Mental Health First Aid, A New Way of Dealing With an Approaching Crisis

Mental health first aid is not an expression one usually hears. Perhaps you might agree that this is one way of dealing with an approaching crisis. It may seem like applying a band-aid before a cut. Does it work? One must suggest that from a preventive, mental health, first aid perspective, it does make sense, and yes, it does work.

What is mental health first aid?

It is defined as “the help provided to a person developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis”. It involves the recognition of potential signs and symptoms of mental health problems, providing help initially and guiding the person who needs help to a professional.

Is it possible to avert an approaching mental health crisis?

When a mental health crisis is approaching, there are many ways of responding that are positive and pro-active. Intervention can often prove beneficial. For example, a young man is drinking heavily. He is angry with someone and threatening to do damage to personal property. A friend recognizes the reality of what is happening, takes an appropriate, mental health, first aid measure to prevent it from going any further and averts the crisis. The young man receives preventative, mental health, first aid and then later, professional mental health counseling and changes his life.

Are there warning signs of an approaching crisis?

Many times, an approaching mental health crisis has warning signs. There are those who will heed them and take appropriate action, but also those who choose to ignore them for various reasons. For example, a river running through a small town is rising rapidly. There is serious danger of flooding. Many people in the town are in a state of panic, a typical fear response, but not a mentally healthy response. A young couple recognizes the reality of the pending danger. They take immediate action and notify the authorities, as well as responsible residents of the town. They arrange for men to reinforce the riverbanks with sand and find a school bus to evacuate women and children from homes that may be in danger. Mentally, this is a positive, pro-active and healthy, mental health, first aid response averting a potential crisis. Disaster relief counselors help people cope after the flood wanes. This can prevent future mental health crises related to loss or grief.              

What is appropriate first aid action in a mental health crisis?

Appropriate first aid action in a mental health crisis involves a positive, pro-active and preventative approach to the approaching crisis. One person who assumes appropriate leadership can avert a crisis protecting the lives of others, at the same time. For example, an older, unemployed man is furious at the government about losing his small business due to lack of available funding and decides to take drastic action at a political rally. He stands on the platform ranting, as he waves a gun at the crowd. A young politician recognizes the man, is able to approach him quietly with a cup of coffee and quietly leads him towards a waiting police officer. Once again, an approaching crisis averted by one man, saves the lives of many people.   

Common sense, preventative, first aid measures are applicable in many potential mental health crises. Prevention is always an important part of first aid, although not always seen as such when it comes to mental health. Emotional, spiritual, physical and mental health, go together and what affects one aspect of a human life impinges upon them all. 

Anyone who is serious about helping people can become involved in mental health first aid or actively seek training in that area of inquiry. 

How Art Can Benefit People With Alzheimer's Disease: Art as a Tool for Diagnosing Retrogression

Art and mental illness often reveal a direct and indirect relationship. For example, depending upon the stage of Alzheimer’s disease in patients, words may become problematic. When at a loss for words, effective communication by or with these patients, becomes progressively difficult.

Art, directly or indirectly, can be an important part of ongoing communication, touching and changing their outlook on life and ultimately, their lives.  

Ruth Abraham, in her book entitled, “When Words Have Lost Their Meaning: Alzheimer's Patients Communicate through Art” suggests that “people who can no longer use words can express their deepest feelings through the symbolic language of art.”

Perhaps one might suggest that art with its diversity, complexity and multiplicity of expression, is an important aspect in the mental, emotional and spiritual realms of the human psyche during all stages of life, including mental illness. It can also affect the function in the physical realm of an artistic patient with Alzheimer’s disease. 

How can art benefit people with Alzheimer’s disease?

“Art therapy draws on the rich resources of a lifetime - the temperament, emotions, experiences, and memories that make up one's internal world - that are still present for many years of the disease and provide material for profound communion.”

The article, “Self-Portraits Chronicle a Descent Into Alzheimer’s” by Denise O’Grady, quotes a neurologist, Dr. Bruce Miller from the University of California.  

“Alzheimer’s affects the right parietal lobe in particular, which is important for visualizing something internally and then putting it onto a canvas,” Dr. Miller said. “The art becomes more abstract, the images are blurrier and vague, more surrealistic. Sometimes there’s use of beautiful, subtle color.”

