Four Truths in Evaluating Our Health

Chronic conditions and ailments that won’t go away end up rooting themselves so deeply into the lives and into the psyches of patients that by the time they make it to the doctor’s office, they are in anguish. The search for a physician and the effort to seek out meaning behind their symptoms is a memory that is very difficult to erase. In some cases it’s taken a generation to see their own struggles spring back to life in their children.

We can’t medicate our way back to health. There is a pang of vulnerability when we come to learn that the road ahead will be difficult, and finding once again that the same failed medicinal treatment is still the only treatment offered today.

A diagnosis is merely a label, not what we are. One of the myths about having a diagnosis is that it will catalyze a whole body of knowledge and a cure, putting into motion a new set of standards and practices never before revealed. The reality can be disappointing.

A diagnosis is no more than a name for a collection of symptoms that is given for the purpose of assigning billing value. With a diagnosis, the doctor can provide justification to the insurance company for additional testing and the prescribing of medical devices or drugs. It can also give the patient a name that they can spend hours searching for on the Internet.

Our current health status is not our true potential. What becomes plainly evident is that nearly all diagnoses begin with a very similar set of warning signs. That is appealing because it brings a kind of closure to the search and points to a direction where healing can begin. It’s worrisome when symptoms are ill-defined and persistent. It’s hard to communicate precisely with doctors and it feels almost impossible to carry on a conversation with family and friends. Everyone has advice, but no one really understands how hard it is. Each well-meaning relative has another suggestion and a new set of ideas. The only truly satisfying reason for having a diagnosis is a sense of the peace of mind that comes from defining something.