Reply quote reply 0516 pm 0 like substantive post

Reply | Quote & Reply
Oct 24, 2015 05:16 PM
0 Like Substantive Post
Florence Mercado-Garcia
4 posts
Re:Re:Re:Topic 2 DQ 2
Debra,

What an excellent example you provided. Many patients, particularly mental health
patients stop their medication because they feel better and do not correlate the
improvement with the medication. Thye simply believe they are better and meds are
no longer needed.
To answer your question, I think there are many people who hold their beliefs and
their habits very strongly and because of that will only change those beliefs and
accept patient teaching when the other alternative is to die (if they change their
beliefs at all). In his article, "Why Bad Beliefs Don't Die," Lester (2000) discussed
how our beliefs are formed as a survival mechanism and that changing our beliefs
isn't supposed to be easy because as a survival tool, they are meant to withstand
contradictory information. He further elaborates that if our beliefs were easily
changed that they would be essentially useless to us for survival. The brain does not
care if the belief is silly or even untrue; it solely sees the belief as keeping the
person alive. Lester (2000) claimed that for those reasons, people will defend, fight
over and even die for a belief...and those same reasons are why it is so difficult to
change them, even with solid data.
I have seen people wait to change their belief system until it was the belief or death,
just as I have seen a patient choose to continue with a belief versus having life
saving treatment.
Years ago, I studied the mind and belief systems through the context of an
alternative medicine. Those classes taught similar information as Lester, except the
classes involved the ego complex into the teachings. Very interesting concept that a
person would choose to die over than accept another point of view.
Unfortunately, over history, many wars have been fought over beliefs.
What has been your experience with patients that would rather keep their belief(s)
instead of living?
Flossie
Reference:
Lester, G. (2000). Why Bad Beliefs Don't Die. Skeptical Inquirer, 24.6 Retrieved
from
Reply | Quote & Reply
Oct 24, 2015 05:26 PM
0 Like Substantive Post
Gretchen Lacy
4 posts
Re:Re:Re:Topic 2 DQ 2
I was admitting a female patient to the floor one morning and just plugging away at
asking my admission questions and clicking the corresponding buttons. Then I came

to the question of when was your last menstruation. She responded "I don't know."
That in itself is not too alarming, as quite honestly, I don't keep track of mine either.
So I said, "Is it that you can't remember or do you have irregular periods or..." at
this point I trailed off when I sensed how increasingly uncomfortable the patient was
becoming. I simply walked over and shut the door to allow for privacy, apologized
that the questions were making her uncomfortable. Ultimately, she shared that she
was transgender. I met her declaration with a simple "Okay," and continued on with
the rest of my admission questions.