Tag Archives: Medicine
Dear Doctor, Please Pause and Take a Breath Outside the Door
Dear Doctor, please pause and take a breath outside the door. It’s good for both of us. I know the system you work in demands too much, too fast, for too little. It rewards efficiency over empathy, billing codes over … Continue reading
Posted in Healthcare
Tagged breathe, connection, disconnection, Doctor, dysregulated, healthcare, IPNB, Medicine, mindful breath, pause, presence, safety, stress reduction
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How Repeated Medical Abuse Conditions the Nervous System
Fabrizio Benedetti’s insights into conditioning in his book, “The Patient’s Brain: The neuroscience behind the doctor-patient relationship,” are highly relevant for understanding how repeated medical abuse can shape a person’s nervous system. Conditioning—where the nervous system learns through repeated experiences—plays … Continue reading
Posted in Healthcare, PTSD
Tagged doctor-patient relationship, health, healthcare, Medical PTSD, Medicine, pain, PTSD, trust
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Connection Is the Cure: Meet My Nervous System’s Needs
My nervous system is desperate for the kind of connection that feels safe. Because all my life, I’ve been chronically and acutely deprived of that safety. Sometimes it’s been extreme, other times less so, but never enough. When I had … Continue reading
Posted in Healthcare
Tagged attunement, connection, disconnection, health, healthcare, interpersonal neurobiology, IPNB, Medicine, Mental Health, Nervous System, safety
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Real Care is a Relationship: The Power of One Patient to Change the System
I’ve had to fight harder than most people can imagine just to be treated with dignity in medical spaces. I’ve been harmed, dismissed, ignored, and treated like a problem to manage instead of a human being to care for. But … Continue reading
Posted in Healthcare
Tagged authenticity, change, connection, Doctor, IPNB, learning, Medicine, pain, SGB
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When Things Fall Apart, Recommit
Recently, I drove 90 minutes round-trip to see a specialist at the University of Pennsylvania Neuroscience Center at Radnor. That was a lot for me. My arms aren’t used to driving that long. It caused burning and muscle pain. The … Continue reading
Posted in Healthcare
Tagged CRPS, health, Medicine, Mental Health, Nerve Block, pain specialist, pRFA, PTSD, pulsed Radio Frequency Ablation, SGB, Stellate Ganglion Block, U Penn
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Dear Doctor: I Have Lots of Therapists. Including You.
Your Presence Is the Treatment. Or the Harm. It is striking how many doctors, especially pain specialists, have doubly verified that I have a good therapist. Or a therapist. That I’m “in mental health care.” I understand why they ask. … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged Behavioral Health, doctors, IPNB, Medicine, Mental Health, neurobiology, pain specialists, Psychology, therapist, therapy
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The Neuroscience of Being Believed: A Biology Nerd’s Journey to Evidence-Based Self-Advocacy In Medicine
I’m such a biology nerd and consider my life one long experiment that I have done things like this. In the past 7 years, I have tracked large quantities of personal bio data. It quantifies my struggles and progress as … Continue reading
They Hurt Us to Feel Powerful: What a Predator Is About
People often ask why someone would do something so devastating as what I’ve experienced. Why would a parent create a coercive, dangerous environment for their child? Why would someone keep a young person trapped and isolated, controlling every part of … Continue reading
Posted in Predators
Tagged abuse, abusers, harm, institutional betrayal, IPNB, Medicine, predators, victim
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F’ing Insane: Maltreatment by Health Data
I had my annual checkup with my primary care provider. She said all my numbers are good, because they collected the wrong numbers. No sleep data. No tracking my pain over time. No questions about PTSD or Complex Regional Pain … Continue reading
Posted in Healthcare
Tagged charts, data, Doctor, health, healthcare, lab results, Medicine, primary care
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