Addressing Chronic Disease & Addiction; the path to wellness

Illness and the path to wellness
James Wise
Class: HCA300

Abstract

This work presented here will give us a glimpse into a life of an individual who suffers from alcoholism that lead him to the brink of death. However, by the grace afforded him through hero’s that are apparent in our society he was able to launch a program of recovery ending in achieving wellness. We will explore this journey in many aspects. Those who were the most influential, those who were not, and the willingness of the patient involved in the process. We will confer the holistic approach-involving mind, body and spirit and the reality that this approach is needed in defeating any major illness one may go through in the course of life. Simply what does it take to achieve wellness.

What is the human condition

When we are first born, we are innocent, naïve, ignorant to life skills. We become the sum of how we were raised, what we are taught in many venues, and our personal experiences; be it bad, or good. Our bodies are a fascinating organism that achieves balance through homeostasis, continually adjusting to maintain normalcy. Anything that continues to work against that balance can, “in time” overpower our natural state of homeostasis. Any bad habit practiced over time becomes an obsession or an addiction such is the case as we explore alcoholism. Many professionals in the area of health limit, homeostasis to just the physical aspect of the body, we challenge that thought as a limited perception that falls short of achieving true wellness. We believe that the mind, and spirit are the first to fall out of balance far before the body does before acute illness sets in. Let us now explore the journey of our alcoholic patient.

The Journey

Truth is convenient when it serves us, but an enemy when what we desire or believe goes against truth. In critical thinking there is an aspect that is called applied ignorance. This is when we will persuade others and ourselves that our actions or beliefs are based in fact or truth. When in reality it is just justification in what we do, and when the mind does not know the truth, it simply fills in the blanks.

The patient we are discussing did this for many years, (e.g., I am Irish I was born to drink, I did better than anyone in the program and I am the biggest drunk, Doctors say it is healthy to drink.) just to name a few fallacies. In time, our patient was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in 2000 and his doctor stated that he had to stop drinking and make a complete lifestyle change. After four months of service, the Doctor fired his patient for non-compliance to a new lifestyle changes. Rudimentary the patient could not stop drinking and the doctor never suggested any avenue of support only judgment over not caring about his health. Unfortunately, it was four long years later that help came his way.

furthermore, in that time the patient kept on losing in life, jobs, family, and insurance. With each loss came with it a loss of self-respect, which lead to self hate and more destructive behavior. Alcohol became the self-medicating process that helped him achieve oblivion.

The patient, through a depressed mind and wounded spirit, attempted suicide; no longer being able to deal with the losses that was so precious to him. Prior to the intervention which came from a mental health professional our subject was on ten different medications two of which were psychotropic an eighty units of insulin.

It was through addressing the cognitive nature of the mind and the holistic approach found in a therapeutic community that empowered the patient to first start down the road of recovery. Here is where we must address the spiritual aspect of any wellness plan. We have heard on many occasions that it is a point of insanity when a person continues to do the same things repeatedly and expects different results.

We do not agree it is insanity but rather it is more comfortable to do the same thing because we know what the results will be each time we follow the same path. In contrast, it requires faith to do something new and different because we do not know how it will the results end. It is here once we step out in faith and prayer that we begin to experience the power of a good lifestyle change. The yielding of the patient to new knowledge and the faith to pursue this new direction must be nurtured by the caregiver that it will actually work, if you work the plan; this must be at the forefront in treatment.

We must also realize that time perspective is out of balance as well and must be address. In any addiction, it is a quick fix by escaping negative, or depressed feelings which result in a lack of emotional growth or emotional intelligence. We must encourage the patient to go through hard feelings, and introduce journaling to understand that feelings are fleeting and journaling is a hard copy of the progression of time, and how our thoughts change along the journey. Simply there is no quick fix here, which leads us to our conclusions on what we view as affective and not affective in the realm of Health and Wellness.

Conclusions

Perhaps the two most destructive aspects of health care and why the achievement to wellness is often dismal, are in the design of insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Insurance policies take away the responsibility of the patient when they are able to have countless visits to Doctors and specialist who continues to treat, as the illness becomes worse. Couple this with the quick fix of a pharmaceutical cure. Psychotropic medication that treat depression often come with common negative side effects and once on the regiment it is very hard to stop taking them because it puts the body in a new norm. We can group others like cholesterol and blood pressure medication that good diet and exercise will accomplish the same results over time. In most cases, medication is like a Band-Aid for acute episodes, and seldom work in long term basis.

We however do not want to be one sided here but fair-minded and in some cases with severe disease such as HIV, Hepatitis C, and severe mental illness, to name a few has given value and longevity of life. From the experience we have shared here we conclude that good lifestyle changes produces the best results. The need to promote mental health is paramount and alternate treatment plans, that include Spas, Dieticians, Natural Herbal Cures, Massage therapy, and Yoga are only a few that come to mind. We as health care professionals must realize it took years to acquire many chronic illnesses and it will take years to reverse the affect and achieve wellness.

One last thought is education is a powerful force in the mix of achieving wellness. Furthermore, responsibility at the personal level results in personal freedom. Freedom form type II diabetes, freedom from alcoholism both achieved one day at a time through a lifestyle change. Where in the daily goal is for a better tomorrow. Perhaps America should self accountability approach.

Reference:

Edlin, Gorden, Golanty, Eric, (2010) Health & Wellness. Sudbury, Massachusetts, John and
Bartlett Publishers