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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.
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