Doctor Doctor give me the news..

The New York Times published an article where it stated that many Psychiatrists have responded to the recent changes in healthcare in the United States by cutting back on talk therapy, such as Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, and increasing the number of prescriptions they give.

If this is indeed the trend that Psychiatry is going in, then I feel sorry for the profession. I have known many Psychiatrists whose care of their patients has been excellent, but this is indeed disturbing news. It changes the role of the Psychiatrist from a Counselor into an Apothecary, who meets with patients for 5-10 minutes and then hands over a prescription. Who wants to go to a Doctor with the idea of getting medication the way we get cash from an ATM?

America is the country with the richest healthcare system. It is designed to make money from the misery of those who are part of that very same system. The insurance companies dictate to doctors, and other healthcare providers, what kind of treatment they are allowed to give and what kind of help they are allowed to offer those who need their services.
It is not Doctors who are making these decisions.
It is not trained mental health workers who are making these decisions.
These decisions are being made by people who only look at what seems to them to be "cost effective." So, whatever costs the insurance companies the least is what they go with.

It is time for all of us to look beyond what is seems to be our personal bottom line and instead explore what we can all do to help those around us. By doing so, we are making things better for others as well as for ourselves.

I hope that the article was being over dramatic, because this is a real slap in the face of the profession of Psychiatry.

Shhhh.....its a Secret!

Recently, I was in a conversation with a friend of mine who asked if I had ever seen "The Secret." I had not thought about that dvd in a few years, so it was interesting to reflect on it again.

The initial premise makes complete sense. That is, if you think positively and keep an optimistic outlook, good things will happen. Conversely, negative thinking seems to bring about negative results. I can attest to the fact that when I start off the day in a bad mood and if I am unable to change that, it seems as though everything that happens that day is negative. Now, the real question here is this: are the events actually better or worse depending on our moods or is it that we are more open to perceiving positive things when we are in a positive mood and negative things when we're having a bad day?

Where the dvd really lost me was when it asserted that simply wishing for something was enough to bring it about because the "universe would provide" whatever it was that you desired. That sounds like magical thinking. To keep your sights focused on something you want is essential, but then you have to roll up your sleeves and get to work on it in order to make it happen. Thomas Edison once said, "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Yes, there are things that just seem to appear in our lives as though by magic and these things may be exactly what you may have wished for, but that doesn't mean that you summoned them forth from the ether by the sheer force of your desire. If it was that easy, then most sporting events would end in draws, since both individuals, or teams, really wanted to win.

Belief is essential in success, but it needs to be paired with working hard in order to achieve consistently positive results.

Bang-Bang, we are all dead

I am sickened by what today's shooting in Arizona.

Palin and her friends may try to spin it now, but in the wake of the news they all ran to their websites to scrub them clean of anything that might have been seen as combustible material, such as having cross-hairs on the States that she wanted to "take back" by whatever means she could.

The United States has learned nothing from the mass shootings at Columbine and Virgina Tech and today is ample proof that indeed we have a very long way to go.

2011

The new year is just a few days old and already I am curious about the changes this year will bring.
I don't mean the changes of season, political shifts or economic surges, but rather the changes in humanity.
Biological evolution may be at a standstill because of the rapid advances in medical science, but cultural evolution continues for the human race.

How far will we go this year? How far COULD we really go?