While more research will be necessary in terms of the benefits of art therapy for Alzheimer’s disease patients, it becomes increasingly evident that art can be a useful, diagnostic tool in terms of measuring the retrogression of mental faculties.

The use of concepts is an eastern pathway of communication, as opposed to the more common western pathway of words.  Words help to explain concepts, but when words have been forgotten or erased, concepts or mental pictures may still be alive in the mind of a patient with Alzheimer’s disease.

For example, an elderly man with Alzheimer’s disease may not be able to relate to the words needed to explain a bright red, sports car, but he still may be able to relate to the artistic expression of that same car. He may even try to draw the sports car. The same man may not be able to communicate his desire for money needed for a haircut, but he can relate to the artistic concept of a wallet holding a two-dollar bill.       

An important benefit of art for people with Alzheimer’s disease has to do with the function of the right side of the brain versus the function of the left side. While the sands of time slip away in Alzheimer’s disease revealing evidence of a decline in mental health, it is not always immediately evident which sections of the sand in the sandbox are disappearing. Even while the function on one side of the brain is declining and thus, that side of the brain is showing increasing evidence of malfunction, the other side of the brain may still be functional. Perhaps it always functioned better than the other side of the brain.

This door to discovery about how art can benefit people with Alzheimer’s disease is still open to further study. In the meantime, encouraging patients with Alzheimer’s disease to explore their artistic abilities, can help relieve some of their frustrations and give them a sense of worth, as well as help researchers discover new answers.    

Tips For Preventing Wandering in Alzheimer's Disease: Home is Where the Heart Is

Where are the patients with Alzheimer’s disease who wander around nursing homes, hospitals or even their own homes, trying to go? Do they ever really get there?

The article, “Alzheimer's: Understand and control wandering” acknowledges the reality of the complexity of problems faced by family members and caregivers when a patient has Alzheimer’s disease.  

“Alzheimer's disease can erase a person's memory of once-familiar surroundings, as well as make it difficult to adapt to new surroundings.”

Mentally, Alzheimer’s patients are regressing. Where they have been in the past may be where they are continually trying to go, as they wander around. Wandering can be or become a serious concern for family members or others who are taking care of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. With mental, emotional, spiritual and physical problems that have taken place over many years, the unraveling of their medical histories can prove to be relatively complex.

Consider the following tips to prevent wandering in Alzheimer’s disease:

Identify where the Alzheimer’s patient is trying to go.

“Home is where the heart is,” the old adage reads. “I want to go home!” an elderly Alzheimer’s patient insists. “Where is home?” his or her family members or caregivers ask, knowing that home could be any place where he or she may have lived at one time or another. 

Note that the meaning of the word home can vary depending upon the stage of Alzheimer’s disease that the patient is experiencing. In other words, in the early stages, home can be where a patient has just been, like the home of a family member. Later, home may be the place where a parent has raised his or her children. As the disease progresses, home may become the place where the patient grew up. Discerning where home is to the Alzheimer’s patient can prove to be an important diagnostic tool.   

Safety is a primary concern for Alzheimer’s patients who tend to wander.

Family members and caregivers on every level, need to be alert to a multiplicity of potential dangers that Alzheimer’s patients can encounter when wandering. It is not just their personal safety, but also the safety of others that they should be concerned about, as a wandering patient may try to go anywhere and engage in any kind of activity. Many Alzheimer’s patients actually do get lost; some of them are aware they are lost, while others are not.

Patient identification is vital for the safety of a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, as he or she may not be able to identify him or herself to others. At times, in more advanced Alzheimer’s disease, particularly when it is associated with dementia, the use of wristbands and ankle bracelets may prove beneficial and give some degree of patient freedom. Hospitalization in a locked ward, allows an Alzheimer’s disease patient to wander freely, as long as other patients are not in danger.  

Is the Alzheimer’s patient confused, disoriented and upset?      

When an Alzheimer’s disease patient is wandering, he or she may be in touch with reality at times, but often it is interspersed with moments of non-reality, disorientation and confusion, which can be upsetting to him or her and others. He or she may or may not recognize family members or caregivers.

Assessing the mental status of a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, as quickly as possible and using caution when approaching this patient at all times, is important.

Depending upon the stage of the disease and the state of mind that an Alzheimer’s patient is in, he or she may be responsive, partially responsive or non-responsive to his or her family members or caregivers, when he or she is wandering. Remember that wandering is not always physical; it can be mental or emotional wandering too.

