Helplessness...

Today's post is a further reflection on Norman Cousins' book "Anatomy of an Illness". In it he posits that one of the first feelings in illness is a feeling of helplessness. He goes on to say that helplessness is "a serious disease in itself". I thought about that for a while, and realized that he was on to something - something that greatly affects our health, wellness and wholeness.

Feeling helpless is not a good feeling for most of us. We talk a lot as health care professionals about the "sick role" and the actions of persons while they are ill. We talk (in usually a snarky way) about those persons who seem to thrive on being sick and attracting attention to themselves in this manner. Men are often generalized by society to be more helpless than women when sick - even with minor and common ailments such as colds or influenza. We make fun of big burly men laid low by microscopic organisms and being whiny and helpless while so encumbered.

What about those persons, thousands each week, who receive significant or life-limiting diagnoses? Those persons and their support systems are suddenly thrust into a new reality - one that includes dysfunctional physiology. Most adults are equipped to handle many things in life, we are ill equipped (un-equipped?) to handle the inability to effect a change back to a time without that diagnosis. We don't know how to not have cancer (for example). It really throws our world into chaos - and our worldview of immortality and invincibility is shattered.

How do we recover our empowerment and sense of moving forward - our wholeness? There is no pill to treat helplessness, that has to come (I believe) from an interaction with something or someone outside our worldview. Whether this be support groups, spiritual guidance, Stephen Ministry, one-on-one counseling, active participation in a faith community and the role of God in one's life, or all the above, we need some help to regain our balance. Those that do not regain balance find themselves less and less empowered and and tend to fall into a victim mentality.

We at Possibilities Journey, Inc (www.possjrny.org) believe that this is the weakness in our current health care system. A lack of integration of spiritual care within health care allows for helplessness to continue and to infect all aspects of care. The Center for Advancing Health (www.cfah.org) has an interesting paper on patient engagement that highlights some of these issues. It is our hope that we will begin to address hopelessness and other spiritual illnesses this year with some pilot projects. Until then, trust in possibilities.

Peace and grace,
Dan