Honoring the love and patience of mothers of autistic children

Carol Forsloff---He banged his head on the floor, screamed, kicked his feet, while his fists pounded the air, then opened and clenched to hit anyone nearby, until in a few moments his mothers voice, with her whispers and gently coaxing began to create what looked like a miracle to anyone watching at the time.  Her hands touched her child's hands softly, moving the fists aside, opening the fingers, as she smiled and continued to coax.  It was a moment that revealed both the struggles of the child with autism spectrum disorder and the mother whose loving patience provides an example to all mothers everywhere.

Today is Autism Awareness Day, a time to recognize the needs of exceptional individuals with autism spectrum disorder.  But even more it is a time to honor the mothers of autistic children whose responsibility of parenting offers special challenges.  Yet they meet those challenges often with the kindness and affection that can be a marvel to the observer.

When a woman marries she anticipates a good life with husband and children.  Most young women need to work, and many have careers.  The responsibility of the household on an emotionally sustaining basis often rests with the mother, even in those cases where the father is actively involved.  Yet the woman who has borne the children and has spent the physical time carrying the child, then learning of the issues that an exceptional child might bring, has a unique responsibility and opportunity as well.

In the preceding example, the young woman has fraternal twin boys, both of whom have autism spectrum disorder, although one of the boys has a more serious disability than the other.  The mother leans over and listens, nods and understands what others cannot.  She opens the refrigerator and pulls out a bunch of grapes, as the child begins to calm and begin eating, without looking at his mother, and wanders into another room.

Mealtimes, bedtimes, playtimes all these periods during the day can be stressful, because change of any sort can be disconcerting to the child with autism spectrum disorder.  Lack of attention and problems with change are both hallmarks of the disorder.  Most very young children need extra attention, just because of their immaturity; but the autistic child's behavior makes growing up and learning the benchmarks of appropriate interaction very difficult.  It is a mother's guidance and patience that can make a difference in the child and the whole emotional atmosphere of the family, from the father of the children, to other siblings and family members, such as aunts, uncles and grandparents.

According to Autism Speaks, "Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors."These are the difficulties parents of these children deal with daily, and even with help from their families, neighbors, friends, the state and the school system they are faced with the responsibility for the care of the special needs child throughout their lives.  Vacations alone as a couple are often impossible; and if the parents have the time and means to spend some entertaining times together, they know that time is precious and the responsibility of the daily work continues, no matter other family needs.

For grandparents there are also new perspectives, as the expectation of most parents is that their children will have healthy children.  When grandparents see their adult children with added stress and responsibilities, there is a certain degree of pain and disappointment at the same time.  But as time passes, grandparents find the same degree of joy, only different, with their grandchildren.  Small accomplishments are important and celebrated.  At the center of much of this celebration is the mother whose own parenting remains central to the family relationships and how others relate to the children.

Every day is special for mothers who care for their children, raise them with love and patience and take the time to parent well.  The mother with the autistic child, however, can serve as a model for everyone, of how to take what otherwise might be a burden and turn it into life's real joys, even when the child cannot give back in similar fashion.  That is the measure of true courage and the best example of motherhood, even as scientists continue to look for answers about the causes and treatment of autism spectrum disorder.

Roots of self destructive behaviors offer explanations of suicide,aggression and war

SOS sign in Singapore reveals how suicide and other calamaties are an international phenomenon

Carol Forsloff--Her arm was filled with tiny cuts, and she wore a long-sleeved blouse to cover up the scars. Those who passed by her office would see her sitting, staring ahead as if in thought, as her long, sharp fingernails dug into her arms. A professional, well-paid and educated woman's involvement in self-destructive behavior offers a view into why people destroy themselves and others, physically or psychologically, that can often explain the reasons for suicide and individually-based disasters of all kinds.



Whether it is a pilot of a plane or captain of a ship that takes a purposeful dive or a woman seated at a desk cutting into her arm, the self-destructive behaviors that initiate pain and/or death are similar in many of their root causes and outcomes.