Patients with Alzheimer’s disease often experience mixed emotions or a sudden change in emotions. In other words, a wandering patient may be upset, angry and even become aggressive when approached by family members or caregivers, particularly if he or she is re-living a particularly difficult time in his or her life. At other times, he or she may appear to be happy and content, even though he or she is lost.

Documentation of symptoms is important in terms of mental regression.

Because Alzheimer’s disease is a progressively deteriorating disease, the documentation of symptoms by family members and friends becomes increasingly important, particularly when a patient tends to wander. Ongoing research may reveal a multiplicity of hidden mysteries with respect to wandering as it pertains to patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Tips For Coping With Challenging Behavior in Alzheimer's Disease Patients: Alzheimer's Disease and Challenging Behaviors

Challenging behaviors in Alzheimer’s patients can leave medical and health care professionals, as well as family members or friends of these patients, concerned, confused or confounded. Thus, challenging behaviors prove to be a major obstacle to overcome for those caring for Alzheimer’s 

patients.

Alzheimer’s disease is complex and not easy to understand.

The article entitled, “10 Early Signs and Symptoms of Alzheimer's” may prove helpful to those confronted by challenging behaviors in a family member or friend.

Consider the following tips for coping with challenging behaviors in Alzheimer’s patients.

Expect the unexpected:

Depending upon the various stages of the disease process, Alzheimer’s patients may begin to behave differently. In other words, their behavior is subject to change as the disease progresses. Sometimes changes are subtle, while at other times the transition is more obvious, sudden and radical. Behaviors can vary depending upon where the Alzheimer’s patients are at mentally and emotionally, at any moment in time, as well as who is present with them.

For example, Maria, a young woman visits her father, who is in the hospital undergoing diagnostic tests for Alzheimer’s disease. He recognizes his only daughter and welcomes her warmly. He seems rational and his behavior appears normal, so they have a pleasant visit.

Her brother Todd, who has been out of town, visits him two weeks later. The doctor immediately advises Todd that his father has been behaving like a different person, one who appears confused, angry and upset, all of the time. The doctor observes the patient’s behavior when Todd tries to visit with him.

“Get that man out of here now!” Todd’s father yells at the doctor. “I don’t want anything to do with Clay.”  

“I see where the problem is, Doctor,” explains Todd. “My father does not recognize me as his oldest son. Clay is his older brother who passed away ten years ago. I don’t think they ever got along very well.”       

Non-recognition of family members and friends is an important diagnostic symptom in Alzheimer’s disease, particularly when it involves previous generations, where there may have been emotional confrontations, conflict or other issues.

Be aware of ongoing safety concerns:

The safety of Alzheimer’s disease patients and others is always a major concern because there is progressive deterioration of mental faculties. There may be unpredictable, radical behavior that seems to be a slow process in terms of behavioral change, but it may happen unexpectedly, as well.  

For example, Alzheimer’s patients tend to wander, often getting lost. This is indicative of disoriented patients attempting to return to the past or relive it again. This time of their lives is prominent in their minds. Initially, wandering may be only occasional, but it may suddenly become a challenging behavior with which caregivers have to contend.         

The article, “Wrist, ankle bands can help track Alzheimer’s patients” suggests,

“The devices include a small band that people can wear on their ankle or wrist. It has a computer chip, a scanner frequency and a number for patient tracking. The devices work in an eight-mile radius from the air and one mile from the ground…”

Alzheimer’s disease patients may attempt to take other patient’s possessions, clothing and medication, resulting in direct confrontation or other patient safety issues. The accurate documentation of gradual or sudden changes in behavior like this, is important in terms of obtaining an accurate diagnosis for Alzheimer’s disease, which can occur in conjunction with dementia.

Concern, care and compassion:

Whatever stage of Alzheimer’s disease patients are experiencing, expressions of concern, care and compassion are important regardless of challenging behavior patterns that emerge. Alzheimer’s patients often respond positively to loving care, but will respond negatively if they sense conflict or confrontation. Fear related to paranoia may cause them to argue or fight with others including their family members, friends and caregivers. Potential violence is always a possibility.

There are often no easy answers with respect to relating to Alzheimer’s patients, as they enter into the later stages of the disease process. Being there for them may prove beneficial, but it may not be easy either and thus, as there may be a sense of helplessness and hopelessness for everyone.

