Trust is Healing

"Knowledge is Power" is a very well known American phrase, emblazoned all over our capitol city and possessed by our American existence beyond any other common belief. I remember a radio comedian in Cincinnati who had as an intro to one of his regular "secret microphone" sketches the line "Your right to know supersedes your right to exist." I loved the line for its funny truth because our culture screams if in real life even the most powerful potential move by the government is not 'transparent,' but adores TV characters who regularly look at people and deny them information until they 'need to know.'We are an unrealistic group of children who can neither take care of ourselves nor identify and appreciate the people who can take care of us. Or, to quote an ancient prophet "All we like sheep. . ."
So I would like to address today how our belief in our power through knowledge has affected our perceptions on health care. In the area of healthy diet, people can totally control their own intake if they desire and make many things change, such as pain in the case of gluten intolerant people. Others can adjust their weight, lower their blood pressure, or calm their nerves by adjusting to eating patterns that serve the needs of their own body. But when it comes to medication, the "client" is no longer in control. The FDA has chemicals that are available over the counter and chemicals that require a professional assessment and recommendation. So now, our desire to have one thing or another for our health comes into conflict with our need to get professional judgment about whether the drug is needed. As a mental health nurse, I see daily the struggle between self reliance and professional service as people regularly medicate themselves by purchasing street drugs, either illegal or prescription, to avoid depending on the services of a professional to treat their mental anguish. The expanded "knowledge" about drugs through required ads and warning data has changed our perception of chemical medicine treatment. Patients regularly order up prescriptions, sometimes motivated by TV ads, rather than wait for an expert opinion from their doctor. Now I am not disagreeing with the idea that knowledge is power, but like every other market motivated equalizer, it does not function purely when applied to the setting of illness and health care. Some people are quite capable of understanding their own chemical needs, and some doctors, raised and educated in the age of unlimited knowledge have given up trying to know the special facets of chemical treatment because there is just too much to deal with. But the thing that keeps faith in medical care is not some type of supply and demand smorgasbord of options that smart patients chose well and oblivious patients choose poorly. The thing that keeps faith in medical care is trust. Whether the patient is asking his doctor to let him try something or asking the doctor what on earth is wrong with him, the facts that are needed to solve medical issues do not present themselves without trust. Most of America is crying over health care now because they do not trust it. Without being able to express the facts, they feel that the services rendered are more about getting money out of them than healing them, and they do not trust it anymore. When I really see it for what it has become, it is hard to care whether it fails or not. This has nothing to do with the current governmental health care reform. That is just another wave of the same thing we have now with different people in control. It will change nothing substantial about the fact that health care offerings in America are really a way to gather money instead of a way to heal the people. But the worst part about this is that a very small percentage of the care that gathers money even offers healing. That is because, as I am sure I have said somewhere along the path of this blog, you can't buy health. You can discipline yourself, change your life, repent of your body wrecking life style and do the things that improve health, but you can't buy health. And you especially cannot demand that others buy you health in whatever way your knowledge has concluded works for your own power. As the wonder of modern medicine melts away like a wet witch because the patient is trying to get out of it's control, look for those you can genuinely trust to build it back up. It is not the ones with things to sell or buy who can be counted on for healing but the ones you know you can trust.