After a major tragedy, where someone commits suicide or a mass school shooting occurs where the perpetrator knows he/she will be killed in response, folks ask the questions why. Some of those answers lie in the roots of self-destructive behavior and the depression that often accompanies it, how it develops, then bubbles over, presenting a risk to the self and often to others as well.



While the initial response to a suicide or mass killing is to blame it on a present event, such as losing status, a job or a loved one, the deeper, underlying causes of self-destructive behavior lie in a complex, woven tapestry of events. These develop over time, layer by layer, until the tapestry unravels when something happens that becomes the person's “last straw.”



Scholars have found, for example, that post-traumatic stress does not occur after a single event but after a subsequent one that causes the victim the additional pain that is that “last straw.” Ordinarily both events are of a high stress nature. An example would be someone in high school who as the driver of a car crash suffers a series of injuries while a best friend and close relative is killed. That high school student several years later joins the military, is deployed to Afghanistan, watches buddies killed in roadside bombing incidents over a period of two years, then returns home with the diagnosis of PTSD. The precipitating event may be the war experience, but it is the accumulation of grief, depression and anger that can spill over and create an emotional pain that can last a lifetime.



Consider the girl who watches a mother and father quarrel daily, then goes to school past a group of bullies who threaten, throw things and sometimes strike her. She goes to school unprepared for the lessons, because it was impossible to study in a home where the parents violent quarrels create such toxicity the child cannot learn well. Chubby and poorly-dressed she feels out of place with the other little girls whom the teacher smiles upon and the boys whisper about. She doesn't get the Valentine's day cards that are quietly shared nor is she invited to the parties, but more than that she lacks the resources to change her status. Trapped, she begins scratching her arms, cutting her legs, and doing anything to relieve the emotional pain. She becomes the woman who sits in front of the window, digging her fingernails into arms that have been punished over many years. Now she can't go to the dentist without emotional trauma and offers a hysterical response when challenged.



These illustrations offer real stories of how self-destructive behavior can develop over time. Whereas PTSD is more than self-destructive issues, it is fused with these along with other behaviors that can cause emotional pain. The accumulation of hurts can offer a major hurdle when faced with an extraordinary event such as the death of a spouse or the loss of a valued job at the wrong time. It is then the long-suffering individual responds, sometimes violently, unable to use the perspective and reason that would prevent the worst.



On an interpersonal level, self-destructive behavior creates serious problems for the family, the community and the country. If there are thousands of these people who have suffered trauma over time and are willing to die for their beliefs, or more specifically to ease the pain of a future that appears hopeless and a past that haunts and creates self-loathing and terror, then the result can be an uprising or war. As the world watches Syria at war and the suffering and trauma of the children, in adulthood many of these same children may be among those whose behavior becomes aggressive and perhaps violent. Children of war are particularly vulnerable to self-destructive behavior if they are forced to continue to live under stress or relive the events in some other situation in the future.



For whole communities, those who are forced to live in poverty and surrounded by violence are also vulnerable to self-destructive behavior and often turn to crime, which itself can bring prison or even the death penalty, depending on the type of behavior. They are willing to take the risks because they have lived through violence and see life as futile at times and the efforts to change unrewarded.



How can self-destructive behavior be averted? The answer is both simple and complex. As with other emotional issues, it begins with child and family education. The family needs to be a source of comfort, understanding and guidance, so education can help facilitate communication and appropriate behavior. Children learn to cope with stress by observing how parents and other family members deal with it, so as adults master better ways of interacting with others, children have a model to observe. This type of education then is expanded to include the school and community. The school must offer education where all children can be successful and encouraged. Bullying behavior cannot be allowed on the streets, the schoolyard or the hallways of educational facilities or at work, since the bullying may trigger that “last straw” response when the child grows up or the worker doesn't get that anticipated raise.