Patience on the part of family members, friends and caregivers is vital.         

How Proper Education Automatically Improves Health: An Ongoing, Global Concern

All around the world, people have needs related to their education, as well as their health. It is often difficult, if not impossible to separate one from the other, as proper education automatically improves health.

“Policy brief # 9: Education and health” suggests “better educated people have lower morbidity rates from the most common acute and chronic diseases.” 

Educated people can expect to live longer and healthier lives, but life expectancy is only one important aspect of the relationship between education and health. There are also medical ethics issues involved.

Consider other ways that proper education automatically improves health.

Addressing educational needs touches upon the realm of mental health. With awareness of mental health comes an increasing awareness of emotional, spiritual and physical health. It is often difficult to separate one from the other.  

Seeing educational needs apart from health may be possible where there is an understanding of the importance of both, but it is often difficult in parts of the world where there is limited understanding or comprehension. To improve and maintain health, at least basic education is necessary. At the same time, health is important in terms of continuing education.

Serious educational and health concerns arise in areas where only a part of the population in a country is educated and pursuing health education. Disease processes run rampant anywhere there is a lack of education and particularly, health education. Prevention of diseases has a distinct relationship to education and thus, immunization programs succeed where people are educated with respect to their health.     

Primary and secondary needs of people in terms of education and health are often difficult to meet, particularly in war zones or areas where there have been natural disasters. At times, it can be or become survival of the fittest with minimal or a lack of concern regarding education or health education. Children are particularly vulnerable, as are the elderly.

In terms of world hunger, different climates offer unique and unlimited vegetation potential. Without education and health education in respect to the climate, growing conditions and potential, crop production and handling, efforts to produce enough food to feed the hungry can prove futile. Providing clean water and sanitation requires basic health education. Exploitation may also be or become a major issue of concern where there is a lack of education.  

How proper education automatically improves health is an issue of global concern. Professional educators and health care professionals know that bringing education to all parts of the globe will ultimately affect the health of people everywhere and that knowledge, in terms of education and health is vital for human survival. 

How Self Esteem Issues Can Be Psychologically Damaging to a Relationship

Self esteem, psychological damage and its effect on relationships cannot be underestimated.

There are many ways that self-esteem issues can be psychologically damaging to a relationship. When not recognized early enough, damage to the psyche or self may seem to be irreparable, but educators in every realm are aware of this reality and can be instrumental in restoring one’s self-esteem and fragmented interpersonal relationships.

Understanding self-esteem may prove beneficial.

What is self-esteem?

Dictionary.com suggests that self-esteem is “a realistic respect for or favorable impression of oneself”, one that has to do with “self-respect”. It can also be “an inordinately or exaggeratedly favorable impression of oneself”.  

Self-esteem begins to develop early in life, in conjunction with loving and caring relationships established between infants and parents. This develops further through positive, constructive reinforcement in the interaction with other family members, including grandparents and siblings. Other children, teenagers and adults are instrumental in creating strong ties and bonds that reinforce self-esteem throughout the various stages of self-esteem development.

Unfortunately, throughout life, not all interpersonal relationships are positive, constructive self-esteem builders. Many are exactly the opposite or relationships that tend to be negative, destructive and derogatory in nature. Note that the need to tear down the self-esteem of others may be the direct result of having a low self-esteem.   

Having a damaged self-esteem personally is akin to enduring a emotional or psychological wound that does not heal easily or quickly. Newly inflicted psyche wounds create more self-esteem damage, break open old wounds or increase them further.   

When one’s self-esteem is over-inflated or exaggerated, there may be repeated attempts by others to cut that person’s ego down to size, which may or may not be justified. At times, extreme or radical criticism can cause a person with an over-inflated ego to exaggerate him or herself further. Unfortunately, that often leads to frustration, anger or depression. In severe cases, there may be suicidal tendencies.

How self-esteem issues are psychologically damaging to a relationship can vary depending upon their severity. 

For example, some mother-infant relationships suffer because of the inadequacy of care accorded to infants. As infants become children, not receiving positive reinforcement may damage their self-esteem further. Siblings in competition with one another for parental affection may belittle each another, ultimately coloring their self-esteem. School age children bully other children attempting to build their own esteem while simultaneously lowering the self-esteem of others. Teenagers in peer groups often single out individuals who are emotionally, physically and psychologically vulnerable to abuse. Adults of all ages compete for jobs and may be ego damaged at times by others, including employers. Even seniors can deprecate others to validate their own self-esteem.

