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 Updated: 03/03/2010

Stop Playing the Victim Already!

It was about two weeks ago when I had another one of those “oh here we go again” moments but this time I found myself getting a little more angry, unable to stop myself from yelling at the TV.

I was watching my usual channel 10 in the morning when that show that follows ‘Today’ hosted by Hoda and Kathy Lee came on. I was only half paying attention when …here it comes..another one of those “latest studies”was brought up by some female guest, showing that obese patients are more likely to get less quality treatment or attention from their doctors than other patients.

And of course, having to be politically correct, the hosts of the show react in shock and disgust with this latest research. Well I don’t have to be nor am I politically correct. So now those that know me can probably picture my raging outburst at the TV.

Are You Kidding Me? Can’t any of you figure this out by now on your own? Do any of you have the guts to just say what has to be on your mind? Are you just going to sit there and let this guest cry about this so called latest research that appears to be placing blame on doctors?

Is anyone thinking self responsibility here? OK, this is just some of my outburst at the TV….not you the reader, unless you too are feeling a twinge of sympathy for these ‘patients’.

Let’s look at it this way. If you were to enter into business with a partner, would you expect only one partner to have 100 percent of the responsibilities of that business while you sat back and did nothing to contribute?

If you were sitting in a boat taking on water while your sole partner was the only one bucketing out the water and patching up the hole, would you blame your partner for the sinking of the boat? And how do you think your partner would view you, the one who did nothing to help?

Now consider these facts. Close to 2/3 of our population is overweight or obese, preventable by eating right (drop the….french-fries) and exercising more (get off you’re A…).

Obesity related illnesses include various cardiovascular diseases, type II diabetes, and many cancers. If you can PREVENT (your responsibility) being overweight or obese, then it stands to reason that many of these illnesses can be PREVENTED (your responsibility) thus decreasing the need for TREATMENT (doctor responsibility).

Also factor in that only about 13 percent or less of medical school graduates are entering primary care or family practice, decreasing the number of doctors in an already limited field available to treat many of these conditions, thus leading to less time available per patient. If you consider the fact that it is always easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of it later on, then you can understand that prevention is easier than treatment when considering the practice of medicine.

So before we unfairly bash the medical community, we should consider that as long as the obese patient continues to pop french-fries along with their prescribed medicine, and refuses to get up off their oversized a….s when their doctor suggests it, it is the patient here that’s sinking this ship…pun intended.

Is it any wonder then that doctors may have a more negative attitude toward the patient who refuses to take any responsibility for themselves in the doctor/patient relationship or ‘partnership’.

More people need to get off this ‘woe is me’ mentality, stop seeing themselves as the victim, and start taking better care of themselves. When these same patients start proving to their doctors that they are in fact trying to patch some of their own holes (exercise) and bale out some of the water (lose weight—drop the fries), they may be pleasantly surprised by the new ‘treatment’ they get from their doctor.


 

Jacqueline Smith is a certified personal fitness trainer and owner of The Right Condition and has additional certifications in Pilates, sports nutrition and group aerobics and is also certified through the Police Training Commission as a physical conditioning instructor.  To contact Jacqueline via email please use this link: fitness@newtownpress.com

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