And finally, despite the rights of people to have protection from harm, the availability of guns and weapons offers the ingredients that make the mix that coupled with the triggering event, or “last straw” will bring about the type of violence that is talked about at the time, then forgotten in the daily routines. It is the Sandy Hook type of tragedy that could be prevented and wasn't because of that self-destructive behavior, lack of family education and the precipitating events that may have occurred in the hallways of the school where the youth, Adam Lanza,  felt awkward and isolated. Self-destructive behavior resulted in the killing of schoolchildren, the death of the youth, and the community suffering.



It is that suffering that can be prevented through education on how self-destructive behavior develops, and once that is understood, programs developed for children and adults that can prevent accumulated trauma and finally the precipitating event.

Is faking it good for you?

Graffiti

"I don't want to go to school today," he told his mother.  "I don't feel good."  One more day lost from school, as Robert fakes having a cold in order to avoid the dreaded chemistry examination.  At the same time Robert's mother offered her husband a smile at breakfast, as he whispered, "I'm glad it was good for you last night as well,"and wondered if just saying it wasn't so wonderful might be the better way.  Most of us tell these little fibs, but is faking it really good for you?

We lie throughout life.  Most of us learn at an early age that faking answers or making up stories can sometimes get us what we want.  It is something we learn, get rewarded in some ways; and those rewards reinforce our behavior and tendency to repeat the behavior and lie again.  We "fake it" in many ways and call these little white lies.  But as we go through life, many of us find that the lies become bigger and bigger and more complex, making it increasingly difficult at times to remember what story we told and when and to whom.  We then learn that lying can be rewarding and troublesome as well.

Research tells us that children learn to lie as early as two years of age.  Psychologists who reported on this research tell us, however, that lying is not all bad.  Parents worry when their children lie and when it becomes a pattern, but there are positives to the lying.  The goal is to strike a balance, teaching the child how to assess consequences to the lying.  That's because the lying behavior is indicative of the child's ability to reason, to assess the potential of a reward for the lying behavior and then respond accordingly, which is what had occurred in the research study.

Professor Lee, who authored the research study on children's lying behavior, says this about the positives of children's lying:

“Lying is quite a normal behaviour. Most of us lie at some point in our life.

“And actually, in order to lie you have to have certain ingredients to be able to do that. One of them is the ability to think of other people’s minds. When you realize, ‘I know something you don’t know,’ only then can you lie. So if a child lies, it tells you the child has reached a milestone in their development."

Yet while children advance cognitively at the stage when they lie, it is also important that they learn about the negatives in lying, according to Professor Lee.  Lying becomes a teachable opportunity for parent and child to discuss the effect of lying and why it is not a good thing to lie habitually.

Children may learn to lie at age two and continue that behavior at an 80% level or higher during their early years.  By the time they reach adolescence, however, lying behavior is about the 40% rate.  Adolescents by that time have learned that too much lying can mean they won't be believed or trusted.  They have discovered lying can bring problems socially from being rejected or punished in some way for the lying behavior, and that has brought the realization that lying can bring bad consequences that sometimes have far-reaching effects.  Their experience with lies has grown since those early childhood days, and the parent's admonitions against lying often match what they learn for themselves.

What about those little white lies?  Most people say they tell them in order to avoid hurting others or to prevent a quarrel.  "How do I look?" a wife asks her husband.  "Just lovely, "he says, when he sees a new dress that he considers unattractive but also observes his wife's happy face when she shows him her new purchase.  Why not? he thinks.  After all, it's just a dress and telling her it is unattractive would just cause a quarrel for the evening.  So he does what most folks say they do and does not offer the truth when the truth hurts.

Who lies the most?  Research in Great Britain found that men are three times more likely to lie than women.  How often do they lie and in what percentages?  52% of them maintain they lie about three times daily.  Most of them admit they lie, mostly about having done something they were asked to do but didn't.  "Did you remember to feed the dog?" she asks.  "No, of course not dear.  I did it just after I finished dinner," the husband says, then finds a time to slip Fido his bowl of food before his wife finds out the poor dog has gone hours without dinner.  It's that sort of lie the man tells in order not to look lazy, uncooperative or engender any negative feelings or beliefs he considers might be directed at him if he were to admit not doing something he had promised to do.

