This is so true. Stories are the best and ONLY way for humans to learn from each other by helping the storyteller and the listener to really “hear” each other. Through a story, we meet ourselves!
Talking with a person who has lived the experience of any disease or medical treatment teaches you more than any amount of info a doctor can give you. Even with facing physical challenges, that's the method I have used. When Mike was facing the possibility of a radical surgery, we sought out people who had been through it. They told us things the doctors either wouldn't or couldn't. It helped us to decide against the surgery. A couple of years later we learned that at that time in the past when we were trying to make this decision, this type of surgery was being discouraged for people with Mike's condition. That news had just not made it to the mainstream media. Our method had helped us to make the right decision for him.
One question that popped into my mind about your new endeavor was what the effect of the current healthcare situation would have on those with mental health challenges. I was thinking of this in particular with relation to vaccines. Would the vaccine interact in a negative way with the medications these folks are already taking? Of course, this could be an issue with people even with physical issues where they need to continue to take their meds to control whatever condition they have. This was never addressed in the developmental trials, and I guess we don't know. Not sure I would want to be a part of this experiment in that case. But it would be interesting to find out some of the thinking on that subject.
We read that the CV-19 crisis has negatively affected even "normal" people with regard to mental health. I can't imagine what is happening with those who have mental illness to begin with.
Thanks for all your endeavors in these area. We need more and more illumination on all these dimensions of mental health.
This is so true. Stories are the best and ONLY way for humans to learn from each other by helping the storyteller and the listener to really “hear” each other. Through a story, we meet ourselves!
Excellent plan— telling and listening to stories . Thank you for doing this...
I hope you know Sidney Turner and her wonderful efforts at Resilient Retreat!
Yes, I know Sidney well. We are both involved with SRQ Strong.
Talking with a person who has lived the experience of any disease or medical treatment teaches you more than any amount of info a doctor can give you. Even with facing physical challenges, that's the method I have used. When Mike was facing the possibility of a radical surgery, we sought out people who had been through it. They told us things the doctors either wouldn't or couldn't. It helped us to decide against the surgery. A couple of years later we learned that at that time in the past when we were trying to make this decision, this type of surgery was being discouraged for people with Mike's condition. That news had just not made it to the mainstream media. Our method had helped us to make the right decision for him.
One question that popped into my mind about your new endeavor was what the effect of the current healthcare situation would have on those with mental health challenges. I was thinking of this in particular with relation to vaccines. Would the vaccine interact in a negative way with the medications these folks are already taking? Of course, this could be an issue with people even with physical issues where they need to continue to take their meds to control whatever condition they have. This was never addressed in the developmental trials, and I guess we don't know. Not sure I would want to be a part of this experiment in that case. But it would be interesting to find out some of the thinking on that subject.
We read that the CV-19 crisis has negatively affected even "normal" people with regard to mental health. I can't imagine what is happening with those who have mental illness to begin with.
Thanks for all your endeavors in these area. We need more and more illumination on all these dimensions of mental health.