inseparably with blood and eyes!
A thousand grim fires and heartbreaks~
And its name is "Love"~
A thousand pains and regrets and attacks
And its name is "Beloved"...
Heartbreak is a treasure because it contains mercies
The kernel is soft when the rind is scraped off;
O Brother, the place of darkness and cold
Is the fountain of life and the cup of ecstasy.
Rumi (Harvey & Baring, 1996, p. 124)
 
"How could we know how deeply we have loved or lived if we never have experienced the pain of loss? Joy and pain are inseparable. The above quote from the Sufi poet Rumi reminds me of the preciousness of life, the past, my memories and the mercy of the Universe providing existence, life and people to love and to cherish. The ability to be grateful in the presence of pain is an integral part of the living process. To choose avoiding this pain would be choosing to have not loved or lived at all.
 
The Sufi mystics see "pain as essential to purification and as essential to the alchemical transformation of the dull human mind and heart into their secret gold." It is the vulnerability, the open heart, the willingness to love enough, and the risk of experiencing pain and loss that makes us alive. It is not cherishing the wounding, but embracing our ability to feel, to be present, and to know the essence of life. According to Sufi wisdom, suffering is inevitable and necessary in order for our souls to grow. I have experienced loss deeply and often and believe, as the Sufis maintain, we must learn to trust in its ordained necessity. In the dance called life we must meet life as we find it and be present in the face of that which we desire least but cannot avoid. That is the Sufi way. We do not "run to suffering, but neither do we run from it."