Women admit to lying once per day.  Most of the time they lie about their feelings.  When asked how they feel, even at those times of sadness or anger, they will still respond "I'm fine" to questions about their status.

Those little white lies, however, can be troublesome.  A salesman will emphasize the best about a product and overlook the negatives when selling that television, insurance policy or new car.  So the pattern of lying, though common, can offer concerns as folks grow older and learn to filter fact from fiction in the business world, because those little white lies can be part of the salesman's bag of tools that have a few tricks as well.

What would life be if we all told the truth about everything?  One article looks specifically at the lying behavior and research and declares that society would literally implode if people told the truth all the time.  Telling someone that new dress is awful, that you hate pork chops and wish the host had made chicken or that the boss' new desk that is far too large for the office and the person's size is just fine may save heartache and anger. So we lie.

And what about the woman who "fakes it" while her husband feels happy and is off to sleep?  Like other lies, there are good and bad times to lie.  An occasional faking it on a day when hubby just had a bad day at work or lost the tennis match at the country club to some fellow who will tell everyone at the office in he morning can be a positive.  On the other hand, always "faking it" can become a major barrier to the naturalness and health of a sexual relationship.  It can also cause folks to avoid looking at the cause of a repeating problem on the part of either partner, that may be due to poor emotional or physical health.  It is, like those little white lies we tell children to be cautious about in terms of time and place, that there is indeed a time to be forthright and honest and a time to be guarded as well.  It's a continuing challenge in learning the balance between absolute truth all the time and mostly truth most of the time, which when accomplished prevents us from being the cause of unnecessary pain to someone else while maintaining the integrity of ourselves.

Playing diabetes roulette

Insulin pen

You tire easily, get warm to hot feelings not long after you eat, and knowing you have diabetes, you shrug and say, "It's just too hard.  Besides you only live once, and I'm not going to live my life having to watch everything I do like that.  I don't need to keep track either because I think I know when I'm getting a problem."

Lack of compliance for diabetics can be fatal or it can run its course until there are a set of health conditions that underline the seriousness of the disease.  Many people wait until that point to begin the regimen that might have made a difference earlier, but that "it's too hard" gets in the way.  It's a game of diabetic roulette, hoping your number ends up in a healthy territory, even when the disease itself is of the nature to require its victims to be forever vigilant.

It's easy not to be compliant.  After all, candy and sweet goodies are all around.  So the diabetic makes the promise that candy bar will be the last for the day or the week, when it may only be hours before more sugar is eaten in a cookie or ice cream or a sweet soda somewhere.

Compliant doesn't mean, however, simply not eating too much sugar.  It also means regularly checking the skin, eyes, and feet regularly.  It means testing blood sugar and making sure one's numbers for high blood pressure and cholesterol are also monitored.  That's because these conditions all accompany the potential for heart disease or stroke that is part of the package known as diabetes.

Playing diabetes roulette is a dangerous game, as the disease develops slowly and steadily in sometimes small and sometimes larger intervals before it devastates some area of the body.  By the time that happens, more medications and more conditions occur that require monitoring and medications.  Some of these medications and conditions overlap with others, making the disease even harder to treat.

While the diabetic complains about the problems of compliance, family members are often frustrated as they can see the possibilities of the illness becoming more and more grave, with the need for additional care that involves more than just the patient but others as well.  Eating that extra piece of pie may mean extra work for another person at some time, getting medications or performing other tasks that a diabetic may not be able to do because of the health consequences of the disease.

Whole families sometimes play the game together. After all, diabetes runs in families.  Father is in denial about his disease, so his sons believe they too can play the macho game of denial.  Or Mother can fuss over her female offspring yet not be careful about a diet that denies sweets, while a daughter sees the behavior and follows it, as opposed to maintaining a healthy lifestyle so the diabetes does not wreck havoc on the body, as it can do when there is a lack of compliance.

