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March
29, 2007:
How We Experience Illness
Interview
with Michael Stein, M.D.author of The
Lonely Patient
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Mike
Carruthers:
Illness
is a universal experience, yet how we experience it is very individual.
Michael Stein, M.D.:
You know I describe illness as an individual and not
a team sport - that there's no one else who's going through this
in the way that you are.
Dr. Michael Stein,
author of the book The
Lonely Patient, says it's important to understand the feelings
almost everyone has when they get ill…
That a person
feels that their body has betrayed them; that they lose things
along the way - most noticeably that feeling of invulnerability
and that all together this causes a certain loneliness.
As a friend or
family member of someone who is ill…
I think the best
we can do is to listen, is to be attentive. And we can do that
sometimes by simply being present, by touching people because
some patients don't want to talk all the time. They don't want
to complain - that by complaining they worry themselves and
they worry you. But what we need to do when we're the loved
ones or the family member is to simply be available.
When someone
we know is seriously ill, it's often difficult to bring up the
subject of the illness. Dr. Stein says a good way is to ask
the question, "What is this like for you?"
And there are
different versions of it. You know, "What's the worst part
of it for you? Or "What makes you angriest or what makes
you scared here?" I think those are useful questions about
letting people start in what they want to talk about.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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