No one is exempt from relationship problems stemming from psychological abuse directed towards one’s ego.  

The question becomes one of how to repair the self-esteem of someone who has relationship problems because of psychological self-esteem issues. At times, there are no easy answers, but there is hope for healing when there is understanding.   

ALS After the Diagnosis: Lou Gehrig's Disease

The diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, or motor neuron disease (MND), can be a frightening experience for patients, family members and their friends, because neurological disease has symptoms of progressive muscle weakness and associated debilitation.

Understanding the nature of ALS will prove beneficial in helping everyone to cope with the disease after the initial diagnosis. 

The Mayo Clinic website suggests, ”ALS often begins with muscle twitching and weakness in an arm or leg, or with slurring of speech. Eventually, ALS affects your ability to control the muscles needed to move, speak, eat and breathe.”

Patient teaching will be important depending upon the stage of ALS. He or she may have limited awareness of the nature of this debilitating disease process, which can prove frustrating. Ongoing emotional support from the spouse, family members and friends will enable the patient to cope with disability resulting from ALS, as well as with respect to his or her long-term prognosis. Encouraging patient optimism is important.

  

Ideally, nursing care management for the ALS patient should include loving care, concern and compassion on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. Initially, the patient, a spouse or other family member may be willing and able to assume responsibility for medication administration, skin care, physiotherapy or speech therapy, etc., under appropriate professional medical guidance. As the disease progresses, further assistance may be necessary.

Symptoms of ALS depend upon the neurons that are affected. Accurate record keeping with respect to persistent, as well as new or developing symptoms, will be vital in the ongoing treatment. Careful and consistent patient monitoring of symptoms will help to identify problems related to walking or hand coordination, as well as those associated with speech and swallowing, or involuntary muscle movements. Reporting these symptoms to the family practitioner and neurologist will be important in order to determine the various stages of the progressive disease.

Identifying the suspected cause of ALS and altering the patient’s environment accordingly, may help to reduce or eliminate hazards like ongoing chemical exposure. It may also be possible to reduce stress related factors. 

Since ALS has a genetic aspect, DNA testing may be important for other family members.

Counseling of the ALS patient, his or her spouse and family members, on a one-to-one basis or in group therapy sessions may prove helpful. It is often possible to prevent, lessen or resolve problems related to the disease, through professional counseling or support groups for the patient, his or her family members and friends.       

In the later stages of ALS, where there is increasing debilitation, palliative care will be necessary. The period immediately after the initial diagnosis may be difficult for everyone, including the patient. He or she will need assistance to address other concerns related to legal matters like having a will, power of attorney, beneficiaries, transfer of property, insurance claims, etc.

Note that there is ongoing medical research with respect to ALS and new discoveries are possible at any time.          

ALS Holistic Therapies: The Law of Similars as Opposed to the Law of Differences

Holistic therapies are rooted in ancient, Eastern tradition and its medical practices (as opposed to typical, Western, scientific medical practice) and are gradually increasing in credibility around the globe. Holistic therapies offer possible treatment options for patients suffering from many kinds of illnesses, including ones with neurological symptoms, like those experienced by patients with ALS.

What is ALS?

The Mayo Clinic suggests that "Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a-mi-oh-troh-fik lat-ur-ul skluh-roh-sis), or ALS, is a serious, neurological disease that causes muscle weakness, disability and eventually death. ALS is often called Lou Gehrig's disease, after the famous baseball player who was diagnosed with it in 1939. In the U.S., ALS and motor neuron disease (MND) are sometimes used interchangeably."

At this time, there is no known cure for ALS, but there is growing interest in research in this respect, in the Eastern world, as well as in the Western world. 

Eastern medicine focuses on the law of similars, as opposed to Western medicine, which is based on the law of opposites. In the western world, while medical orientation is scientific in nature, it does not always have the answers needed by patients. When it appears there are no feasible answers for diseases like ALS, patients often turn to holistic therapies.

What are holistic therapies? 

Holistic therapies incorporate “the concept of holism in theory or practice”. Holistic medicine presents “a system of therapeutics” regarded as being “outside the main stream of scientific medicine”. For example, it may involve chiropractic medicine, naturopathy or nutrition.