The game of diabetes roulette has no winners.  It only has people who end up more sick or even dead at an early age, from lack of following guidelines that can make a difference.  It's the game of life that deserves winning, after all; and what it takes is patience, perseverance and the knowledge that a game of chance that takes away most positive chances isn't a game that should be played at all.

Anorexia and bulimia: It takes a village

Karen Carpenter, who died of effects of Anorexia

"She's just so skinny.  I wish she would eat more, but she tells me she isn't hungry.  But Madge says her daughter is just like that too and that it's just a phase teenagers go through, that she'll be all right.  I worry, though, as this has been going on for more than a year, and even though she is so thin, she is always saying she needs to lose more. "And it may take a village to help her.

This conversation takes place every day in someone's home, as people observe others who appear to be too thin and worry if there is a problem or not.  Very often the problem is chocked up to a teenage rebellion, an adolescent phase or something that a young person will simply get over with in time.  However, for many people too skinny is a sign of something far more dangerous than someone simply wanting to lose weight.  It is a major health problem that occurs among all age groups and sexes and requires understanding and therapy, sometimes for years.

Anorexia and bulimia are two sides of a coin of concern in many homes.  And in these homes the conversation will highlight many of the misconceptions about these conditions.  These are not individuals who have issues about weight but have health problems that are complex and require special treatment and therapy.

Anorexia is a serious eating disorder, potentially life-threatening.  These individuals seek to lose far more weight than is necessary and seek to weigh less than is normal for their height and age.  They have an intense fear of eating too much and will exercise, diet or purge themselves of food in order not to consume what they consider is too much food.

90% of those who are anorexic are female.  Many of them began having eating problems when they were teenagers.  It is common for the condition to begin during the adolescent years.

The condition, anorexia, can be such a problem that many people end up in the hospital with health problems related to not eating much or not eating the proper amount and types of food to sustain good health.  According to experts, a person can be considered anorexic if he or she drops below 15% of normal weight.

There are frequently rituals involved with eating when someone is anorexic.  The silverware may need to be just so, the cleanliness of concern, and the condition of the food itself is of consequence.  They may refuse to eat in front of other people, or eat in some hidden place where no one can watch or criticize.

For someone who is anorexic thoughts about food can occupy much of the day.  Thoughts about dieting, what to eat and what not to eat, the need to constantly exercise and the anxiety about not being thin enough are a constant part of an anorexic's life, one that is filled with worries about weight.  Furthermore these thoughts are often coupled with feelings of poor self worth and lack of personal power.  It is a self-destructive pattern that is difficult to break.

While anorexia is a separate condition, there are many people who suffer from both anorexia and bulimia.  The person with bulimia gorges on relatively large amounts of high calorie foods from which they need to "purge" themselves.  During a binge, an individual may consume as much as 3000 calories or more, then feel a sense of shame because of it.  Diuretics, laxatives and enemas become the tools for relieving the anxiety, by purging the system of the food, so that the guilt can be washed away with it.

Bulimia comes about as a consequence of genetics, being bullied, having strong feelings of hopelessness and a lack of self worth, being a victim of abuse, or having mental health problems.  Some of these individuals are involved in occupations where one's weight is critical to maintaining a job.  Many models feel the pressure to remain slender, so when they eat more than the ordinary amount of food, they reach for something to purge the food so it does not contribute to weight gain.

These conditions, anorexia and bulimia, create serious problems for families and for the individuals as well.  Often it is the family and friends that can offer someone the support necessary to break the cycle, to get help and get healthy.  But it is a difficult road, once habits are entrenched; and some people end up dying, like Karen Carpenter, the famous singer-entertainer, did at a very young age.  Knowing the facts, the causes and the treatments available, however, can bring people back to normal weight and a normal life, as Jane Fonda, the actress who suffered from both conditions, likes to reiterate.  In other words, there is help and treatment, but the road back can take time, understanding and the affection and support of a "village" in the person's life.

