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The problem with doctors: Why our American system of health care isn’t working.
Most people with health challenges have been led to believe that their bodies or minds are broken and just not working correctly when it is usually their life that is out of balance. They’re feeling stressed out, low on energy, depressed, stuck in a rut, or just plain sick and tired of being sick and tired. Allopathic medicine (Western style treatment of the body as a machine separate from the effects of thoughts, emotions, or spirit.) is good at certain body repairs and finding out if and how well body systems are working but is largely failing to get people feeling good and keep them that way. Mental healthcare professionals do little more than categorize patients’ “symptoms” and prescribe drugs that work marginally better than placebos.
There are loads of reasons why our healthcare system simply is not working. Here are a few:
- Diagnostic procedures done at the slightest sign of a problem that are exorbitantly expensive, invasive, and used as a crude “process of elimination” to rule things out.
- “Fixing” of symptoms takes priority over releasing underlying causes, often creating new symptoms called “side effects”.
- Illness is something to “manage” not cure. (There’s no money is curing people.)
- System based on finding something “wrong” with everyone instead of striving for wellness.
- “Wellness” generally defined as meeting prescribed “normal” physical or chemical standards of performance or being free of disease, rather than being and feeling able to live Life to the fullest.
- Little relationship seen between habitual thoughts, emotions, and physical health unless a physical “cause” cannot be found. Then it’s “all in your head”.
- Healthcare managers that limit a doctor’s patient evaluations to just a few minutes, making it nearly impossible to get the whole picture of your life circumstances and how they have impacted your health.
- Doctors that are financially or contractually beholding to pharmaceutical companies and HMO’s.
- Reliance on chemicals (drugs) that alter body chemistry and usurp or override the body’s natural systems, rather than helping the body to naturally rebalance itself.
- Lack of integrity among researchers, drug manufacturers, healthcare professionals. Healthcare as a profit making venture, pushing unnecessary tests, marginally successful treatments, and invasive procedures for the sake of cash flow.
- Lack of education on the part of doctors and patients alike, resulting in overlooking of simple and inexpensive techniques that restore balance.
- Doctors’ monopoly on “diagnosing” and “curing”, limiting choices and excluding natural means.
- Overuse of surgery as a first (instead of last) resort.
- A health insurance system that is really a payment plan for medical treatment and doesn’t insure health.
- Governmental endorsement of corporate products over natural remedies.
- Psychiatric “treatment” with drugs alone.
- Behaviors that confound, annoy, or make others uncomfortable are labeled as “diseases”.
- Requirement of going through “Primary Care Physicians” reduces personal power for self-healing by the need for permission from others for access to treatment.
- Drugs are prescribed and then access is restricted by high costs or requirements for office visits to renew common prescriptions.
- One-size-fits-all diagnosis and treatment based on a mythical norm.
- Emphasis on the repeatability of treatment results rather than successful cures. (Not repeatable = fake.)
- People are seen as victims of their “medical conditions”, rather than directly responsible for their health.
- Dying is seen as an unacceptable failure.
- Healing is a “personal problem” and not a community concern.
- “Energy” is finite, physical, and comes only from what we eat.
Insist on these rights with a doctor:
- The right to choose what is done to you and what is not.
- The right to refuse any medication or treatment recommended.
- The right to have things explained until you understand them.
- The right to get additional opinions about your situation.
- The right to use alternative therapies in addition to conventional medical treatment.
- The right to choose to heal yourself.
Take a trusted friend or relative with you when you go to an MD as a witness to what you are and are not told. With your mind on your symptoms or emotions stirred by a diagnosis, you may not remember clearly what transpired. They can also provide an impartial viewpoint of your condition and help you ask questions.
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