Holistic therapies focus on symptoms demonstrated by the entire body, as well as the mind and the elimination thereof, based upon the assumption that when there are no symptoms, there is no disease entity.

Each kind of holistic therapy is different, but the ultimate goal is always healing, health and wholeness.

Holistic therapies offer numerous options for patients seeking treatment with respect to ALS symptoms. 

Increasing neurological debilitation can be frightening to both patients and their families. While there may be genetic factors involved, other problems like exposure to chemicals may also be causal factors in ALS. 

There is ongoing, genetic research on ALS with respect to its suspected cause, inherited or otherwise, (like chemical toxicity). Many potentially toxic chemicals are traceable in the human body and identifiable because each chemical causes distinct symptoms.

With respect to various kinds of holistic therapies and treatment, acupuncture attempts to correct the energy flow through meridians. With acupuncture techniques and those of acupressure, a release of the energy flow brings about healing. Chiropractic treatment focuses upon the correction of body alignment, which may be beneficial when there is neurological involvement, as in the symptoms of ALS. Homeopathy focuses on medical treatment using the law of similars, which triggers an immunological response. (In western medicine, this is comparable to the use of cowpox for vaccine to prevent smallpox.) Naturopathy centers on the healing power of nature. Iridology is diagnosis of symptoms through examination of the iris of the eye.

The human body is a whole and functions, as such. When genetic changes take place, other aspects of health may deteriorate. For example, chemical toxicity may affect every system in the entire body.

Genetic research continues to offer hope to patients with ALS, as does both Western and Eastern medicine. 

To function as a whole, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, requires a holistic approach to healing, health and wholeness. Both Eastern and Western medicine have much to offer, and the combination of the two may lead to positive results for ALS patients. There is always hope. 

What is Destination Disease? The Need for Medical Success is a Destination Goal

When success takes on a medical perspective in terms of a person’s health and well being, or as the inability to succeed or the lack of success, this often equates failure to succeed with a disease process.

Is it actually a disease process?

The article, “When you catch destination disease” compares medical success to a destination, or a point in life towards which a person is oriented.

Setting and achieving goals are two different things. Everyone has goals, some more realistic and achievable than others. Many people strive to achieve their goals, while others coast along without putting in a concerted effort into reaching a point in life where they feel they are successful. There may or may not be an element of contagion with respect to striving to achieve goals or coasting along in life. If one person sets distinct, realistic goals, it does not necessarily mean that others will set goals too, much less the same ones. Neither does setting goals guarantee success.

It would appear that the diagnosis destination disease pertains to feelings as opposed to fact. Feelings reveal the need to link success to achieving, or reaching a specific destination in life. Coupled with this feeling is the lack of fulfillment, or negative feelings that arise when one sees him or herself as a failure, or other feelings that reveal a distinct lack of orientation, purpose or direction.        

Feelings can and do lead to joy or sorrow which can affect a person’s health and well-being. The contagion element is present in both joy and sorrow. One person’s joy can lead to joy in another person; one person’s sorrow can lead to sorrow experienced by another also.

Goal setting and achievement of success have to do with becoming proactive in a positive, constructive direction. Motivation to succeed is often rooted in faith, as opposed to feelings. Feelings arise in conjunction with a person’s emotions and the emotional reaction might be appropriate or inappropriate.

Goal setting has to do with specific challenges in life and the steps taken to achieve success. When a person is in a state of wellness, life offers many different kinds of challenges, each one with a distinct set of goals. These goals are flexible and change over time. A state of non-wellness, disease or disharmony with oneself, others, or even with the divine, can lead to anxiety, fear, frustration, confusion and failure. This suggests that disease is not associated with success or failure to reach goals. It may only be realistic in terms of having a sense of ‘dis-ease’ or restlessness related to disharmony. 

A well person seeks to achieve his or her goals, always desiring to expand this horizon in life by setting new goals immediately. A person who is not well is often defeated before he or she achieves any goals. Even goal setting becomes problematic.

What is destination disease? Is it a misnomer, or simply a question like, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg”? In other words, is it actually a disease or simple a state of dis-ease?   