Treatment of multiple ailments a challenge for the elderly

Inhaler

Carol Forsloff---It was less than a month ago I learned I had scarring of the lungs with fibrous material with a diagnosis that after learning its potential seriousness, I made plans on how to deal with the steps of recognizing, accepting and dealing with it.  Then the telephone rang with news of a different tentative diagnosis that I had not anticipated, that may change with the symptoms and with a treatment that may cause problems for other health conditions,  the kind frequently faced by seniors.

Lung disorders include an array of conditions such as pulmonary fibrosis, COPD, and various infections.  Many times it is difficult to make a complete diagnosis and effect a cure because of the complications in determining the cause of the lung problem.  In my case doctors believe I have atypical infections that have caused physical changes in the lungs and therefore pain and more difficulty breathing.

Those who have complex health conditions often live with a reality that is in flux, especially if that health condition is superimposed on other conditions equally complex.  In my case the lung disease is part of a potpourri of problems including diabetes, glaucoma and osteoporosis.  And the treatment for one condition may be inappropriate for another, as cortisone over time can create additional problems for someone who is diabetic or who has osteoporosis, and that is the medication of choice to help maintain breathing.

With multiple health problems come multiple medications.  Some medications interact negatively with others or exacerbate existing conditions.  For example, one of my inhalers with the cortisone can exacerbate my glaucoma.  It can also cause the bones to become brittle.  Most medicines are established for a single ailment, and clinical trials of those with multiple ailments don't often include the elderly, even though they are the ones most likely to have several conditions.

The National Institute for Health is now searching for ways to treat patients with multiple health conditions who are elderly and announced a series of projects initiated last September to study the problem through clinical trials.

My journey is my own, a different journey but with similar care and precautions becomes the conclusion of medical experts for me while at the same time doctors will be exploring the individual circumstances in order to develop the appropriate plan.  It is that kind of strategy needed for the elderly with a complex set of conditions.

Psychopathic disorders continue to perplex medicine, law and ethics

Ted Bundy

Almost every day there is a murder in the United States; and when there is a mass killer some mental health issue is often found in the backgrounds of many of these people.  Some of them are described as psychopaths, a mental health problem where people seem to lack conscience.  The behavior of these people confuses people and in many ways also confounds the experts.

Psychopathic disorder, as it is more formally categorized, is a form of mental health problem that sometimes accompanies other mental health problems, that include schizophrenia, depression and a host of other issues.  It is the lacking of social conscience, however, that makes the difference in how the condition is viewed by the public and that makes it more difficult to treat.

Psychiatrists and other mental health experts are often reluctant to take these people for treatment, because the prognosis for control, or a cure with medication, is far less than it is for other psychological problems.  The depressed individual, for example, can be treated with combinations of psychotherapy and medication; and both short-range and long-range outcomes are considered to be reasonably good, depending upon the type of depression and other factors in the patient's life.

And as serious mental health problems confound the medical experts, they further perplex practitioners of the law, as attorneys hope to provide their clients' limitations should offer amelioration of the punishment and understanding the nature of the crimes they commit.

While people complain about terrible crimes, the treatment concerns continue to be of great consequence, while the potential outcomes for treatment of those with serious pathology often means a long term sojourn in mental health facilities or prison without the possibility of re-entry into community life.  And the expense of treatment for uncertain factors related to what is more commonly called "the criminally insane," makes it even more difficult to resolve the problems involved.  It is that balance, however, between the need to maintain control of behavior and to understand it vs. the need for citizens to have safety in their neighborhoods and homes that experts strive to determine, that involves the merger of ethics, medicine and the law.

