Wilberg on Wednesday - The Illness Is The Cure pt 1/46

Questions for the Reader

Have you ever felt that by simply making an appointment to see your doctor you are just bothering them and interfering with their busy schedule?

Have you ever felt your doctor’s sole purpose in listening to you is to come to the quickest possible way of seeing you out – whether by handing out a prescription or arranging a test?

Have you ever felt frustrated by the lack of truly patient listening time that doctors are able or willing to give you?

Have you ever felt infantilised or treated like a child by medical professionals?

Have you ever felt that there was no time for your questions to be fully heard or answered?

Have you ever felt confused by often dramatically conflicting opinions and beliefs expressed by different doctors and consultants?

Have you ever felt frustrated about being given one medical test after another, being passed from one anonymous consultant to another, or being given one form of treatment or surgery after another – all without ever having a say in what is going on?

Have you ever felt that your direct felt experience of your illness was of no interest to medical professionals or ‘experts’?

Have you ever felt so scared by a medical diagnosis such as cancer that it has made you feel ill – even though you might have been feeling fine or even had absolutely no symptoms at all beforehand?

Have you ever suffered acute or chronic side effects from medical drugs and treatments that you were not warned about – or that were largely ignored?

Have you ever wondered at the high cost of health insurance, drugs and treatments – and why it is that even publicly funded health institutions and services are constantly in financial crisis?

Has it ever occurred to you that illness is a source of huge profits for drug companies, the corporate health industry as a whole, and even promoters of health ‘supplements’ or ‘alternative’ medicine?

Have you ever considered that illness itself may at least partly be an expression of life as people are economically pressured to live it in a fundamentally sick and money-driven society?

Have you ever suspected that the timing and nature of your illness was not accidental but had to do with events that had been going on in your life and feelings associated with them?

Have you ever felt, as a medical practitioner, that there may be a lot more to a patient’s symptoms or illness than meets the medical eye – but that your training has not equipped you to explore it, and that your job and institutional environment give you no time or encouragement to do so?

If so, then read on….

Editor's note:

For a change from the usual Wilberg on Wednesday approach of an article each week, on a different subject from the one before, Wilberg on Wednesday is now serialising the Peter Wilberg book - The Illness Is The Cure.  It is a fascinating book, well worth reading.  This introduction is to prepare you for what is to come.  So having read the questions, if you're ready to 'read on', the next part follows

.....next week!