What is the Best Way to Explain the Cinderella Complex: Understanding the Cinderella Complex

Every little girl dreams of being a princess rescued by a prince, at one time or another. Perhaps it is a cultural ideology taught to her when she is young or an instinctive survival tactic. For some, it is more than a frog-turned-prince fairy tale.

What is the best way to explain the Cinderella complex? 

The article in the “New York Times” entitled, “The Cinderella Syndrome”, discusses the concept of the Cinderella complex and explains it as “psychological dependence” or the “conscious or unconscious wish to escape responsibility”.

In freedictionary.com the expression "Cinderella complex" is a term coined by C. Downing in her 1990 book of the same name, for what she describes as women’s unconscious desire to be taken care of by others based primarily on a fear of independence, often coupled with a need to be rescued by an outside force” or “a prince.”

Explaining the Cinderella complex is not easy and perhaps there is no best way to explain it, particularly during an era where women of all ages, races, creeds and colors struggle for survival and equality with men, while at the same time wanting to be dependent and secure in their lives and marriages.

In the typical western world, little girls enter a culture where they are dependent upon others, particularly their fathers. Every little girl is a princess in her own right and thus, she is taught to be gracious, polite, well spoken and culturally correct in that role. In her teen years, the father role gradually diminishes and another male figure, who is often a boyfriend, begins to fill that role.

When there is discord or dysfunction in a family setting including remarriage, disillusionment can set in. The prince-to-the-rescue ideal takes over for the little girl. Unfortunately, this can grow into an increasingly idealistic, romantic world envisioned through rose-tinted glasses, as they become teenagers. If it becomes exaggerated, it can be a coping mechanism even for older women.

Unfortunately, the real world is not always gracious, as little girls tumble from princess to pauper status in their own eyes, as well as that of others. Many times, this happens in their early teen years long before they have learned how to become independent. Their base survival may be at the mercy of others.

The typical Cinderella story portrays the extreme cruelty of a nasty stepmother and two stepsisters, who show little or no compassion for her plight and reduce her to a life of servitude. In her mind, she invents or clings to her princess role with a fairy godmother, who works magic with a prince who rescues her.

Insecurity and fear of independence is understandable from the perspective of a little girl who is growing up. As much as she wants to be a responsible adult, she may not able to assume that role. She may live under the delusion of never having to grow up or become a responsible, adult female.

Young boys or teenagers may have an experience similar to the Cinderella complex. They may undergo insecurity and fear of independence, particularly when their worlds experience disaster, war, famine and poverty.

Rapidly changing male and female, gender roles can be part of the Cinderella complex. Marital and family dysfunction magnifies the problem with children and/or spouses seeking safe haven, after having being rescued by a frog-turned-prince or a prince-like figure, who offers security. They turn to and cling to a person with a dominant personality.

Thus, it is not just females with a submissive, dependent role, as with changing times, young and older men can seek a dominant female or male figure who meets their needs, too. Females and males can find themselves coerced into assuming the sub-dominant, dependent role. Trying to break free is not necessarily easy, as that takes courage on their part.     

Perhaps extensive research in the future will help to explain the Cinderella complex with its far-reaching implications further.

Is the Cinderella Complex Identifiable in Males: The Prince in the Cinderella Fairy Tale

The prince or male figure in the story of Cinderella is not usually the focus of attention. In the article, “The Cinderella Complex and the Prince's Problems” Colette Dowling, the writer of the “Cinderella Complex”, comments on the male role.

“Males are educated for independence from the day they are born. Just as systematically, females are taught that they have an out, that someday, in some way women are going to be saved. That’s the fairy tale, the life message women have interjected as if with mother’s milk.” As Ms. Dowling concludes that paragraph, she states, “The only savior the boy learns about is himself.” The male referred to in this article is the prince.

Heffner is the host on “The Open Mind” is interviewing Colette Dowling and comments, “There’s no prince that’s going to rescue me.” Is there a reason why Heffner sees a need for intervention on the part of the prince? Is his personal lack of security and fear of independence surfacing? The prince in the Cinderella story has the role of rescuing a princess and obviously, he fills that role. Is this against his will? The prince and princess live happily ever after, so that does not seem highly likely. 

    

Interestingly, the story of Cinderella has a third party who intervenes on behalf of both the princess and the prince. She is the fairy godmother, but she does not seem to need to take any action to persuade him to take on his role. 