Avoid 'snake oil' salesmen while using the best of mind-body principles

The young women entered the rape clinic crying.  "How can I stop attracting the negative in my life?"   She had been at a gathering of women where the speaker maintained that bad things happen to people because their thought patterns attract the negative in life.  The rape victim's overpowering guilt about these thought patterns was an additional burden added to the one from the violence she had endured, as she was made to feel responsible for the rape herself by one of the myths people embrace about the mind-body connection.

Another woman was diagnosed with breast cancer and convinced by a mind-body practitioner that a set of herbs coupled with energy therapy was the right route to take for the disease.  So the woman, diagnosed early with cancer, followed the prescription that sounded far easier than the medicines recommended by her physician.  Needless to say, the cancer eventually spread to other parts of her body, and within a year, she was dead.

Some theorists proclaim diabetes is the need for sweetness in one's life, so that the disease proceeds early on and influences the pancreas, even as the individual craves that continuing sweetness and finds it in food, thereby creating the disease known as diabetes.  The theory ignores the physiological aspects of the disease along with genetic factors.  Still on the surface it may seem plausible to the unsuspecting individual seeking answers for a complex disease.  While the individual struggles to work through diet, medicine, exercise and recommended routines recommended by a physician, that same individual now must reach for a mind-body guru's input, usually at extra cost.  And that input can often be inserted in a fashion that dismisses traditional medicine's routines in favor of promoting extra guilt on someone whose eating patterns may never have included much sugar.  As a consequence that occasional cookie or slice of bread must now be viewed through the prism of guilt, when science reminds us that many people develop diabetes through genetic factors.  That would likely, of course, be explained by a family "need" for sugar passed somehow along to its members.

Rape is described as an act of violence by an individual who seeks control and has rage.  Most therapists remind the victim not to feel guilty for that act of violence.  Diabetes is a disease with a long-term progression of physically-developed symptoms with a pancreas that does not produce enough insulin and that is not caused by diet as much as by the limitations of the pancreas in some people and certain genetic factors, that can be exacerbated by poor eating habits.  And breast cancer is known to be curable by traditional medicine when diagnosed early enough.

The mind-body connection has been scientifically established.  The mind can help control a certain amount of pain both physical and emotional, can re-frame difficult experiences and can offer relief through relaxation, meditation and other valuable techniques.  The body's strengthening through exercise and proper diet promotes clear thinking and mental agility.  These connections are valuable in developing and maintaining good health.  Much of modern medicine now embraces the mind-body connection.  Deepak Chopra is widely respected for his contributions to enhancing medicine by offering the valuable information of how the spiritual aspects of the mind and the body are interrelated and work together to promote health.

But the mind-body connection has been taken over by various practitioners of alternative medicine, some traditionally trained and others who have had various certifications from organizations that promote techniques that offer non-accredited programs.  Much of the curriculum offers courses with limited foundations of scientific research or research that is done by anyone outside the organization and its associates or financial backers.  These may appear impressive to the layman.  The damage done to the innocent client or patient, however, from those trained in these programs, can be considerable.  That's because very often selection for the programs is based more on interest and willingness to pay than any previous medical training.  The therapies offered to clients can drain financial and emotional resources and serve as a barrier to therapeutic interventions that have a track record of success and a scientifically sound frame.

The notion of the patient participation in an illness or rape establishes guilt  that has to be worked through with help.  Who will help?  The practitioner of the theory with an established routine and the glittery words to seduce while securing a profit as well.  And many might say "be sure to check with your doctor before trying any of these routines" in order to absolve themselves of responsibility for interventions that frequently don't work while at the same time they minimize what the doctor has said or could do.

Many of these practitioners who refer to themselves as experts in the mind-body connection may sound knowledgeable and concerned, yet a closer look can reveal just another snake oil salesman with a different kind of "oil" and the pattern of taking money from the innocent and the desperate.  It may sound like magic; and if it does, that's likely all it is, a slight of hand from your pocket to theirs.

While the profiteers continue to practice, who suffers most after all?  It's likely the patient who fails to get intervention that could likely have helped the problem, interrupted the progression of a disease or even saved one's life.