My life has descended into madness. I am normally a slow methodical guy. One thing at a time, do the best I can, then another thing. Or maybe nothing at all should I feel lazy. My life has shifted into a higher gear. I haven't been hiking like I want to. I haven't been blogging … Continue reading Freaking busy!
Making lives meaningful in old age
“The problem with medicine and the institutions it has spawned for the care of the sick and the old is not that they have had an incorrect view of what makes life significant. The problem is that they have had almost no view at all. Medicine’s focus is narrow. Medical professionals concentrate on repair of health, not sustenance of the soul… Making lives meaningful in old age … requires more imagination and invention than making them merely safe does.”
Atul Gawande
“In 1991, in the tiny town of New Berlin, in upstate New York, a young physician named Bill Thomas performed and experiment. He didn’t really know what he was doing. He was thirty-one years old, less than two years out of family medicine residency, and he had just taken a new job as medical director of Case Memorial Nursing Home, a facility with eighty severely disabled elderly residents. About…
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Struggle
In ancient Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to push a rock up a hill and watch it fall again for all eternity. It is intended as an analogy to the life of a man who goes out every day and works so he can survive. Every day he works and yet he changes nothing of … Continue reading Struggle
Depressed Again… Naturally! Part 4
We have drugs. We have therapy. Both may be necessary but both take control and responsibility out of your hands. You have to help yourself or it will be all for naught. What works for me is a Zen-like approach but the shrinks like to call it "Radical Acceptance." It fits in nicely with Dialectical … Continue reading Depressed Again… Naturally! Part 4
Depressed Again… Naturally! pt. 3
The theory behind treating depression with medications is that happiness is mediated by neurotransmitters and unusually low levels of them cause depression. Serotonin is most the most commonly targeted but dopamine, and epinephrine may also also be targeted. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors are yet another class. The most commonly prescribed drugs are in a class known … Continue reading Depressed Again… Naturally! pt. 3