In reality, boys are often jealous of their sisters or other girls, who are dependent on a male figure in their lives. Some resent the reality that they were born boys and not girls, as girls appear to have fewer demands placed upon them, often receive more compassion and expressions of love.

Other males do not want to assume any responsibility for girls. Even preteen and teenage boys may opt out of the harsher reality of the expected lifestyle of males obligated to learn how to be men and protect females. This can carry through into their adult lives where they have difficulty assuming the responsibility of being husbands and fathers.

Boys and even young men, or older men who are compassionate, have sensitive spirits and an attitude of love for girls, woman and even older women, are more likely to assume a romantic, protective, responsible princely role. It is their gentler side that surfaces in a caring and affectionate manner.

The young boy, teenager or man of any age, who has a negative self-image, is often attracted to a female who brings out the best in him. In his eyes, she is beautiful, worth loving and adoring towards him. He will seek to protect and shelter her.  

At other times, it takes a good, fairy godmother figure to intervene and turn the frog into a prince in the eyes of the young female and even in his own mind. The more he assumes a gentle, protective role, the more an insecure, dependent female trusts in him and turns to him when in distress.

If a boy, young man or a man of any age, turns from being a prince in the eyes of a female to being a frog or acting like one, repulsion may set it.

The time element is crucial for the prince and princess, as there is a limited amount of time for the female to accept and assume the role of princess for her male-turned prince. The female’s eyes opened by the fairy godmother, help her to see her rightful role in a timely fashion, even though it may take some kind of a glass slipper to define their match as being mutually appropriate. The Cinderella timing works perfectly.

Is the Cinderella complex identifiable in males? Gender issues may enter into the picture as a male assumes a female role in part or in total. This can also happen with respect to females who would prefer being male, even princes in their own right. In conclusion, one might suggest that there is still much to discover about the male role in the Cinderella fairy tale.  

When is it Important to Discuss Your Medical Advice With Another Doctor: Should You Request a Referral?

Usually the medical advice you receive from your doctor is sufficient to answer any questions that you may have, but there are times when it is important to ask for a referral to another doctor. Your mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health care, as well as that of your family, may be at stake.

Referral to another doctor or specialist

The most likely reason for you to want to discuss your medical advice with another doctor is to be reassured that the advice you have received from your own doctor is timely and appropriate. When asked for a referral, your doctor will not hesitate to refer you to another doctor or even a specialist, particularly if there are indications that this would benefit you and your family. In fact, it may be in his or her best interest to do so.  

Your doctor is retiring or moving

When your doctor is retiring, moving to another location or setting up another practice outside your area, rather than be without a doctor for any length of time, it is advisable to ask him or her to refer you to another doctor, who will be able to take his or her place with respect to your ongoing medical care.

Language barrier

If there is a language barrier between you and your doctor that results in communication problems, you may ask your doctor to refer you to another doctor, who you are able to communicate with effectively, in your own language. This would be a reasonable request from your doctor’s perspective, particularly if it involves elderly seniors.

Incompatible religious beliefs

Your religious beliefs are an important aspect of your spiritual health. If they are not compatible with the religious beliefs of your doctor, talking to him or her about your concern first and then asking to speak to another doctor may be appropriate.

Serious concern re your level of medical care

If you have serious concern about your current treatment or level of medical care and do not feel it is appropriate, discussing this with your doctor may help to remedy the problem. He or she will want you to receive the kind and level of care that you need, but may have a busy practice. Perhaps you want increased medical attention from him or her, or even house calls. While this may not always be feasible, he or she may refer you to another doctor, who has more time and can make house calls for you and your family. You may have concerns about alternative health care, for example, the feasibility of visiting a chiropractor or another health care practitioner with respect to medical advice. Do not hesitate to discuss these concerns with your doctor or to ask for a referral.

Questions re medical competency

Questions of medical competency can arise in any medical practice. If you are unfamiliar with a new doctor who is still in training, or under treatment by a nurse practitioner acting on your doctor’s behalf, you may have competency questions. Your doctor will take your concerns seriously and answer your questions. Do not hesitate to ask for a second opinion from another doctor, if indicated.

Your questions and concerns are important, but it is not advisable to run from doctor to doctor. Consistency is important in terms of your mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health, as well as that of your family. To keep you healthy is in your doctor’s responsibility. Remember that he or she also has high ethical, moral, legal and medical standards to maintain. Mutual doctor-patient loyalty matters.