THURSDAY, JUNE 17TH, 2010
9am / 10am / 2:30pm / 7:30pm
This summer I've enrolled myself in an online abnormal psychology class through Shasta College and my homework post for the night doubles as a great post for you to consider.
My homework question was as follows:
"Do you feel people's experiences can or should be given specific diagnoses? Please feel free to argue pro or con, or to see both sides, but please give reason for your belief."
My Answer:
Initially, I begin looking at this question from more of a personal standpoint through experiences that may not deal with psychological issues in particular but may have a great deal of correlation with how we look at the body and its healing processes.
When I take on a new client with a health issue, an injury, or a weakness I always ask questions and look for clues that will tell me what the symptoms are that are actually causing this unwanted entity. Why? Because one, I am not legally allowed to diagnose or prescribe, and two, this method of approach is great at giving feedback which generally either fixes the issue quickly or gives a deeper look into the root cause of the problem and guides which course of action is the next logical progression.
In medicine there has been an overwhelming mindset of 1-disease, 1-pathology. It has been my experience that it could be any combination of disease and pathology. There may arise several diseases from one pathology or several pathologies may contribute to one disease. My hunch is that this same phenomenon most-likely holds true for many psychological cases as well.
For example, high insulin levels lead to (1) abdominal adiposity (apple-shape), (2) high circulating blood glucose, (3) high blood fats (hypertriglyceridemia), (4) high blood pressure (hypertension). This is what’s classified as Syndrome-X disease, which encompasses cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, polycystic ovarian syndrome, PMS, depression, and the forerunner of today, type II diabetes. And this is merely the tip of the hyperinsulinemia iceberg!
But…instead of diagnosing someone who has diabetes, endometriosis, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, crohn’s disease, AND is depressed (I’ve actually seen this before!), and treating each one of these separately like this person’s doctor was doing (you should have seen her medicine cabinet!), I ask her to get a simple blood panel and begin working on the deficiencies that are the root cause of the problem.
I know that oftentimes psychology is much less tangible as compared to a physical panel reading on a piece of paper in my hand telling me what the root cause is, but my point remains the same. Symptoms, NOT disease should be treated. In other words I work to fix what causes your diabetes, not your diabetes diagnosis itself.
I do however, in specific cases, tell the person what they could have from their symptoms in order to give them something tangible to go off of instead of having them feel like I am making stabs in the dark at what I am doing to help them. This is only on the rare cases that the person has not already been previously diagnosed by a person with the legal ability to do so and is someone who needs to know what we are shooting at.
9am / 10am / 2:30pm / 7:30pm
This summer I've enrolled myself in an online abnormal psychology class through Shasta College and my homework post for the night doubles as a great post for you to consider.
My homework question was as follows:
"Do you feel people's experiences can or should be given specific diagnoses? Please feel free to argue pro or con, or to see both sides, but please give reason for your belief."
My Answer:
Initially, I begin looking at this question from more of a personal standpoint through experiences that may not deal with psychological issues in particular but may have a great deal of correlation with how we look at the body and its healing processes.
When I take on a new client with a health issue, an injury, or a weakness I always ask questions and look for clues that will tell me what the symptoms are that are actually causing this unwanted entity. Why? Because one, I am not legally allowed to diagnose or prescribe, and two, this method of approach is great at giving feedback which generally either fixes the issue quickly or gives a deeper look into the root cause of the problem and guides which course of action is the next logical progression.
In medicine there has been an overwhelming mindset of 1-disease, 1-pathology. It has been my experience that it could be any combination of disease and pathology. There may arise several diseases from one pathology or several pathologies may contribute to one disease. My hunch is that this same phenomenon most-likely holds true for many psychological cases as well.
For example, high insulin levels lead to (1) abdominal adiposity (apple-shape), (2) high circulating blood glucose, (3) high blood fats (hypertriglyceridemia), (4) high blood pressure (hypertension). This is what’s classified as Syndrome-X disease, which encompasses cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, polycystic ovarian syndrome, PMS, depression, and the forerunner of today, type II diabetes. And this is merely the tip of the hyperinsulinemia iceberg!
But…instead of diagnosing someone who has diabetes, endometriosis, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, crohn’s disease, AND is depressed (I’ve actually seen this before!), and treating each one of these separately like this person’s doctor was doing (you should have seen her medicine cabinet!), I ask her to get a simple blood panel and begin working on the deficiencies that are the root cause of the problem.
I know that oftentimes psychology is much less tangible as compared to a physical panel reading on a piece of paper in my hand telling me what the root cause is, but my point remains the same. Symptoms, NOT disease should be treated. In other words I work to fix what causes your diabetes, not your diabetes diagnosis itself.
I do however, in specific cases, tell the person what they could have from their symptoms in order to give them something tangible to go off of instead of having them feel like I am making stabs in the dark at what I am doing to help them. This is only on the rare cases that the person has not already been previously diagnosed by a person with the legal ability to do so and is someone who needs to know what we are shooting at.
Coach-wildly-stabs-in-the-dark-Justin PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com
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