“I just can’t be on medication when I go back to work!”

I had seen Rowne four times in clinic already and he still had not started his medication treatment trial.  He had seen multiple other medical physicians for other medical problems that needed addressing.  He had made appointments.  He had made phone calls.

“I’ve done so much, doctor!  I don’t want you to think I don’t want to get better!”

Rowne could have painted his house, changed the brakes on his car, had his foot bunions removed, but none of that was directly treating brain illness.  Rowne was mistaking activity for treatment.

Too often, those of us like Rowne, will gather courage to engage in the initial stages of treatment but not execute through.  Going to see a psychiatrist is its own effort.  Taking treatment recommendations and executing is another unto itself.

This is not unique to psychiatry of course.   Not even to the medical field.  Each of you in your own professions, perhaps in an auto body shop, or retail, or as a fifth grade teacher, those who seek our expertise find that the asking is, in their perception, as good as the doing.

None of us are out to create automatons though.  It is the intelligence, the self-interest on both sides, the freedom of the individual and Love that bring much of the value to treatment.  The humanity and magic combined with biology, element, and carbon matter trumps all.

Silly us though, when we allow our magical selves to exclude biology.

Self-Care tip:  Take treatment and execute.

Questions:  How do you bring yourself to take treatment and execute?  Or, what keeps you from doing it?  Please tell us your story.